kimerajamm
Joined: 28 Nov 2010
Posts: 785
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 Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:31 am Post subject: Downtown Erie |
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The General Assembly of Pennsylvania commissioned the surveying of land near Presque Isle through an act passed on April 18, 1795. Andrew Ellicott, who completed Pierre Charles L'Enfant's survey of Washington, D.C. and helped resolve the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, arrived to begin the survey in June 1795. Initial settlement of the area began that year.[5][6] Colonel Seth Reed and his family moved to the Erie area from Geneva, New York and became the first European settlers of Erie.
To wrest control of Lake Erie from the British during the War of 1812, President James Madison ordered the construction of a naval fleet at Erie. Noted shipbuilders Daniel Dobbins of Erie and Noah Brown of New York led construction of four schooner–rigged gunboats and two brigs. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry arrived from Rhode Island and led the squadron to success in the historic Battle of Lake Erie.[7]
State and 9th Streets in downtown Erie during the early 1920s
Erie was an important railroad hub in the mid-19th century, the city was the site where three sets of track gauges met. While the delays required to unload and load passengers and cargo were a problem for commerce and travel, they provided much needed local jobs in Erie. When a national standardized gauge was proposed, those jobs, and the importance of the rail hub itself, were put in jeopardy. The citizens of Erie, led by the mayor, set fire to bridges, ripped up track and rioted to attempt to stop the standardization in an event known as the Erie Gauge War.[8]
On August 3, 1915, the Mill Creek flooded downtown Erie when a culvert, blocked by debris, gave out.[9] A four block reservoir, caused by torrential downpours, had formed behind it. The resulting deluge destroyed 225 houses and killed 36 people.[9] After the flood, Mayor Miles B. Kitts had the Mill Creek diverted to a 22 by 19 feet (6.7 × 5.8 m), concrete tube that travels for over 2 miles (3.2 km) under the city, before emptying into to Presque Isle Bay.
Erie's importance gradually faded during the second half of 20th Century as the age of lake trade, commercial fishing, and American manufacturing dominance drew to a close.[10] Downtown Erie continued to grow for most of the 20th century, before taking a major population downturn in the 1970s.[10] With the advent of the automobile age, thousands of residents left Erie for suburbs such as Millcreek Township, which now has over 50,000 people.[10]
Erie has won the All-America City Award only once, in 1972, and was a finalist in 1961, 1994, 1995 and 2009.[11][12]
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