Darren's Virtual Brownsville, PA tour

Made this video for a friend out in east PA to showcase downtown Brownsville, PA's abandoned-ness.

[@outerbankstech]

I began to add old videos of Brownsville Pa on my youtube channel. just search for outerbankstech and that is my channel. Enjoy.

[@evanpeffer]

actually, in my opinion, its west brownsville that is a wreck... i'm in 9th grade, and i live on water street. in the 4 months since this video, there's been a lot of changes. there's a new cafe, the park site is getting better everyday, and, although downtown is not as great as it used to be, water street, hiller, and luzerne are still awesome

[@johnathanlewis7059]

Brownsville was on s pace to outgrow Pittsburgh. It was the headquarters and shop for The Monongahela Railway. When the economy changed in the early 1970’s Brownsville began its decline. There’s a lot of history here in Fayette County. Maybe one day Brownsville will be be revitalized.

[@etwilli2]

I see some slow improvement. I enjoy their new Pickers Pub n grub

[@darrenlandis3510]

Seems like yesterday when I was there.

[@susansparanormalpennsylvan81]

back around 2015ish i drove thru the river towns in winter so we could see the views, building better without tree leaves blocking our view,, to show my husband, we couldnt believe how beautiful some of the places were, if President RONALD REAGAN HAD NOT LET FOREIGN STEEL INTO OUR COUNTY, the decline might not have been has dramatic and bad or it would have been delayed a few years, until a new president allowed foreign steel in, out sourcing over seas, really screwed our country up, no more steady union labor job paying good money for people who did not go to college, i bet some of those jobs use to pay more than people who went to college for 4 yrs

[@susansparanormalpennsylvan81]

i moved from calif to pa in 2012, i had to fly out from san francisco 3x over the course of a year to find a house to buy, the first time with my friend cora and my brother in winter and we were more tourists, only looked at 6 houses. So 2 months later i flew out at the end of april/may and stayed for 2 weeks, then again for 2 weeks in August, i drove to brownsville, pa, it was sad to see the rust belts river towns in decay. I remember hearing about the taylor lautner movie at the fiddle diner. I drove all the way down the river thru all the towns one day, then took the freeway back thru washington, pa to moon township, i was staying in a hotel there. I was working with multiple real estate agents, but of course there were some days i was finished early and drove all over the greater pittsburgh area. I ended up buying a house in rochester, near beaver/monaca, i found a house for $25,000 in move in condition, just needed some new flooring, but everything else was worked and in good condition ( this was during the recession of 2008 - 2014 ) Back then during the recession there were houses and foreclosures selling for 15,000 for a fixer upper to 40,000 for something really nice all up and down the small river towns

[@guitarlosindy]

My folks are from Blainesburg and Braznell. I remember walking from Braznell to Fiddles as a kid in the 70's. I think there were a couple of stores open on Market ST and it sure looked a lot different back then. My Dad says that he used to eat at Fiddles and while dating my Mother, they would frequent the confectionery. Have you ever been to the "slate dump" by Braznell? Us kids used to go there to play as well, right by the sulfur crick, Redstone Creek. We'd come back all orange from playing in the crick. I know that the road to Braznell, down Coal Hill still has the remnants of a mine at the bottom of the hill and also several Coke Ovens that are in huge disrepair. Thanks for this video, sure brings back tons of memories!

[@kennyjj7734]

i have been to fiddles and back to the slate dump and the long abandoned bridge and coke ovens

[@kkkkkkatherine]

Great video, Evan ! maybe you could do a video of Brownsville's Nemacolin / Bowers Castle in Brownsville as well . . . even if just the outdoor aspects of the building/ grounds?

[@CompletelyDisinterested]

That looks like something out of central Havana. Man what a shame they can't rehabilitate and save all those buildings.

[@etwilli2]

If you knew the history of Brownsville, its sad....in a nut shell.. Former booming coal/rr town.... they thought it'd be bigger then Pittsburgh.. Tell floundered, the RR and coal interests followed, hew malls built, town left alone... a few decades ago, one investor bought up a lot of the buildings hoping for a river boat gambling in the state of Pa. It never happened, he let the buildings fall into disrepair. County owns a lot of them now, but we've been in a bunch of them. They'd take a lot of cash to bring up to date.

[@patsomers187]

Evan Williams II Great video. I retired from Norfolk Southern in March of 2015. I worked in & around Brownsville frequently during my 39 years on the railroad, so Brownsville has a special place in my heart. By the way, Fiddles Confectionary serves a very good breakfast, so stop in sometime.

