Mars Area History & Landmarks Society

To Mars History Facebook readers: Thank you to everyone who has commented and left your personal stories and memories on our Facebook posts. It is a pleasure to see the additional information that comes from the community, sometimes not 100% accurate, but it is a starting point for further discussion and inquiry. It is evident there are many serious fact-checkers among us. Together we arrive at the true history, perhaps with some embellishment that make the old stories more i...nteresting! On this Facebook page we are collectively recording the history of our town and surrounding area which is already an excellent online reference resource. Many of the most knowledgable Mars citizens and elders are not on social media so we depend on you to show the pictures and pose the questions to your parents and grandparents in a citizen science style research project to include everyone. Your financial support is always appreciated as paid annual memberships as well as donations of old artifacts for our displays. The volunteers are working on various projects each Friday morning at the train station and museum and the free Mars Short Line train rides will begin again at the end of this month. Stay tuned!

Antiques aren’t what they used to be. Seems like technology from 25 years ago holds historic value!! Here’s how you can help with a new display at the Mars history museum: Hi Folks, For the new Communication exhibit in the center room of the train station, I am looking for a few examples of Printed Circuit Boards. I don’t care what condition or size they are in. They can be out of anything, toys, TVs, clothes dryers, anything.... If you have something but can’t get it to the station, I’ll be glad to pick it up. Thanks, Bob Lang (412) 445-8197 PS: Attached is a picture of what I'm talking about, but size does not matter. See more

Myoma and the Breakneck Creek Valley After we posted the picture of the old schoolhouse in Myoma along the Mars-Evan City Road, we made contact with local resident Dave McCoy who shares some of his memories growing up in that corner of the Mars area. He’s a 1981 Mars High graduate and has travelled widely during his career installing synthetic NFL football fields...Cincinnati Bengals Paul Brown stadium, Atlanta falcons at the Georgia Dome, Indianapolis Colts practice field, ...Continue reading

If you grew up around Mars, your grandparents probably warned you about falling down an old oil well when walking in the woods. That’s because our hillsides that have now grown up in woodlands were once denuded of trees where oil derricks dotted the landscape. Recent news headlines point out that Pennsylvania has 200,000 abandoned oil wells that would cost $6 million to plug. They were drilled during the world’s first oil boom that occurred in western Pennsylvania. Many citi...zens of Mars worked in the petroleum business during the early 1900s. One of those was Fred Lang. His son Bob tells a bit of Fred’s involvement in oil and many other aspects of our community. The following was written by Bob Lang who frequently joined his dad on these projects, and came home each day covered with so much grease his mother Dorothy made him take a bath in a big wash tub out in the backyard with a stiff brush and Lye soap. Fred was a school teacher, principal, and administrator in Pine and Pine-Richland School District from the 1930s to 1970s. He was also a long-time member of the Mars Kiwanis and Masonic organizations. Since annual income in the teaching profession in those days wasn’t what it is in 2021, it was customary for teachers to get a summer job to supplement their income. So Fred worked for Isaac Fisher, an oil well driller and supplier from Mars, located where the storage sheds are on Brickyard Road. In the 1950s, one of Isaac’s big jobs was removing equipment such as the oil derricks and plugging the many abandoned oil wells all over western Pennsylvania, especially where the Pennsylvania Turnpike was being built. In the photo, you can see Fred up on the derrick of an oil well. He is attaching a cable to the upper portion of the derrick. The next step after climbing down was to pull tension on the cable, and then with an acetylene torch they cut the steel legs one at a time until the derrick fell to the ground. Then they cut the derrick up in small pieces and hauled it away. 3/22/21

It’s spring! And the dedicated volunteers at the train station are anxious to welcome guests. The official opening date for the Mars Shortline Railroad is Friday, May 28. These pictures were taken by Bob Lang who reports: If the beautiful, blooming trees at the entrance to the Mars Area History and Landmarks Society are any indication, this week might be the beginning of warmer Spring weather in Mars. Our hardworking volunteers have been painting and polishing things in ant...icipation of welcoming visitors to our campus this 2021 season. We look forward to a fun season of welcoming and entertaining visitors from the Mars Area and beyond. And this acknowledgement from longtime historical society / Mars community volunteer, Chris Clutter: Everyone who has had a hand in working on everything and getting our campus to look as beautiful as it does, thank you. From the clocks at the top of the Swaney pavilion and all the painted exteriors and interiors, to the interiors with their signs and displays, and our train and all the miniature buildings to a T, and to the office how neat it is getting, and to those that keep our website up and running, you all are doing a great job and should pat yourselves on your backs.great job. We all should look forward to showing off our miniature train and thank you also for all those taking their time to keep it running, for running it and maintaining the tracks. I am proud to be a member of an organization that takes pride in what they do and it shows and we are so fortunate to have such great volunteers.

