The Evans City Historical Society is in the process of preserving an iconic local structure.
The group is currently purchasing the former Harmony Line trolley station located in the heart of Evans City. We spoke with the historical society’s president Rick Reifenstein, who says this piece has extreme importance to the area.
“The trolley served the area to transport goods from the farms in the north or take passengers all the way down to Pittsburgh,” Reifenstein said.
Reifenstein even said that prior to Marburger becoming a full dairy processing plant, the family used to take their milk via trolley to Pittsburgh in order for it to be processed.
However, that all came to an end in 1931 when motorized vehicles became more popular and replaced the trolley line.
Since that time, the building has been used for a variety of purposed, including most recently as an apartment.
But, Reifenstein says the historical society has long sought to purchase the building and it has plans to restore the interior—but will need some help funding the project.
“We’ve got to do a lot of relying on contributions, grants, and whatever we need to refurbish the place,” Reifenstein said. “We’re going to have to gut the whole interior and restore it as much as we can to its original condition.”
