Verona residents to save borough history in a time capsule for 150th anniversary
Verona was incorporated as a borough 150 years ago, and some of its residents want to encapsulate the milestone for generations to come.
Verona Community Group plans to have a celebration to mark the occasion in May.
It’s in the process of collecting items for a time capsule.
“We would like to invite members of the community to submit personal journal or diary entries, photographs, notices, signs or posters from private businesses, letters, postcards, games, and small artwork,” said Trish Hredzak-Showalter, community group vice chair. “We also invite everyone to consider including lists of favorite pandemic movie or TV show binges, bread recipes, house projects, shopping trip disasters, homeschooling triumphs, future predictions, etc.
“We will include as much as possible in our time capsule, and store other items in the archives of the Verona Historical Society.”
People can drop off items for the time capsule at the borough building, 736 E. Railroad Ave.
The group is still working out celebration details.
Hredzak-Showalter said as of now the plan is to have a virtual or hybrid ceremony May 8, the Saturday before the incorporation date. Plans are contingent upon covid restrictions.
The time capsule would be dedicated later this year. There is no current deadline to submit items.
Historical society member Frank Santucci, 85, recalled the borough’s 75th anniversary.
He said there was a parade that went throughout the town including passing his home along Second Street.
Verona’s centennial also had a parade, a beauty contest and a mustache contest among other activities, Santucci said. The lifelong resident hopes to have a similar celebration this time around.
“I’d love to have a giant parade like they’ve always had,” Santucci said. “This brings other people to town. With the trouble we’re having with the coronavirus, it’s difficult to say. I don’t know what will happen.”
A brief look at Verona’s history
The town originally was part of a 460-acre section of Mechanicsburg along the Allegheny River purchased by James Verner. Verner Elementary School along South Avenue was named after the family.
In 1837, Pennsylvania granted a charter to the Pittsburgh, Kittanning & Warren Railroad Co. to build a railroad line from Pittsburgh to Warren. The proposed route crossed through Verner’s property.
Verner and William Phillips formed a company to lay out a village adjacent to the new railyards, and Verona Borough was incorporated May 10, 1871. It was divided into two wards.
Members of its second ward petitioned the court in 1886 to break away from Verona and form a new community.
In 1889, the court issued a decree incorporating the new borough of Oakmont.
“It is significant in that Verona is one of the first communities around here that had the railroad come through, and also the boat company years ago,” Santucci said. “We had a man in the late 1800s who built boats, and they floated down the river to New Orleans.”
That man was inventor John Kowalsky, who had a machine shop in Verona in the 1890s. He experimented with electric motors and gasoline engines. He built a motorboat so fast it was banned from the Allegheny River.
Kowalsky also crafted planes — one a bird-like structure that was unable to fly and a few others that successfully flew a few times before crashing.
Businesses in Verona during the late 1800s and early 1900s included a blacksmith shop, Eaton Funeral Home, E.N. Miller Furniture, John R. Cribbs Hardware, A&P Supermarket and Yobp Chevrolet.
Santucci said the GetGo gas station at the corner of Center Avenue and Allegheny River Boulevard was a roundhouse for railroad workers who worked on engines.
The two boroughs had their own school districts through 1972 when they merged to create the Riverview School District.
Verona was known as “The spot that’s more than a dot” in the 1970s and ’80s.
More information about the borough can be found in the historical society’s records within the borough building, or online at veronahistory.org.
More information about the 150th celebration can be found on the Verona Community Group’s Facebook page.
People can also email neighbors@veronacommunity.org or call Hredzak-Showalter at 724-462-0985 for more information.
Michael DiVittorio is a TribLive reporter covering general news in Western Pennsylvania, with a penchant for festivals and food. He can be reached at mdivittorio@triblive.com.
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