Pancake's roots planted along the National Road

For first-time visitors to the tiny Washington County community of Pancake, the most intriguing fact is: You can't buy an order of pancakes within "city limits."

"You can't get a pancake breakfast in Pancake unless you go to somebody's house and ask them to make you a batch," Mike Bell offered in half-jest. Bell is sipping on a cup of coffee on this snowy afternoon in one of Pancake's few businesses, the Pancake Amoco Service Station, located along Route 40, just east of Washington, Pa. Owner Joe Aloia is talking on the phone to a motorist who reported her car slid on an icy patch and is now sitting in a ditch just off the roadway. "We're on our way," he assured the caller as he passed the directions on to one of his drivers. With the station doubling as a 24-hour AAA towing service, Aloia said that part of the business keeps him on the run, especially with busy Interstates 70 and 79 just miles away.

Glancing out the station's front window, Aloia said he's been watching the traffic move along Route 40 now for 20 years. "That's how long I've been here," he noted. "My parents, Lou and Tizzi Aloia, operated two convenience stores, one on Beau Street in Washington and the other in East Washington. They decided to sell the one in East Washington, so I was more or less out of a job. We sold gasoline at the Beau Mart, and the supplier, Guttman Oil, had this station available, and they offered it to me, and here I am 20 years later."

Historical records show that the highway that dissects the community and dates back several centuries has been known by various names over the years - the Cumberland Road, National Road, National Pike and Route 40. Referred to as the Pathway to the West, it was originally a combination of two Indian trails, Nemacolin's and the Mingo Path. George Washington traveled the trail and erected Fort Necessity in the mountain area some 50 miles east of today's Washington, Pa. The fort, erected as a defensive position in the French and Indian War, was short-lived, falling during battle in 1754. But the trail remained and grew in importance as a new nation emerged.

In 1806, President Thomas Jefferson signed into law the construction of America's first federally funded road. Today, the old roadway that runs through Pancake carries the distinction of being a National Historic Road.

There is yet another questionable issue regarding the neighborhood. On entering the village traveling east on Route 40, on the edge of Washington, a state marker identifies the next community as "Pancake, Named for George Pancake, Pioneer Settler, Founded 1822." For those traveling along Interstate 79 just south of Interstate 70, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation sign indicates the next exit leads to Route 40 and Laboratory.

According to the "History of Washington County," compiled by Earle R. Forrest, Jonathan Martin layed out the town of Martinsburg about 1825, but the name was never popular. After Martin's death in 1872, Martinsburg faded, and Pancake lived on.

Forrest noted that years later, the late Dr. Byron Clark, who resided in Washington, established a chemical laboratory for the manufacture of patent medicines, which he sold throughout the country. He had a post office established and named the place Laboratory, by which it is still known, although the original name of Pancake is more common within the community. Today, most residents agree that regardless of the name - Pancake or Laboratory - the little village is a good place to call home.

"In reality," South Strabane Township Manager John Stickle, stated, "it's a neighborhood or community within our township. It doesn't have a post office, so there is no official designation of being a town. Officially, it's viewed as a neighborhood in this township of 7,000-plus residents."

From his front window, Aloia said he's seen plenty of excitement pass before him over the past two decades. "The Olympic Torch has been carried through several times, and we get a lot of bicyclists in warmer months. One was from Minnesota, and he said he wanted to bike the National Road just for the scenery. The wagon train goes by each May as part of the National Road Festival. I even understand that Harry Truman used to travel this road quite a bit to get to (Washington) D.C. from Missouri."

In recalling other stories, Aloia said a truck driver told him companies used to haul apples from Maryland to Ohio. Most filling stations would be closed at night when the trucks returned, but one of the truckers would call the owner of the Pancake station, who lived nearby, and he would open to service the whole fleet of trucks.

"Several years ago a couple of black limousines pulled in here, and a driver identified himself as being with the U.S. government," Aloia recalled. "I later found that President Gerald Ford was just up the road in Greene County, hunting, and they were part of his security force."

Bell, 51, said his father went to school in a building just up the street that now houses the Pancake Inn, a shot-and-beer type of place that, just for the record, doesn't sell pancakes. "My dad went there until they built the Laboratory Elementary School in 1927." Bell now works as custodian for the Washington School District.

Aloia reported that in earlier years most local residents were employed at nearby glass works or steel mills. "Today, there are a lot of retirees, but we have new, younger families moving in as well," he stated. "It's like a bedroom community anymore," Bell interjected, "pretty quiet."

