Will you tell me more about Zelienople? (Pittsburgh, Butler: motel, house)

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

Tallysmom

My uncle lived far out in East or North Rochester and drove to Lawrenceville and back everyday for work for over 25 years. He took Ohio River Blvd. I was born in Beaver Falls and started life growing up in Rochester. Then we moved here to the suburbs. We'd go down to the Valley every weekend to see our folks, but we took the turnpike and got off on 19. We'd turn left about where I-79 is now. Is that area Cranberry? Used to be nothing but farmer's fields. One weekend we went down and there was suddenly 1,000s of houses there that all looked the same. It was the road that took you past Thorn Hill toward Freedom. I took Rt. 8 north toward Oil City and about 40 miles from Rt. 19 there was signs saying Cranberry Twp. Is there two of them or it is sensationally big?

Peter, in true Pennsyvlanian fashion -- there are TWO Cranberrys. The one near Oil City is a town named Cranberry, and one is Cranberry Township or Twp. (there's actually several Cranberry Twps in various counties in PA, too) That's why the fight to get a post office was SO long in 16066.

And years past, it was all farm land. When we moved to Cranberry in 1964, Fernway was the only development. Sun Valley (opposite Haine School Rd) was started next in 1966. Soon after, the people that owned the rest of the land sold out to Ryan Homes to build -- I think it was called Brush Creek. I could be wrong. I remember playing in those houses as they were being built.

We drove to Glen Eden Dairy to get our milk. We went to Meeder's Farm to get corn and tomatoes in the summer, and field corn to feed the birds and squirrels in the winter. And fresh pressed home made apple cider. Mr. Meeder died in a car accident a few years back and his family tried to run the farm (corner of 19 and Rochester Rd) but the son (I think) was getting too old and they sold the farm to developers.

And Krome's Pharmacy and Tack Shop. Oh yeah, there was a soda counter, too.

So if you got off at exit three on the Turnpike, that was Cranberry. Get off exit three now (in fact I don't hink it's called Exit Three now..) and you will think I'm a dirty liar. There is no way one township could change that radically in 44 years.

Oh, yeah... it did. Sad to say it did.

[cabs]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

I would not write off Zelie without checking it out in person. I have 5 friends that have moved there over the years and they love. One young couple bought an older house to restore and like the fact that their kids can WALK to school. New condos have been built and the value of homes have been steadily rising. I don't think their are any boarded up storefronts and the movie theater is under renovation to become a live theater/movie theater.

As to The Lion, what is scary to some is nostalgia for others.

Lion Unveiling March 2008

I DID find it to be very nice there, but some say it isn't.

[Copanut]

Tallysmom,

You're confusing me. You say you dislike Zelie because it hasn't changed. Then you say the changes in Cranberry make you sad. Is change good or bad to you?

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

Tallysmom,

You're confusing me. You say you dislike Zelie because it hasn't changed. Then you say the changes in Cranberry make you sad. Is change good or bad to you?

It's simple really -- I never liked Zelie. Since I went to Seneca I had friends in Zelie, my hair cutter was in Zelie, the library was in Zelie before Cranberry had a library, and when we cut school in high school we hung out in Zelie -- so I am well versed in Zelie, and I just never warmed up to it all. The best part of Zelie was going home -- you passed Baldingers and if you talked Mom into stopping you got some cool penny candy.

Cranberry, however, was home.

We rode our bikes at The Dips, which were big mounds of construction dirt left over and pounded tight from weather. They're gone.

We'd take bike hikes up all over the place...

Can you imagine letting your children ride their bikes up and down Freedom and Rochester Rds today?

So some of my feelings toward Cranberry today are very colored by a blissful youth that had a distinct Norman Rockwell tinge to it. You know those old rose colored glasses? Those times are gone and they aren't coming back -- and for many there is a sigh of relief at that, too. Those times weren't good for everyone, but for me they were.

But as for my opnions on growth -- I think growth is a very good thing indeed, if it is managed. What saddens me is that Cranberry hasn't managed their growth very well. It looks like out here in California -- where there is a patch of ground they can build on, there will be something built on it. Regardless of the environmental consequences (California is running out of water), the road infrastructure (my road hasn't been resurfaced in well over 20 years, the same as many others in my neighborhood) and the impact to other property around it (that's what Eminent Domain is for after all. And my house value from all these new places that have been foreclosed on? Painful!)

But no change is stagnation. Stagnation is bad.

[cabs]

The area doesn't sound too bad to me.

[Copanut]

Tallysmom,

You need to take a longer drive through Zelie when you next come home. I think you'll find that is a vibrant, up and coming small town. There are plans with values of 400K and up in addition to starter homes in the upper 90's.

As to Cranberry, in the 70's, the only way to hit 79 from the East was via the PA Turnpike. I remember getting off the Pike and the only thing there was Conley's Motel, nothing else. Now Cranberry looks like an updated version of Monroeville, only a lot cleaner.

But look at it this way. At least when you return to your hometown, things are booming. My hometown in the eastern suburbs of Pgh is now a white-trash section 8 wonderland. I hate going home.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

Tallysmom,

You need to take a longer drive through Zelie when you next come home. I think you'll find that is a vibrant, up and coming small town. There are plans with values of 400K and up in addition to starter homes in the upper 90's.

As to Cranberry, in the 70's, the only way to hit 79 from the East was via the PA Turnpike. I remember getting off the Pike and the only thing there was Conley's Motel, nothing else. Now Cranberry looks like an updated version of Monroeville, only a lot cleaner.

But look at it this way. At least when you return to your hometown, things are booming. My hometown in the eastern suburbs of Pgh is now a white-trash section 8 wonderland. I hate going home.

Oh -- I remember the Conley Motel... I used to swim there in the summers sometimes. (Usually it was the old TouRest Motel, but every once in a while it was Conleys).

If you recall -- when you went around hte cloverleaf to the Pike, you circles past an old church and graveyard -- That's Dutilh United Methodist. The old Christmas Card Church burned down due to arson, and they built a new one -- and that's where my dear father is buried.

When they started lobbying to rebuild the 19/79/Pike interechange they were going to Eminant Domain the graveyard. Oh -- the phone calls and letters from California started up in earnest! They went another way, thankfully.

I joke about having to go to the cemetery to smooth the soil -- if he could see where Cranberry is now; I'm sure he's spinning in his grave...

[cabs]

ARE THERE ANY PICTURES OF THIS AREA? I've looked on the web and have only found a very few--like two. I've been there only twice, but that was a couple or more years back.
Thanks!

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by cabs

a

b.

I looked around and couldn't find anything.

[cabs]

c.
Okay, thanks for looking.