Johnstown, Pennsylvania

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Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Seal
Nickname(s): Flood City
Johnstown, Pennsylvania is located in Pennsylvania
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Coordinates: 40°19′31″N 78°55′15″W / 40.32528°N 78.92083°W / 40.32528; -78.92083
Country  United States
State  Pennsylvania
County Cambria
Government
 - Mayor Tom Trigona
Area
 - City 6.1 sq mi (15.7 km2)
 - Land 5.8 sq mi (15.1 km2)
 - Water 3.3 sq mi (8.6 km2)
Elevation 1,800 ft (549 m)
Population (2008)[1][2]
 - City 21,641
 - Urban 76,113
 - Metro 144,319
  2000 Urban figures
Time zone EST (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
Website http://www.cityofjohnstownPA.net

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, 60 miles (97 km) miles east of Pittsburgh and 47 miles (76 km) west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania. The population was 23,906 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County. As of 2008, the Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 144,319.

Contents

[edit] History

Johnstown, settled in 1770, is perhaps most famous for its three floods. The "Great Flood" of May 31, 1889 occurred after the South Fork Dam collapsed 14 miles (23 km) upstream from the city during heavy rains. At least 2,209 people died as a result of the flood and subsequent fire that raged through the debris. Other major floods occurred in 1936 and 1977.

[edit] 1800s

This home was impaled on a tree by the raging waters of the 1889 Johnstown flood.

Johnstown was formally organized as a town in 1800 by the Swiss German immigrant Joseph Johns (ne Josef Schantz). The settlement was initially known as Schantzstadt, but was soon anglicized to Johnstown. From 1834 to 1854, the city was a port and key transfer point along the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. Johnstown was at the head of the canal's western branch, with canal boats having been transported over the mountains via the Allegheny Portage Railroad and refloated here, to continue the trip by water to Pittsburgh and the Ohio Valley. Perhaps the most famous passenger via the canal to visit Johnstown briefly was Charles Dickens in 1842. By 1854, canal transport became redundant by the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which took away the canal's cargo and passenger business. The canal was abandoned soon afterwards.

With the canal's demise, iron, coal, and steel quickly became central to the town of Johnstown. By 1860, the Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown was the leading steel producer in the United States, outproducing steel giants Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Through the second half of the 19th century, Johnstown made much of the nation's barbed wire. Johnstown prospered from skyrocketing demand in the western United States for barbed wire. By 1900, Johnstown primarily only produced and fabricated steel, with little other economic diversification, other than ancillary coal production to feed the mills.[3] This singular focus caused significant problems for Johnstown later on.

[edit] 1900s

Johnstown was a remarkably prosperous hard-working city during the inter-war years. In the early 1900s, the population reached 75,000 people. Its public transportation was considered the one of the best of any small city in the United States. The city's first commercial radio station, WJAC, began broadcasts in 1925. The downtown boasted at least five major department stores, including Glosser Brothers, which in the 1950s gave birth to the Gee Bee chain of department stores. However, the St. Patrick's Day 1936 Flood combined with the gnawing effects of the Great Depression left Johnstown struggling temporarily. A federally-financed flood control project, completed in 1938 and dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, finally gave Johnstown temporary safety from its rivers. For the next 39 years, Johnstown proclaimed itself "flood-free," a feeling reinforced when Johnstown was virtually the only riverside city in Pennsylvania not to flood during Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

The immediate post-WWII years mark Johnstown's peak as a steel maker and fabricator. At its peak, steel provided Johnstowners with more than 13,000 full-time, well-paying jobs. However, increased domestic and foreign competition, coupled with Johnstown's relative distance from its primary iron ore source in the western Great Lakes, led to a steady decline in profitability. New capital investment waned. Johnstown's mountainous terrain, and the resulting poor layout for the mills' physical plant strung along 11 miles (18 km) of river bottom lands, compounded the problem. Extensive damage from the 1977 flood sealed Johnstown's demise as a steelmaker. By the early 1990s, Johnstown abandoned most of its steel production, although some limited fabrication work continues. As a result of Johnstown's singular focus on steel for almost 150 years, little other large-scale economic activity existed. In 1992, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania designated Johnstown a financially distressed municipality.

