Keeping up with past and present happenings in a remarkable small town.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Pickle Gate Crossing ~
Hansen Avenue crossed the tracks at this location and then rose steeply up to Route 8. Note the bridge over the Connoquenessing in the foreground and St. Andrew Orthodox Church at the left.
Photo: Barbara Bloom
Photo: Robert Emigh
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I believe it was called the Pickle Gate because pickling was a chemical process done to steel produced at Armco.
According to the book, 1907-2007 The Butler Plant (a book about Armco), the Pickle Gate Crossing was named for an actual pickle processing plant that was located nearby. The plant closed in 1900.
Wasn't this considered a very dangerous intersection at the tracks? I recall in the 1950s/early '60s the brother of a classmate Robert Varnum (S.Butler CO) was killed on the tracks while driving home one night. There was talk of naming a bridge Robert E. Varnum Bridge, but decided against it since others had died there, too.
Yes; Bob Varnum was my dad's brother. There had been consideration of naming the bridge after him; I remember my grandmother had some kind of a letter stating that PickleGate Crossing was the Robert Varnum Jr. Memorial Bridge.
Robert Varnum was my dad's brother and yes, they did consider naming it after him. My grandmother had a letter stating that it would have been named the Robert Varnum Jr. Memorial Bridge
I was two cars behind Robert Varnum on that night and witnessed the accident. The other driver and I ran over to him but he was obviously dying. I was going home from a date with my future wife at the time.
Photo: Robert Emigh
8 comments:
I believe it was called the Pickle Gate because pickling was a chemical process done to steel produced at Armco.
You answered my question as to how Pickle Gate got its name! Thanks!
According to the book, 1907-2007 The Butler Plant (a book about Armco), the Pickle Gate Crossing was named for an actual pickle processing plant that was located nearby. The plant closed in 1900.
Wasn't this considered a very dangerous intersection at the tracks? I recall in the 1950s/early '60s the brother of a classmate Robert Varnum (S.Butler CO) was killed on the tracks while driving home one night. There was talk of naming a bridge Robert E. Varnum Bridge, but decided against it since others had died there, too.
Yes; Bob Varnum was my dad's brother. There had been consideration of naming the bridge after him; I remember my grandmother had some kind of a letter stating that PickleGate Crossing was the Robert Varnum Jr. Memorial Bridge.
Robert Varnum was my dad's brother and yes, they did consider naming it after him. My grandmother had a letter stating that it would have been named the Robert Varnum Jr. Memorial Bridge
Do you know what the name of the pickle plant was?
I was two cars behind Robert Varnum on that night and witnessed the accident. The other driver and I ran over to him but he was obviously dying. I was going home from a date with my future wife at the time.
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