Erie: the gritacular hub of northwestern Pennsylvania! - Page 3

Austinlee · #41 Posted **Sep 10, 2008, 11:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj3000

Projects... human warehouses.

Wow, you're right.

LSyd · #42 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 4:56 AM**

neato.

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Paulyt23 · #43 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 1:18 PM**

I thought Erie was a beautiful area when I drove through there last summer. I hope it'll come back.

Evergrey · #44 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 1:57 PM**

Can one of your Erieites shed some light on "Lovell Place"?

pj3000 · #45 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 3:03 PM**

^ Sure. Former Lovell Manufacturing Co.... they made laundry wringers and some of the first washing machines.

The complex was converted to loft apartments and it also contains a restaurant (Matthew's Trattoria - one of Erie's best), a local bookstore (Erie Bookstore - great place, in business over 100 years), and state offices on the far end on the complex. More is planned for the area around it... a grocery store across the street, supposedly. The apartments are really nice.

Evergrey · #46 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 4:33 PM**

what is the history behind Modern Tool? It's a gorgeous complex

pj3000 · #47 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 7:03 PM**

^One of the oldest large-scale tool & die manufacturers in the nation (Erie is still known as the tool & die capital of the world. For whatever reason, Erie and Meadville have long been the worldwide hub of skilled toolmaking). I think Modern operated up until the 1950s?, making precision tools and machines for industrial applications (grinding machines, presses, stamping, etc.) The building, I'm guessing, dates to the 1870s?

I know that after the machine shop closed, the complex was a public market house mainly serving the fishing fleets. In the mid 1980s, it was converted to condos, apartments, a restaurant, and a large indoor market. The market only lasted a couple years (in the 1980s, that area of downtown was a high crime area... actually all of downtown was), but the restaurant (Marketplace Grill) has been very successful and the market area was converted to professional office space. The apartments are pretty nice, but could use updating... the 1980s was a long time ago.

The complex has been touted as one of the first multi-use renovations of a former industrial building in the country. It definitely helped that part of downtown revive itself.

I really dislike the current paint scheme though... it screams 1992 to me. It was originally red brick, obviously, and it was painted an off-white when I was a kid.

StevenW · #48 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 8:54 PM**

Awesome tour!

stormkingfan · #49 Posted **Sep 11, 2008, 11:49 PM**

That 20's bldg you said was the tallest is Renaissance Center.

You were pretty thorough with the pics. Great job. Last year, I was driving from Buffalo to Ashtabula (OH) and stopped in a trailer park across the tracks from GE's Locomotive Plant to see what I could see (I like trains as well as bldgs). Then, drove straight to Presque Isle State Park. Didn't have time to stop in downtown. Thanks for your highlights of d'town.

pj3000 · #50 Posted **Sep 13, 2008, 5:22 PM**

^ Originally, the Erie Trust Co., then the Baldwin Bldg. (that's what most Erieites still call it). "Renaissance Centre" is kinda cheesy, in my opinion, and has never caught on as the name.

Storm King is possibly my favorite beer.

Evergrey · #51 Posted **Sep 14, 2008, 5:38 PM**

agreed... I hate places with "Renaissance" in the name... often the most failed places are christened as such lol

JackStraw · #52 Posted **Sep 14, 2008, 6:52 PM**

wow, very nice job evergrey. Good job showing such a cool city.

Wheelingman04 · #53 Posted **Sep 16, 2008, 4:19 PM**

Thanks for the photos, Evergrey. I have always wanted to see a comprehensive photo tour of Erie. I am impresse with the downtown area.

boden · #54 Posted **Sep 18, 2008, 1:50 PM**

Great stuff Evergrey!

Ex-Ithacan · #55 Posted **Sep 18, 2008, 2:45 PM**

Well that was a tour and 1/2. You do get around Eg. And Erie is blue collar real. Great street grid too (for an eastern(?) city). I don't think anyone would mistake Erie for a sunbelt sprawler. Dandy photos and wonderful insight(from you all). Thanks for the tour.

pj3000 · #56 Posted **Sep 18, 2008, 5:34 PM**

^ It's grid pattern was laid out by Andrew Ellicott of Washington DC fame (he loosely based Erie's grid on DC's with a series of rectangular parks found throughout the city). Pennsylvania commissioned him to do it and envisioned that Erie would be the "capital" of the Great Lakes... though an important port, this obviously never happened... historians largely lay the blame on Philadelphia and eastern PA political insularity in failing to realize the potential that a Great Lakes port holds for a state (New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ontario all realized it quite well... Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Toronto are proof of this).

denveraztec · #57 Posted **Sep 20, 2008, 12:27 PM**

Gritty or not, some fantastic buildings. You are right, destroy that first Verizon building! Wonderful shots!

Erie Pa · #58 Posted **Sep 22, 2008, 3:02 AM**

I spent 26yrs too long away from Erie. Finally I was able to return in July of this year. I have trveled extensively ( 50 countries &50 states ) as I just retired from American Airlines. I have also made on average a visit to Erie on a monthly basis (aging parents, now deceased).
I love my city. There are areas that were missed and some info is wrong, but overall about 98% correct. I wish I had the technical knowledge to post photos. When I started my carrer in the US Navy transistors were the latest being developed. I knew Erie in its heyday of the 50's and 60's. That's the city I will always know. I think you focused on too much of the grit and the slum areas of the city. Every city has its slum area and Erie is no different

Fresh · #59 Posted **Sep 22, 2008, 7:28 AM**

I love the rust belt so much.

So much more beautiful and grand than this sunbelt rubbish that gets built these days

pj3000 · #60 Posted **Sep 22, 2008, 3:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erie Pa

I think you focused on too much of the grit and the slum areas of the city. Every city has its slum area and Erie is no different

Sorry, but much of Erie has become slum, and nearly all of it north of 26th street is gritty.

Familiarity and nostalgia breed blindness to reality.

Evergrey did a good job.