View of the city of Johnstown from atop the Inclined Plane.

[edit] 2000s

In 2003, U.S. Census data showed that Johnstown was the least likely city in the United States to attract newcomers; however, what were previously relatively weak opportunities provided by the local manufacturing and service economies have more recently begun to burgeon, attracting outsiders. Gamesa, a Spanish wind energy company, opened its first U.S. wind turbine blade manufacturing facility near here in 2006. Several state-of-the-art operational wind turbines are sited on Babcock Ridge, the "eastern continental divide," along the eastern edge of Cambria and Somerset Counties. Lockheed Martin relocated a facility from Greenville, SC to Johnstown in 2008. Recent construction in the surrounding region, the downtown, and adjacent Kernville neighborhood—including a new 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) Regional Technology Complex that will house a division of Northrop Grumman, among other tenants—signal the increasing dependence of Johnstown's economy on the U.S. government's defense budget. The high-tech defense industry is now the main non-health-care staple of the Johnstown economy, with the region pulling in well over $100M annually in Federal government contracts, punctuated by one of the premier defense trade shows in the U.S., the annual Showcase For Commerce.

Johnstown remains a regional medical, educational, cultural, and communications center. As in many other locales, health care provides a significant percentage of the employment opportunities in the city.

The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College both attract thousands of students to their contiguous modern campuses in Richland, five miles east of Johnstown. The Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center, a concert/theatrical venue at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, continues to attract high-quality performers. The Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and the recently-formed Johnstown Symphony Chamber Players provide classical music. The Pasquerilla Convention Center was recently constructed downtown, adjacent to the historic Cambria County War Memorial Arena at 326 Napoleon Street. Point Stadium, a baseball park where Babe Ruth once played, was razed and rebuilt. A recently-passed zoning ordinance created an artist zone and a traditional neighborhood zone to encourage both artistic endeavors and the old-fashioned "Mom and Pop" enterprises that had difficulty thriving under the previous code. The Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center offers many exhibitions, events, performances, and classes that celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the Area. The Johnstown Chiefs hockey team have provided affordable family entertainment to the region for over 20 seasons. The Chiefs are a member team of the ECHL, the premier "AA" hockey league in North America, and play their home games in the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. The recently-established ART WORKS In Johnstown! houses artist studios in some of the area's architecturally significant but underused industrial buildings. A pilot ART WORKS project underway will feature Johnstown's first fully LEED-certified green building. Both of these institutions are in the historic Cambria City section of town, which boasts a variety of eastern European ethnic churches and social halls. This neighborhood hosted the National Folk Festival for three years in the early 1990s. Johnstown also hosts the annual Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally during the fourth week of June; the event has attracted motorcyclists from across the Northeast to the city of Johnstown since 1998. Well over 200,000 participants enjoyed the 2008 edition of Thunder In The Valley.

Significant and largely successful efforts have been made to deal with deteriorating housing, brownfields, drug problems, and other issues as population leaves the city limits and concentrates in suburban boroughs and townships. The Johnstown Fire Department has become a leader in developing intercommunication systems among first responders, and is now a national model for ways to avoid the communications problems which faced many first responders during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[edit] Geography


Johnstown is located at 40°19′31″N 78°55′15″W / 40.32528°N 78.92083°W / 40.32528; -78.92083 (40.325174, -78.920954)[4].

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.1 square miles (16 km²), of which, 5.8 square miles (15 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.6 km²) of it (4.11%) is water. The Conemaugh River forms at Johnstown from its tributaries, the Stonycreek River and the Little Conemaugh.

