Historic Penn Salt Co. houses in Natrona being torn down; museum planned to preserve history

Work began this month on Federal Street in Harrison’s Natrona neighborhood to tear down two historic Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing houses from the 1850s.

Harrison Commissioner Chuck Dizard said the houses were falling in under their own weight.

“They were in terrible condition and unsafe for the neighborhood,” he said.

The township is spending an estimated $20,000 to $24,000 for the demolition after an unsuccessful attempt to receive funding from the federal Community Development Block Grant program three years ago.

Dizard said federal and state grants are not permitted for demolition without prior approval from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Because the commission designated those houses and others in the neighborhood as a historical district in 1985, the township had to provide evidence of unsafe conditions at the homes. The grant still was denied, but the township was allowed to use its funds to tear down the houses.

“With the understanding of the state commission, I was able to have the board of commissioners vote to have those two houses taken down and the ground repaired,” Dizard said.

Bill Godfrey, president of the Natrona Comes Together Association, said the houses originally served as homes for families of those who served in the Civil War. The company paid for the families’ food and rent.

Pennsylvania Salt workers also rented the houses, Godfrey said. The money the company’s workers earned in wages would go right back to the company for rent.

“All the money you made went right back into the factory,” Godfrey said.

“Penn Salt,” as it was called (and later, Pennwalt), actually produced caustic soda and other industrial and household chemicals until 1957. In 1967, the area where its plant facilities were located was purchased by Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp. ATI’s former Natrona Works facility stands about where the Penn Salt chemical plant was located.

Godfrey said the Lapczynski family were the last people to live in one of the to-be-demolished houses, from 1947-80.

The Natrona Comes Together Association plans to open a restored house in the neighborhood as a small museum for people to learn about the area’s history. The association received grant money from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to purchase and restore the house.

Godfrey credits local historian Charles “Skip” Culleiton, whose work includes the book “Historical Natrona,” with providing the research that informs his association’s actions.

“I believe if you can save the historical character of a town, it fosters economic development for more people moving in and making Natrona an attractive place,” Godfrey said.

Restoring the house began in 2014. Godfrey said a big chunk of renovations was eliminating asbestos, the toxic substance common in the 1950s, from the inside. He saved a 150-year-old fireplace and mantel from one of the houses being torn down.

The association will be looking for volunteers to help get the museum up and running.