Located next door to the Pancake Amoco Service Station is another community landmark that served travelers in earlier days. A postcard dated 1904 shows a large brick building just off a dirt road. A line underneath describes it as Martin's Inn on the Cumberland Road.

Today, the two-story building stands as a historic showpiece. The antiquated building was purchased in 1983 by E. Richard Nichol for the purpose of establishing a funeral home for his son and partner, J. Richard Nichol. "We have a funeral home in Marianna, and we wanted to branch out here," E. Richard Nichol offered. He noted that the building was a rental duplex at the time the family purchased it from Emma Wade, a local land owner who lived in a fashionable house across the highway.

With professional guidance, the Nichols completely refurbished the structure and, in so doing, incorporated a tiny tenant house that was located on the inn's west side. An old wooden porch that spanned the front of the building was closed in, and a chapel area was added to the rear of the building. Inside, the conversion included removing dropped ceilings and replastering the original ones, expanding existing archways and painting and plastering walls. The exterior is painted Williamsburg blue and adds to the historic appearance of the Nichol Funeral Home that opened in 1985.

Carol Nichol, wife, mother and board member of the family-run business, added her personal touch in tastefully furnishing the interior. She noted that most of the furnishings came from southwestern Pennsylvania as did the oak, poplar and pine found abundant in the structure's beams and woodwork.

"When this was an inn," Carol Nichol stated, "it had 12 rooms upstairs and a tavern on the main floor. We were told Martin's Inn, built by Jonathan Martin in 1825, was the poorer inn frequented by the common people while the richer ones traveled on eastward to the more stately Hill's Tavern (now Century Inn) in Scenery Hill. But it's rumored Martin's did have one distinguished guest, Andrew Jackson, our seventh president."

E. Richard Nichol said he found Pancake to be a quiet place, "but you won't see a lot of people out walking along main street, simply because there aren't any sidewalks."

Gaylord Plants and his wife, Joan, reside in a modest home on Vance Station Road, near the KOA Campground on the outskirts of Pancake. But years back, the couple called the old Martin's Inn home. "I first lived there with my mother and father, Paul and Dorothy Plants," Gaylord Plants said. "I can remember there was a long hallway when you came in and two rooms on one side (of the duplex) and two rooms on the other side and then the same upstairs. Another thing that stands out in my mind is there was a fireplace in every room."

He went on to note that he lived there with his parents for a number of years until entering the Army in 1952. After discharge from the military, he and his bride moved into a small house behind the duplex and later moved to Washington, Pa. Then several years later it was "back home" for Gaylord Plants as the couple moved into the duplex apartment, opposite his parents. He and his wife resided in the duplex from 1969 to 1983 when it was purchased by the Nichol family.

Joan Plants said her mother-in-law told her that when she moved into the duplex, it was very bare and she could see where the bar stools were nailed to the floor in the tavern area. "I guess they didn't want their customers tipping over," Gaylord Plants offered with a laugh. He added that there was also an old barn in the back, where buggies could be stored, and a huge, old slaughter house that burned down in the 1960s.

"It was great to sit on the front porch and watch the traffic go by," said Gaylord Plants. He said the Pancake Inn used to be a busy place in earlier years. "Everybody from Pancake would walk up there simply because there were few cars then. Some would play card games to pass the time, and the place was known for its barbecue sandwiches - ham and beef."

He said in earlier years the building was the site of a school for the neighborhood children. Later, children attended Laboratory Elementary School, a red brick, one-story building constructed in 1927 just several blocks away. The school has since closed, and now students attend schools in the Trinity School District. The old elementary school building is now a special-education center for exceptional students and operated by Intermediate Unit I.

The Laboratory Presbyterian Church, located at the corner of Manse Street and Vance Station Road, dates back to 1913 and has played a prominent role in the community for nearly a century.

Church records show that the ministry of God's word was carried out on Pancake Hill as early as 1836. The report states, "In this year the area's first church came into being, at the intersection of Waynesburg Road (now Route 19) and the National Pike, and resided here for 30 years. This congregation went on to become the First Christian Church of Washington, now on Route 136."

A few years later, a Sunday school was formed. Participants gathered in the building that later housed the Pancake Inn. Growing attendance, the offer of a parcel of land on which to build a church and a significant contribution rooted the church in the community. At a meeting of the Presbytery in 1913, the recommendations of a church committee were adopted, and the life of Laboratory Presbyterian Church was begun.