Wards and neighborhoods of the city
Moxham
Oakhurst

[edit] Demographics

As of the census[5] of 2000, there were 23,906 people, 11,134 households, and 6,045 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,097.0 people per square mile (1,583.2/km²). There were 12,802 housing units at an average density of 2,194.0/sq mi (847.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 86.28% White, 10.71% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.61% from other races, and 1.92% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.59% of the population. 23.8% were of German, 10.0% Italian, 9.2% Irish, 7.7% Polish, 7.2% Slovak and 5.7% American ancestry according to Census 2000.

There are 11,134 households of which 22.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were married couples living together, 15.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.7% were non-families. 41.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 19.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.11 and the average family size was 2.87.

Within the city, the population is spread with 21.3% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 22.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 84.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $20,595 and the median income for a family was $28,279. Males had a median income of $26,163 versus $19,791 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,236. 24.6% of the population and 18.9% of families were below the poverty line. Of the total population, 37.5% of those under the age of 18 and 12.6% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

[edit] Neighborhoods

The City of Johnstown is divided into many neighborhoods, each with its own unique, ethnic feel. These are the Downtown Business District, Kernville, Hornerstown, Roxbury, Old Conemaugh Boro, Prospect, Woodvale, Minersville, Cambria City, Morrellville, Oakhurst, Coopersdale, Walnut Grove and Moxham.

Of the suburbs, Westmont Boro, Southmont Boro, Brownstown Boro, Ferndale Boro, Upper Yoder Twp, and Lower Yoder Twp form the West Hills. Richland, Geistown Boro, Lorain Boro and Stoneycreek Township are in the East Hills. East Conemaugh Boro, Franklin Boro, Daisytown Boro, Conemaugh Township, and West, Middle, and East Taylor Townships lie to the north of the city.

[edit] Johnstown in the arts and literature

Two major motion pictures have been filmed in Johnstown, taking advantage of the city's atmosphere.

The first is 1977's Slap Shot, directed by George Roy Hill and featuring Paul Newman as an aging hockey player/coach. The screenplay by Nancy Dowd was a parody loosely based on the real-life Johnstown Jets hockey team and its North American Hockey League championship in 1976. In the movie, Johnstown was rechristened "Charlestown" and the Jets as the Charlestown Chiefs. The film's premiere engendered some local controversy, as some thought Johnstown was portrayed in a less than flattering light. The name "Charlestown" itself is believed to be a reference to Charles Kunkle, an influential local businessman of the era. Slap Shot has since become the iconic movie about hockey and its foibles. Nancy Dowd would revive the fake town of "Charlestown" in her screenplay for the 1981 punk rock satire Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, but the film itself was shot in Canada.

The second major film was All the Right Moves, a high school football drama set in the fictional town of Ampipe and featuring Tom Cruise, Lea Thompson and Craig T. Nelson. Locations seen in the movie are the old Johnstown High School in Kernville, torn down shortly afterwards; the Carpatho-Russian Citizen's Club in East Conemaugh; the Franklin works of Bethlehem Steel; the Point Stadium; the Johnstown "Cochran" Junior High football practice field and the Johnstown Vo-Tech football locker room.

Historian David McCullough wrote what is widely regarded as the city's definitive history, The Johnstown Flood, in 1968. McCullough completed his research with the aid of the remaining flood survivors.

The film "The Johnstown Flood", written and directed by Charles Guggenheim, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subjects in 1989.

Mystery novel writer K.C. Constantine fictionalized many elements of Johnstown and its culture as "Rocksburg" in his novels, although the nearby city of Greensburg, Pennsylvania also provides some of the lore for Rocksburg.

In 2000, Kathleen Cambor published In Sunlight, In A Beautiful Garden. The novel followed its characters through the events leading up to and including the 1889 flood. Although the protagonists in the novel were fictional, several historical figures, such as Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick and Daniel Morrell were also depicted in the book.

The American death metal band, Incantation, currently call Johnstown their home.

