Beech Creek Greenway Plan

325 Pages·2011·29.11 MB·English

I
f ever there was a story ...
T

HE BRICK TOWN TRAIL
Backbone of the
BEECH CREEK GREENWAY PLAN
Prepared for the albertinvernon
Beech Creek Watershed Association
a r c h i t e c t u r e L L C
© Copyright 2007 by

albertinvernon
a r c h I t e c t u r e LLC

Printed in the United States of America.
All rights reserved.

Cover Photo Courtesy the Photo Collection of
Howard (Jim) Davy

Refractory Clay Miners at Two Mile Run,
Monument, PA

From Left to Right: Ames Phillips, Delmas (Crow) McCloskey, Elmer Peters, Don Muthler,
Malcolm Johnson, Pete Vaughn, Buckey Mapes, Bill Mann, Sonny Muthler, Ed Miller, Cleve McCloskey
T

HE BRICK TOWN TRAIL
Backbone of the
BEECH CREEK GREENWAY PLAN
A Feasibility Study
Fall 2007

Sponsored by the
Beech Creek Watershed Association

In partnership with
The Centre and Clinton County Planning Commissions,
the Centre and Clinton County Conservation District Offices,
the Clearwater Conservancy,
and the Penn State Center for Watershed Stewardship

This Project Financed in Part by a grant from the Community Conservation Partnership Program,
Environmental Stewardship Fund, under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation
and a Community Revitalization Assistance Program Grant
From the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Community and Economic Development
albertinvernon
a r c h i t e c t u r e L L C

T
ABLE CONTENTS
OF
Acknowledgements i.
Foreword iii.
Executive Summary v.
Chapters
1 Purpose and Study Area 1
2 Greenways and Trails Movement 5
3 History of Transportation 13
4 Demographics 23
5 The Beech Creek Greenway Plan 35
6. The Brick Town Trail 45
7. Land Use and Linkages 79
8. Case Studies 89
9. Demand for and Potential Use of Trail 101
10. Operations and Maintenance 110
11. Ownership of the Rights of Way 119
12. Public Participation and Consensus Building 129
13. Cost Estimates and Funding 137
14. Phasing and Feasibility 149
15. Next Steps 157
Appendices 165
A. Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventories 167
B. National Register Properties 215
C. Property Owners 221
D. Conceptual Cost Estimates 229
E. DCNR Comments to Draft Report 285
F. Sample Articles of Association/ 289
Maintenance and Operations Agreement

A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In every writing endeavor there are those people To all the Members of the Study Committee,
and organizations the author wishes to
whose kindness and commitment to this project
acknowledge for their contribution to both the
inspired us on a daily basis;
content and the spirit of the work.

T
o all the Staff at DCNR and DCED, for
First and foremost, we wish to acknowledge our
building greenways and revitalizing
client, the Beech Creek Watershed
communities throughout the state;
Association, whose vision for this project

emboldened everyone to explore the possibility
T
of establishing a greenway for this community. o all the In-Kind Partners who generously
contributed their time, knowledge and expertise
Beyond that acknowledgment, it’s almost to this project;
impossible to properly credit all the individuals
and organizations who contributed their ideas To all the Historians past and present who
to this effort. We could not however, close this
keep the annals of time so that we of the present
writing assignment without having first offered
can make better futures;
thanks -

A
nd to the Citizens of the General Public
who anonymously and generously gave their
Thanks
time and ideas to this project.

i.
ii
F

OREWORD
IF EVER THERE WAS A STORY waiting to be told, it is here among the hills and hollows that
abut the northern most ridges of the Allegheny Mountains of Central Pennsylvania. Here at the
portal to the lands known as the Pennsylvania Wilds lie four towns whose history is nearly lost but
of great significance to the building of our country. Here men and boys toiled in the mines and the
factories, turning yellow clay into refractory bricks that lined the blast furnaces that made the steel
that built the engines and the rails and the girders that laid the foundation for the economic wealth of
our nation at the cusp of the 20th century.
IF EVER THERE WAS A TIME to write given it new life and new meaning as a rail trail
Monument Trestle for the
for their community, a place where children,
Dinkey Train to the Mines this story, it is now, while there still are sons
Photo Courtesy Centre workers, and retirees might come together at
County Historical Society and daughters who vividly recall the details of
the end of a day or the end of a week or the
the lives of their parents and their grandparents
beginning of a summer to rest or to play, to
and their cousins and their aunts and uncles
listen and to learn, to exercise or to relax, to
who lived their entire lives in a brickyard town
forget or to remember.
in rural America at the turn of the previous
Howard Dinkey Train century. We see old people with the wind in their hair
Photo Courtesy Centre County
and a gleam in their eye on a fat tire bike
Historical Society IF EVER THERE WAS A PLACE to
remembering what its like to be a child. We see
celebrate this story, it is here along the
babies and puppies and kittens in baskets and
abandoned rail lines of the old New York
sidecars. We see children away from computers
Central/Beech Creek Division Railroad that
and televisions and video games. We see young
once joined the brick making towns of
people learning about history, and we see old
Monument and Orviston and Beech Creek; it is
people remembering it. We see Moms and Dads
here near the lines of the old Pennsylvania
without the baggage of the week on their backs.
Railroad that once connected Beech Creek and
We see families, together, again.
Eagleville and Blanchard and Howard and
We see this story being written every single day
Mount Eagle and Curtin Village to each other
somewhere in America, and we see this story
and to all the places beyond.
being written here in the hills and hollows that
W
E LOOK ACROSS AMERICA and we see abut the northern most ridges of the Allegheny
communities all across the continent that have Mountains of Central Pennsylvania.
taken the bones of an abandoned rail line and
Harbison Walker Refractory before it was demolished, Logan Mills, Pennsylvania
Monument, PA. Glenn Vernon and Claudia Albertin
Photo Courtesy Centre County Historical Society albertinvernon architecture, LLC Summer, 2007
iii.
iv.