Even before the new church building was complete, however, the ministry of the church had started. The first communion service was held on April 6, 1914. Even with only half of a building, the people of the community joined together in worship. The Rev. David A. Stammerjohn said the church still serves much of the religious as well as the social needs of the community today. Stammerjohn is in his 16th year as pastor of the local church; he previously served the First Presbyterian Church of Masontown and Palmer Community Church in Adah, both in Fayette County.

He described Laboratory Presbyterian as "a church that has a great interest and passion for the youth of the community, so we've had education Bible school opportunities and strong youth groups." Stammerjohn noted that the church has been a pillar in the community in more ways than one. "A Men's Group, historically, has been a very strong group within the church," he said, noting that men who served during World War II redirected their commitment from country to community.

The group is credited with accomplishing a number of improvement projects as well as constructing a monument along the old National Road to local World War II veterans.

Stammerjohn, who has a wife and two children, said Pancake has been a good community to live in. "I've really enjoyed it. It is the kind of community where people watch out their windows and report on anything out of the ordinary." He pegged Pancake as a caring community - a watchdog community.

The pastor reported church membership is holding steady, with a roll of about 240. According to a population study done by Washington Presbytery several years ago, it's estimated that there are 293 households in the community and a population of about 715.

"I do know this is a community with a lot of young children." He added, "This is a real strong, fresh community and I have always been impressed that the new people who moved here came for the same reasons that the old-timers came - that being the watchdog neighborhood lifestyle."

Laboratory Presbyterian, highlighted by a diamond-shaped sanctuary, was enlarged in 1960 to accommodate the growing membership and community needs. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts now meet at the church, and Stammerjohn said he believed the Cub Scouts group has about 40 members. "Now that's impressive for a community of this size," he stated.

One of Pancake's oldest residents is Eula Hirst who has lost little of the vim and vigor she exuded in earlier life. "It's no disgrace to be 93 years old, but it's awful unhandy," she said, seated at the kitchen table of the two-story structure she's called home for more than six decades. "We moved into this house at 32 High St. in 1937, but it wasn't High Street back then, it was just Washington RD (rural delivery) or something."

She shared the home with her husband, George, who worked at Fort Pitt Bridge Works in Canonsburg and later was employed as a police officer by South Strabane Township for 25 years. According to Hirst, her husband, who died in 1983, was the first police officer to be hired by the township. The couple has two children; a daughter lives across the street, and a son resides in Ohio. "I have four granddaughters, and <#201> don't ask how many great-grandchildren. I can't keep track of them," she offered with a chuckle.

When her daughter, Alice Tursi, moved in across the street, Hirst said she recalls telling her, "That's fine, but just remember you're going to live on that side of the road, and I'm going to live on this side. Now, I'm not going to interfere with your business, and I don't want you interfering in mine." She admitted though that she appreciates having her daughter and a granddaughter, who resides in another house nearby, living close in times of need.

Hirst said she never had a "real job," but did a "heck of a lot around the house. In fact," she said, "I built this kitchen we're sitting in.

"My husband said he was going to get a new car, and since they were rationed back then, he was going to the factory when it was ready and drive it home. I told him if we're going to put that much money in a new car, you're not going to bring it home and not have a garage to keep it in."

She noted that at the time the bridge works was shut down and he was working for B.F. Goodrich as a salesman, going around to different garages selling tires. "He said we can't afford to build a garage, and I told him you're not buying a new car unless we build a garage. When he went to work that day, I started planning."

Glancing around the now spacious kitchen, Hirst said there was something else that upset her at the time. "This room doubled as a sun room and kitchen. I was born and raised on a farm, and you know those old farm houses, the size of kitchens they had, and I was the youngest of 15 children. In the old kitchen here you couldn't turn around - if you walked in, you had to back out."

With paper, pencil and measuring rule, the determined housewife figured her needs and the cost. "There was a fellow who came around here twice a week with a truck selling fresh meat and he also had a lumber mill on the farm where he lived. He gave me a price on rough cut two-by-fours and two-by-sixes, and I priced terra cotta blocks for the foundation with a local company. They just started to make cinder block, but I didn't want to mix those with the old foundation. When George came home that night I told him how much the lumber and block were going to cost, and he said, 'I don't think we can afford to have it done.' I said. we're not going to have it done, we going to do it ourselves. George said he didn't know anything about building, and I told him I didn't know much either, but I'm going to learn."

Hirst said she had a brother-in-law who was in the contracting business and "he offered to give me some pointers." An out-of-work neighbor added some physical labor, but Hirst said she helped to dig the foundation, put up the framework and nailed the rock lath into place.

After several weeks, George Hirst received notification that his four-door Nash was ready to be picked up at a Wisconsin factory. When he drove it home, he pulled it into the new garage underneath the family's seven-room home. Not certain of the year, Hirst figured it to be around 1940.