Author James Patterson had his fictional serial kidnapper Gary Soneji from Along Came A Spider stopping at a convenience store on his way through Johnstown, Pennsylvania; and author David Morrell had his fictional character "Eliot" recruit two brothers from an orphanage in Johnstown to train as assassins in Brotherhood of the Rose.

In 1978's haunting film Dawn of the Dead, a character mentions that they are flying over Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and quips that the people are actually entertained by the zombie outbreak. George Romero filmed the majority of the zombie movie at the Monroeville Mall, some 50 odd miles away.

[edit] Education

Colleges

Secondary Education

Libraries

  • The Cambria County Library is located at 248 Main Street, Johnstown PA 15901.
  • The Highland Community Library is located at 330 Schoolhouse Road, Johnstown PA 15904.

[edit] Business

Major employers in the area:

[edit] Media

[edit] Newspapers and magazines

[edit] Radio

The Johnstown market is the 191st largest radio market in the country. The following box contains a list of radio stations in the area.

FM stations
call letters frequency format location Owner
WFRJ 88.9 Religious Johnstown Family Stations, Inc.
WQEJ 89.7 Classical Johnstown WQED Multimedia
WPKV 90.7 Christian Contemporary Nanty Glo Educational Media Foundation
WUFR 91.1 Religious Bedford Family Radio
W219DB 91.7 Religious Johnstown Bible Broadcasting Network
WJHT 92.1 Top 40 Johnstown Forever Broadcasting
W230BK 93.9 Rock Johnstown Forever Broadcasting
WFGI 95.5 Country Johnstown Forever Broadcasting
WKYE 96.5 Adult Contemporary Johnstown Forever Broadcasting
WPCL 97.3 Religious Northern Cambria He's Alive, Inc.
WFGY 98.1 Country Altoona Forever Broadcasting
WRKW 99.1 Rock Ebensburg Forever Broadcasting
W263AW 100.5 Jazz Johnstown Duquesne University
WCCL 101.7 Oldies Central City Results Radio Company
WLKJ 105.7 Christian Contemporary Portage EMF Broadcasting
AM stations
call letters frequency format location Owner
WFRB 560 Nostalgia Frostburg, MD Dix Broadcasting
WKHB 620 Oldies Irwin Broadcast Communications, Inc.
WKGE 850 News/Talk Johnstown Birach Broadcasting Corporation
WNTW 990 News/Talk Somerset Forever Broadcasting
WCRO 1230 Nostalgia Johnstown Greater Johnstown School District
WNTJ 1490 News/Talk Johnstown Forever Broadcasting

[edit] Television

The Johnstown/Altoona/State College market is the 101st largest in the country. The following box contains a list of television stations in the area.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Highways

The main highway connecting Johnstown to the Pennsylvania Turnpike is US 219. In addition, there is also State Route 56, which is an expressway from 219 until Walnut Street. From there, it provides a connection to US 22 to the north of Johnstown, which connects to Pittsburgh and Altoona.

[edit] Airport

The local airport is the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport and is served by United Airlines.

[edit] Rail

Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak's daily 'Pennsylvanian'. The city is located on the former mainline of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Norfolk Southern operates (60-80) trains daily on these rails.

[edit] Mass transit

CamTran operates the local bus service, and the Johnstown Inclined Plane.

[edit] Sports

Club League Venue Established Championships
Johnstown Chiefs ECHL, Ice hockey Cambria County War Memorial Arena 1988 0

Johnstown has been home to a long succession of minor league hockey franchises dating back to 1940. The current team, the Johnstown Chiefs, were named for their Slap Shot counterparts. The team made their ECHL debut in 1988. Johnstown will be the home to the junior team Johnstown Jets in the UJHL.

The city also has a rich history in amateur and professional baseball. Since 1944, Johnstown has been known as the host city for the AAABA Baseball Tournament held each summer. Several Major League Baseball Players have played on AAABA teams over the years, including Hall-of Famers Al Kaline and Reggie Jackson and current Major League managers Joe Torre and Bruce Bochy. The organization also has its own Hall of Fame instituted in its 50th anniversary year of 1994.

