The Johnson Steel Street Rail Company
(later the Johnson Company)
Johnstown, Pennsylvania

A complete set of the photographic record compiled by the Historic American Building
Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) in conjunction with the
1988 documented history of the Johnson Steel Street Rail Company (HAER Study No. PA-271)
is accessible electronically in the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress [go]


Extant Structures
 

  
Northern facade of the General Office Building, originally erected in 1889 as a two-
story building with colonial roof, with the third floor and square towers on three corners
added in October 1890, since razed (Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, March 14, 1989)

  
Original drawing of the General Office Building, ink on vellum (unnumbered)
(Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, March 14, 1989)

  
Eastern Facade of the Drawing Rooms and Laying Out Floor (Engineering) Building
facing Central Avenue, erected 1893 with square towers and pyramidal roof in
architectural style duplicating the General Office Building to which it was attached,
and the Machine Shop.The open center of the building, covered by a skylight, was
used to lay out designs. (Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, August 2, 1988)

  
Front elevation of the Engineering Building, architect's drawing #14423, ink on vellum
entitled Building for a Laying Out Floor and Drawing Room, initialed H. E. F. and dated
March 7, 1893, with designated connection to the existing General Office Building (right)
(Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, March 14, 1989)

  
General office complex along Central Avenue, with Engineering Building (left), General
Office Building (center), and Machine Shop (circa 1890, right). The original Laboratory
Building (below), facing the General Office Building, was razed decades before this
photograph was taken.  (Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, August 2, 1988)

Architect's drawing of the Johnson Company Laboratory Building, ink on vellum
dated July 15, 1892 and initialed H. E. F. (Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, March 14, 1989)

  
Iron Foundry along the Stony Creek, the original section with two cupolas completed
in 1889, with sections added in 1899 and 1907, with railroad access by the Johnstown
and Stony Creek Railroad, a wholly-owned railroad of the Johnson Company,
constructed in 1888.  (plant photo)

  
Southern end of the Pattern Shop, erected circa 1892 as a track welding shop and
converted for use by the Steel Motor Company in 1895, finally converted to a pattern
shop in 1902.    (Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, August 2, 1988)

  
Southern face of the Upper Shops, circa 1902, adjacent to the laying out yard.
(Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, August 2, 1988)

  
Pump house along the Stony Creek (circa 1892), connecting river water by
underground brick viaducts to the rail mill to cool the rolls, later converted to
a storage shed for the Johnstown and Stony Creek Railroad.
(Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, August 2, 1988)

  
Southern facade of the northern-most building of the car barns of the Johnstown
Passenger Railway Company on Central Avenue and Bond Street in Moxham (Johnstown).
The electrified street railway system was designed and built by Tom Johnson after the
Great Flood of 1889 destroyed the original mule-drawn street railway, with original wooden car
barns and roundhouse constructed along Central Avenue next to the General Office Building
in 1890, subsequently destroyed by fire and replaced by these brick buildings in 1893
(Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, August 2, 1988)

  
Baumer Street power house of the Johnstown Passenger Street Railway just off Bedford
Street in the Hornerstown section of Johnstown erected in 1900 (razed in 1989).
This was the second power house built on this site, the first constructed behind this
structure and drawing coal from the hillside behind it.
(Jet Lowe, HABS/HAER, August 2, 1988)

 

  
Jet Lowe photographing the Engineering Building along Central Avenue on
August 2, 1988.   (author's collection)