Doyle Schwab composed this song for the Mars Centennial Celebration in 1973. He was a phenomenal musician who taught music to countless youth including Lori Carnley who shared this with us. She was saddened to see they recently tore down his farmhouse when she was back visiting recently. Doyle attended the United Presbyterian Church in Mars, had degrees in music composition, and played the organ and piano. He lived to be ten days shy of 102. degrees in music composition and played organ and piano. He lived to be ten days shy of 102.

Some old stamps from the 1920s, 50s and 60s used to certify property deeds, showing federal IRS, state and Adams Township tax collection.

History mystery. Here’s a 1946 deed notarized by Laverne Brown. Seeing as Nick Brown was a Notary Public at his newsstand on Grand Avenue, could this have been Nick’s father?

Today, January 22, 2021 marks 90 years since the birth of Charles Norton, lifelong Martian and past-President of the Mars Bank until 1996. He passed away in 2020. He was a familiar voice to fellow Martians over the past several years since he started this Facebook page and posted the stories and pictures of Mars' history. In honour of his 90th birthday we posed a third generation Martian (Phil Norton, not a bank president) to continue this snapshot series which began with Ave...rill Norton, employee of the Mars National Bank when it was located across the street from the present building (now Pfeifer's Hardware) who became President, 1944-55. A brief history of the Mars Bank appears in the MAHLS newsletter which was sent out to members at Christmas. The Mars Bank has served the community since 1900 and is a valued supporter of the Mars Area History & Landmarks Society. See more

Flag mural painted by the late John Clutter.

Add another Martian to our growing list of professional baseball players. David Bednar, pitcher (see the link below). We seem to have a local make it in the pros once every generation...counting Callery and Middlesex as the Mars Area. https://triblive.com//mars-alum-david-bednar-pumped-about/

For over 60 years, Mars has been a hotbed of auto racing with several generations of several local families carrying on the motor sport tradition. See previous posts on this Facebook page. Here is a selection of new-old photos contributed by Mary Jo Swaney, mostly showing scenes around her father Bill Swaney's auto mechanic shop where the 7/11 store is at the corner of Route 228 just outside the borough line. Looks like his wife Mary Lou is the flag girl in one photos of a hot rod drag race! Frank Choura's Number 25 is pictured and behind it you can see the beer distributor store. Your comments with further information will be appreciated. Thanks to MAHLS president John Watson for sending these in for the Facebook page.

A hand-written letter from Leone Irvine in 1993 with a memory from a December day 79 years ago that changed everything... "Did I ever tell you that Helen and I were about to leave my home in Evans City on Dec. 7th 1942 (sic) but paused a moment to hear the 7 o'clock news!! John kept the 'kids' and we went on to Mars where the Methodist Church was doing the 'Messiah' and your mother was the pianist!! I must say everyone was so shaken by the awful war news, they could just half... listen!" This collection of WWII playing cards purchased in Mars in the 1960's tells the story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which was actually in 1941, she mis-wrote the date. Church bulletins from the 1970's show the Mars United Methodist Church on Pittsburgh Street, now owned by the Borough. The letter was written to Charles Norton whose mother Ethel, the church pianist, was an Irvine. Her father, a fiddler, owned the furniture store on Irvine Street which is now the massage studio. The Evans City Irvines ran Citizens Bank. There were actually two separate letters with the same story and the date was scratched out and corrected in one of them. See more

Ho Ho Ho as Martians prepare for the 2020 holiday season, here is a flashback in time to the 1970's in Mars provided by our ace contributor, former borough police officer, Greg Smith. Some show the street decorations on Grand Avenue. The others are from the annual Children's Christmas party that the Mars Volunteer Fire Company sponsored for decades. As many would remember, Santa had a striking resemblance to Chuck Marburger for many years! In fact Chuck's wife Patty can be seen gazing up in admiration at the saintly elf :)

First snowfall of the year--an aerial panorama view of Mars Borough looking north. Grand Avenue on the right, Beaver Street to the left.

Some Mars Volunteer Fire Department action around 1978 at the Mars National Bank. They had to run big fans to get the smoke smell out of the basement and much of the paper supplies and business forms were burned. The bank had an incinerator in the basement. Photos taken with an old 35mm Welta German camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens.