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A Walking Tour of Historic Cambria City
This tour is a project of the Johnstown Area Heritage Association. Please click on a number to learn more about the elements that make up the city of Cambria.
1. Faith Building (circa 1900) -- 324 Second Avenue
This three-story brick building on the corner of Second Avenue and Chestnut Street, is an example of several buildings in Cambria City constructed as rental properties by Victor Faith(2) -- The 1910 Census recorded that a family of ten, a couple, and 14 boarders lived in this building. The one immediately behind it, built by Victor Faith on the back of the lot (324 1/2 Second Avenue) has recently been rehabilitated by the Johnstown Heritage Development Fund. [back to top]
2. Faith House (circa 1895) -- 122 Chestnut Street
Irregular-shaped red brick building with mansard roof. Originally owned and operated as a grocery by Hungarian immigrants Victor and Estella Faith, this building also housed their five children, his brother, and at least six boarders. In addition, it served the Faith family at various times as a distillery, a cigar factory, a hotel and a steamship agency through which Cambria City residents could pass mail and money to the Old Country, and book passage for relatives when they came over. Victor Faith also built and operated many rental properties in Cambria City(1) -- The Faith family were parishioners of Immaculate Conception (6). [back to top]
3. Lorditch House (circa 1889) -- 202 Chestnut Street
Double house on the corner of Chestnut and Second Avenue. Originally a puddler in the steel mill, George Lorditch established a small cigar and pipe factory in his residence about 1880. Tax records indicate that Lorditch and his wife Catherine, who emigrated to Cambria City about 1863, had built a house on this site by 1867. Because of the widespread damage caused by the Great Flood of 1889, this house was probably built on the same site shortly after 1889. The many generations of the Lorditch(Lorditsch) family were parishioners of Immaculate Conception(6). [back to top]
4. Pesch House (circa 1895) -- 317 Second Avenue
White (now "Mr. James") -- Built between 1895 and 1900 by Matilda Pesch, this house was converted to a rental property in 1900, when it was rented to a Hungarian laborer Michael Dubin, his wife and two children, and their nine boarders. [back to top]
5. The Phoenix Tavern (circa 1890) -- 200 Broad Street
Originally built as the 15th Ward Hotel by Patrick McLaughlin, a cement mill worker who had operated a tavern on Front Street that had been in the Flood of 1889. The hotel was expanded and a second floor added in 1895. [back to top]
6. Immaculate Conception Church (1908) -- Broad Street and Third Avenue
When German Catholics from Cambria City first split off from St. Joseph’s in Johnstown and formed their own parish(originally called St. Mary’s), they dedicated a church in 1859 on Third Avenue and Broad Street and established the community’s first parochial school in the 1860s. It is the oldest parish in Cambria City. The original church was reconstructed and expanded following the Flood in 1891. In 1906, the cornerstone for the current church was laid. Two years later, the Immaculate Conception Church of the Blessed Virgin was dedicated. The Rectory next to the church dates to 1890-91. A parochial school and convent (since razed in 1962) were built across from the church on the south side of Broad Street. Designed by William P. Ginther of Ohio, Immaculate Conception is German Gothic in style and cruciform in structure. It has a 130-foot bell tower on the southeast corner of the church at the entrance. Immaculate Conception is usually open to visitors during FolkFest except during scheduled masses. [back to top]
7. Pollak Meat Market(1905) -- 314 Broad Street
This building was designed by Johnstown architect Walter Myton as an office building and meat market for Samuel Pollak in 1905. In 1921 it was purchased by Paul Hornick, who has operated the market as a hardware store and later a sporting goods store. The facade has been recently restored under a grant from the Johnstown Heritage Development Fund. [back to top]
8. Third Avenue Hotel (circa 1890) Corner of Third Avenue and Chestnut Street
Built sometime after the 1889 Flood by John Weber, a German steel-mill laborer. It continued under various owners as a residence, public house and saloon through the early 1900s. [back to top]
9. St. George’s Serbian Orthodox Church (1911) 300 Chestnut Street
This church was originally constructed as St. Mary’s Syrian(Lebanese Christian) Orthodox Church in 1911, but was taken over in 1971 by a congregation splitting off from St. Petka’s Serbian Orthodox Church in Woodvale. The church was purchased outright in 1973 and renamed St. George’s in 1977. [back to top]
10. Stenger House (circa 1890) -- 313-315 Chestnut Street
This red double-house was built by John and Anna Stenger shortly after the 1889 Flood. In 1900, the property was sold and rented out as two separate residences. [back to top]
11. St. Stephen’s Slovak Catholic Church (1911) -- Corner of Fourth Avenue and Chestnut Street.
The St. Stephen’s parish was founded in 1891 and originally built a wooden frame church on the south corner of Fourth Avenue and Power Street, facing west, in 1893. A parochial school was established in the basement of the church in 1895. In 1897, a four-story brick building was built next to the church as a convent and living quarters for the Sisters of St. Francis. The present church was designed by Johnstown architect Walter Myton in 1909 and dedicated in 1911. In 1913, a school building and rectory complex(12) was built on the site of the original church. In the 1940s and 1950s, the parish claimed the largest Slovakian Catholic congregation in the United States, though a large portion of the parishioners lived outside Cambria City itself. St. Stephen’s is distinctive to the Cambria City landscape for its twin five-story bell towers that flank its entrance facing Chestnut Street. St. Stephen’s is built of white Indiana fieldstone. The interior is purposely designed to emulate St. Stephen’s in Vienna. In addition to a wood carving of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary, the altar contains replicas of St. Methodius and St. Cyril, credited with constructing the Slavonic alphabet and translating the gospels into the Slovakian language. Over the altar are the words "Podte Klanajme sa Pandji" (Come let us adore the Lord) -- St. Stephen’s is usually open to visitors during the FolkFest except during scheduled masses. [back to top]
12. St. Stephen’s Convent and School(1913) -- See 11. [back to top]
13. Dom Polski (1915) -- 306 Power Street
Designed by Johnstown architect Walter Myton, this clubhouse for the St. Casimir’s Society used the first floor for meeting rooms and the second floor as a ballroom.(see 20). [back to top]
14. St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church (1922) 401-413 Power Street
St. Mary’s is a Byzantine rather than Roman Catholic Church. Founded by Ruthenians(Carpatho-Rusyn or Eastern Slavs), the parish first built a wooden church in 1895, then a second church in 1900-1901, and finally the current church in 1921-22. The original Rectory was built in 1907, and recently given over to the Sisters of St.Basil who teach in Greek Catholic Schools. Designed by Pittsburgh architect John T. Comes, the church is distinctively Byzantine in style, in the form of a Greek cross(with equal sides) and with a large central dome over the crossing, elaborate exterior brickwork, and Moorish windows. The facade is marked by two large towers and intricate stone carving, and mosaic panels surround the doors. St. Mary’s is usually open to visitors during the FolkFest except during scheduled masses. [back to top]
15. Komara House (1902) -- Rear 403 Chestnut Street
Tan with white trim set back off Chestnut Street on Brailler Place(the ally) -- Joseph Komara built and operated a saloon and boarding house at 119 Broad Street (since demolished), and constructed this rental housing on the rear of the lot. Many families in Cambria City used the rear of their lots to construct rental residential housing for income. [back to top]
16. Wagner/Ritter House (1865) -- 418 Broad Street
Mustard color. George Wagner emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1853 and built this small house for his family (including seven children) about 1865. They were parishioners of Immaculate Conception. In 1919 the house passed into the hands of Wagner’s daughter Anna Ritter. In 1988, the property was donated to the Johnstown Area Heritage Association(JAHA) which has been restoring and renovating the house as an illustration of typical worker housing in Cambria City. JAHA has also conducted some archeological digging behind the house for period artifacts and remnants to help interpret the lives of those who worked in the mills and mines. The interior rooms of the Wagner/Ritter are not yet open to visitors. [back to top]
17. Fifth Avenue Hotel (circa 1889) -- Corner of Fifth Avenue and Broad Street.
Owned and operated by German miner George Blimmel as a public house and saloon for two decades after the Flood of 1889. Records indicate a tavern/hotel has operated on this site since the 1870s and this particular building may have survived the Flood. [back to top]
18. Chestnut Street School (1921) -- Site of the FolkFest Fifth Avenue Mainstage [back to top]
19. St. Casimir’s School (1913,1925) -- See 20 below. [back to top]
20. St. Casimir’s Roman Catholic Church (1907) -- 500-511 Power Street.
Polish residents of Cambria City organized the St. Casimir’s Lodge in 1892 and formed a parish in 1901. Construction of the church was started in 1902 but completion was delayed until 1906 because mine accidents claimed the lives of over forty adult male Lodge members. The church was finally dedicated in 1907, and is now flanked by the church’s first rectory, a Queen Anne-style house constructed in 1902 and converted to a convent in 1912, and the current rectory, completed in 1912. The church also constructed a school on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Chestnut Street(19), with the first floor completed in 1913 and a second floor added in 1925. The architect of the church, the current rectory and the school was Walter Myton, who also designed Dom Polski(13) in 1915. St. Casimir’s is built in Romanesque style, and the vestibule contains a design perspective of the church signed by Myton. The altar, railing and pillars are of white Carrara marble from Italy. The replica of the Pieta was installed in 1921. St. Casimir’s is usually open to visitors during the FolkFest except during scheduled masses. [back to top]
21. Fehse House (1899) -- 521 Power Street
This double-house was originally built as a rental property by William Fehse, a German immigrant mill laborer who also owned a store and restaurant in the 800 block of Chestnut Street. Census records from 1910 indicate his tenants as an Irish railroad engineer and his family, and a German coal miner and his family with one servant. The house remained in the Fehse family until 1953. [back to top]
22. St. Emerich’s Roman Catholic Church (1913) -
Corner of Sixth Avenue and Chestnut Street. The Hungarian parish was established originally in 1905 as St. Ladislaus, using a small frame building as a church near the corner of Sixth Avenue and Power Street. The current church was built in 1913 and renamed St. Emerich’s. A small parish rectory was built behind the church facing Sixth Avenue. The church was designed by Johnstown architect Walter R. Myton (1872-1929), who designed several structures in Cambria City as well(7,11,13,19,20) -- St. Emerich’s is usually open to visitors during the FolkFest except during scheduled masses. [back to top]
23. Roth Hous e(circa 1889) -- Corner of Sixth Avenue and Chestnut Street
Light gray-blue attached house. John Casper and Elizabeth Roth immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1864 and he worked for the Cambria Iron Company. In 1871 they purchased this property, but it is unclear if the present structure dates back to the 1870s or the post-Flood era. In 1895, a second structure was added, making it effectively a double-house. The addition served as rental property to families of Cambria Iron steel workers through the turn of the century. [back to top]
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