[@dirkevans1]

Sad commentary is on our recent trip to Brownsville nothing has improved. I never knew the town in it's prosperous times. My husband was there in his early years until about age 8 years. His mother worked in a department store of some sort downtown in the 50's. His father met her there. I have been told there were hardware stores, a shoe store, confectionary, restaurants, numerous Churches and banks. My husband's father worked at Hillman Barge pumping water out of barges on nightshift most of his life, until he fell on an icy surface and broke his ankle/leg. He was older when this happened. Tried to return to work after he had healed, but he was not able to do the walking and all required because he had not healed well. He lived in his home on the street facing the river near the barge company until his health required he could not live alone any longer. The house is still there and lived in. We drive by nearly every time we go out there to the cemetery to the graves of Steve and Lois Koval. Steve attended an Orthodox Church in his early years, but later did not. Lois went to the United Methodist Church, which is a couple of blocks from their house. My husband recalls walking there.

[@CompletelyDisinterested]

Do you guys have a FB page as well?

[@etwilli2]

yes... and a blog. go here swpare.blogspot.com from there it will link you to the Facebook page. lots of photo albums there. however we have been lax on updating it recently

[@CompletelyDisinterested]

Cool! I see the bridge from Silence of the Lambs. My buddy Ted Levine played the bad guy in that. Seems like yesterday his brother Mick was excitedly telling us about the big part Ted landed. I can't believe it was over 25 years ago........

[@CompletelyDisinterested]

Evan Williams II give my page a glance. I'd love to feature some of your content on there. I have your Treasure Island videos on there. I have both a page and group of the same name. facebook.com/groups/253521118347394/

[@etwilli2]

Bag O Culture will do....oh, speaking of treasure island, I bought a postcard on eBay of the Bilmar and Thunderbird.....must be from early 70s

[@CompletelyDisinterested]

Evan Williams II That's cool! I'd love to see those. I have several from The Sands including the original before they added the second floor. But my prized possessions are the postcards from The Fargo and The Buccaneer.

[@yourgirlmaddie_xx1136]

I love here

[@chichi41]

I heard that the downtown portion of West Brownsville is owned in large part by the despicable Stuart Williams who is also the owner of The Washington Wild Things baseball team. He was supposedly going to revitalize the area. Nothing seems to have come of that idea. I've been there about a million times because I like to watch the railroad activity in the area. Actually the place is deader than dead and I can't understand why anybody would actually invest even a dime in it's rehabilitation. The only thing I ever saw of interest there was the small museum that you mentioned in the video. Thew folks there were friendly and helpful but definitely living in the very distant past. Anyway, I did enjoy this video and never once did I experience any vertigo LOL!

[@etwilli2]

Well thanks for the view and not saying I got ya sick too....it wasn't that bad. Yea, I go there a lot to look at trains/barge activity, and it does make me sad as well. The guy who bought it banked on the riverboat gambling industry to be his cash cow, but that never happened and the town quickly fell apart. They are great at the museum, and there are some nice things to see there, but like you said, they believe the town can come back.....there is recent activity downtown w/ a few buildings, but more seem to come down.

[@kidzaresosmall]

haha, it's west brownsville that's nice. the side of the river you're on is dead, dead, dead. i have such a love/hate relationship with b-ville.

[@hattiem.7966]

I hope to drive thru this town the next time I drive thru PA.

[@patfitz6631]

I like the video except for BIG mistake at 6:55. You referred to the Church across the river in West Brownsville as "Roman Catholic Church seen in Maria's Lovers." Please! That is Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church. The characters in the movie were supposed to be Serbian Orthodox and the director Andrei Konchalovsky is Russian. Please do not insult any Eastern Orthodox Church or their parishioners by labeling them as Roman Catholic.

[@etwilli2]

PAT FITZ relax. I never meant to insult anyone, just a simple mistake. However, you seem to be insulting Roman Catholics by not wanting to be compared with them

[@MrMattyB16]

@ 5:38 I spoke with the people in that museum about a month after you shot this vid and they were soooo helpful with my genealogy trip there. They had a lot of great advice and taught me quite about about Brownsville and West Brownsville history

[@DMellosoul]

I just met a real Sweet lady that Lives there...Hott!!

[@michaelbennett336]

You made this for me too bud I miss it so much I lived in labelle by the maxwell locks off the river I drive threw it every time go see my dad and grandma thanks man its beautiful there I wouldn't trade any of it for the world child hood memories brings tears to my eyes I'm

[@etwilli2]

Nice

[@dess_xxoox]

my aunt lives there