In addition, the city has hosted several incarnations of a Minor League Baseball team, the Johnstown Johnnies, beginning in 1884. The last team to play as the Johnnies, as a part of the Frontier League, left the city in 2002.

Johnstown also hosts the annual Sunnehanna Amateur golf tournament at its Sunnehanna Country Club. The invitational tournament hosts top amateur golfers from around the United States.

Johnstown is home to the Flood City Water Polo team. Established in 2005 by Zachary Puhala, the team takes its name from the history of floods in the area. FCWP is part of the American Water Polo Organization.

[edit] Landmarks

  • Grandview Cemetery is one of Pennsylvania's largest cemeteries: With more than 65,000 interments, Grandview is home to over 47 burial sections and more than 235 acres (0.95 km2) of land. Grandview also holds the remains of the 777 victims of the 1889 Johnstown Flood who were not able to be identified.

[edit] People

Notable Johnstowners include:

[edit] Political jurisdictions in the Johnstown MSA

Adams Township | Addison Borough | Addison Township | Allegheny Township | Allegheny Township, Somerset County | Ashville Borough | Barr Township | Benson Borough | Black Township | Blacklick Township | Benson Borough | Brothersvalley Township | Cambria Township | Callimont Borough | Carolltown Borough | Casselman Borough | Central City Borough | Chest Springs Borough | Chest Township | Clearfield Township | Conemaugh Township, Cambria County | Conemaugh Township, Somerset County | Confluence Borough | Croyle Township | Daisytown Borough | Dale Borough | East Carroll Township | East Conemaugh Borough | East Taylor Township | Ebensburg Borough | Ehrenfeld Borough | Elder Township | Elk Lick Township | Fairhope Township | Ferndale Borough | Franklin Borough | Garrett Borough | Geistown Borough | Greenville Township | Hasting Borough | Hooversville Borough | Jenner Township | Indian Lake Borough | Jefferson Township, Somerset County | Jennerstown Borough | Larimer Township | Lincoln Township, Somerset County | Lorain Borough | Lower Turkeyfoot Township | Lower Yoder Township | Meyersdale Borough | Middlecreek Township, Somerset County | Middle Taylor Township | Milford Township, Somerset County | Nanty Glo Borough | New Baltimore Borough | New Centerville Borough | Northampton Township, Somerset County | Northern Cambria | Ogle Township | Paint Borough Paint Township, Somerset County | Patton Borough | Portage Borough | Quemahoning Township | Richland Township | Rockwood Borough | Salisbury Borough | Scalp Level Borough | Seven Springs Borough (partial) | South Fork Borough | Shade Township | Shanksville Borough | Somerset Borough | Somerset Township, Somerset County | Southampton Township, Somerset County | Southmont Borough | Stoneycreek Township, Cambria County | Stonycreek Township, Somerset County | Summerhill Borough | Stoystown Borough | Summerhill Township | Summit Township, Somerset County | Susquehanna Township | Upper Turkeyfoot Township | Upper Yoder Township | Ursina Borough \ Vintondale Borough | Wellersburg Borough | West Carroll Township | West Taylor Township | Westmont Borough | White Township | Wilmore Borough | Windber Borough

[edit] References

  • David McCullough. The Johnstown Flood, ISBN 0-671-20714-8
  • Karl Berger, M.D., editor. Johnstown: Story of a Unique Valley, published by the Johnstown Flood Museum, 1984.
  • CityofJohnstown.net
  • Morawska, Ewa. (2004) For Bread with Butter: The Life-Worlds of East Central Europeans in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 1890-1940., Cambridge University Press. [2]
  • Morawska, Ewa. (1999). Insecure Prosperity. Princeton University Press. [3]

[edit] External links

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