As for the kitchen area, she did away with the sun room and opened the area to accommodate a larger kitchen. Glancing out her kitchen window, she said "that's the National Pike down there. I can remember the horse and buggy days. I think that road made Pancake though. "

At age 51, Rick Morris offers a younger slant on growing up in Pancake.

"Everybody was like brothers - the guys who hung around together."

The 1970 Trinity High School graduate who is currently employed as a project engineer for CBP Engineering of Washington, Pa., was more or less Pancake's Music Man. He started his musical venture by singing in the children's choir of Laboratory Presbyterian Church and ended up in a national spotlight, singing with the popular Pittsburgh-based rock 'n' roll group, Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners.

The aspiring musician got his first guitar at the age of 12 and, after a couple of lessons, formed his own neighborhood band. According to Morris, The Runaways was a rock group with a Beetles sound and entertained at the Pancake midget league football banquet as well as private parties.

Morris, a guitarist, played "in and out of bands" in high school. At age 21, he put together another band, Shades of Time, which he described as "a Las Vegas-style show group. We put on tuxedos and played in lounges and such in the area."

The Shades of Time broke up in 1980, and soon after Morris got a call from Joe Rock, the manager of Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners. It was just prior to this that Morris put down his guitar and turned to singing.

The Pittsburgh-based group scored nationwide with such hits as "Since I Don't Have You," "Pennies From Heaven" and "This I Swear." Morris traveled with the group for 14 years and noted, "I have to admit, I was a better singer than guitar player."

Morris and The Skyliners with their "unmistakable sound" traveled all over the United States. Performances took them to Madison Square Garden and the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, sharing the stage with such rock groups as Little Anthony and the Imperials and the Brooklyn Bridge, "really tons of groups and people."

Morris lists The Temptations as his favorite group, and added that the Skyliners also toured as the opening act for the Manhattan Transfer. He admitted that the life of an entertainer started to wear on him, so he went back to school and got a bachelor's degree in engineering. In 1992, he landed a job with CBP Engineering. However, a tragic incident landed him back onstage for an encore appearance. "I went back with the Skyliners for the 40th anniversary Roots of Rock 'n' Roll show at the Benedum. The guy who replaced me was killed in an auto accident, and I went back for seven months until they found a replacement around 1999," said Morris.

That, according to him, was his last hurrah. "Professionally, I have no regrets. I tried, and now can never look back and say, 'What if?'"

Morris and his wife, Diana, are in the process of remodeling the home of his late parents, Dutch and Ruth Morris, on Streator Avenue, "one of the oldest houses on top of the hill." As for his growing years in Pancake, Morris stated, "I could write a book about it. I still have thoughts of getting together under the streetlight at the corner of Streator (Street) and Naser (Avenue). We had many a crazy night."

Over the years, Billy Bell has become known "as the man around town" in Pancake. Bell, who recently turned 80, is as active today as he was decades ago. A son of Sarah and Thomas Jefferson Bell, he's proud to declare himself a lifelong resident of Pancake. He attended Laboratory Elementary School and graduated in 1942 from Trinity High School. After a stint in the Army, he returned home and landed a job at Jessop Steel. He and his wife, Honey Bell, are the parents of two children.

Having served 36 years as a Republican supervisor of the five-member South Strabane Township board attests to his popularity. Seated at a table in the South Strabane Township No. 1 Volunteer Fire Department, Bell is joined by Gaylord Plants and Dock Crawford for an afternoon "coffee break."

Bell said he helped organize the fire department in 1956 and today serves as a trustee. The original fire hall is located along Route 40 in Pancake. Later additions include a five-bay garage and social hall, constructed in a rear parking area. Scott Reese is chief of the volunteer department.

South Strabane Township has four full-time paid firemen, working out of the No. 1 department on East Maiden Street and the No. 2 department on Oak Spring Road.

In appreciation of Bell's dedication to the township, the board of supervisors in turn named a recreational park in his honor. Billy Bell Recreational Park, situated on 6 1/2 acres of land, is located behind the old Laboratory School. The park features pavilions, basketball courts, ball fields, and a 1/4-mile walking trail that Bell said is busy year-round.

"I've lived here 72 years and love it," Crawford offered. "I live on the far end of town, and I can go out on my porch and watch the deer and wild turkeys. It's just real serene, I love it."

Plants interjected, "I'm the same as Dock and Bill, I would never give up being a Pancaker even though you can't buy an order of pancakes here."