Parkesburg embraces small-town history while progressing

Rocco Pirozzi, an Italian immigrant, began with a hoagie shop, then bought the building next door in the mid-1990s and converted it into Rocco & Anna's Ristorante Italiano.

On Main Street in Parkesburg, Pirozzi's restaurant is a thriving bright spot. Many neighboring buildings, some dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, are faded and tattered. Traces of their former grandeur render them only more forlorn. Several storefronts are vacant.

It's an old, sad story told many times in small towns across the land, but the citizens of Parkesburg, in western Chester County, refused to surrender to stagnation and decay. Rather, they sought to harness progress, not defy it.

"People thought I was crazy to put all my money here," says Pirozzi, 66. "But I like being in a small town, and now we are moving up."

Residents and officials of this former railroad and industrial hamlet say they cherish the small-town atmosphere and rural setting. Even though the borough of 3,700 is hardly exempt from modern problems, they are sanguine about its future. Indeed, new businesses are taking root, and were it not for the recession, Parkesburg would likely be in the throes of a building boom.

"There's a lot of positive energy, a confidence that we can resurrect a sense of enriched town living," says Mayor John Hagan.

Parkesburg, just east of Lancaster County, is in some ways "caught in a time warp between the Main Line and the city of Lancaster," as Jim Thomas, the borough manager, puts it. It's insulated by Amish farms from the encroaching commercialism of Route 30, and the air is sometimes fragrant with the scent of freshly tilled earth and manure.

In the mid-1800s, Parkesburg was the site of railroad shops. After the long, uphill haul from Philadelphia, locomotives would stop to replenish their tenders with water and fuel, including cords of wood harvested from local hillsides.

Today, the town's defining feature is the east-west rail line that bisects the borough. Formerly the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the tracks carry Amtrak trains, which stop there several times a day.

By car, it's only 45 minutes from King of Prussia, as well as the Chesapeake Bay.

"We're nestled in a nice little area," says Council President David Jones, a health-care consultant whose grandfather was mayor for 24 years. "My wife and I are bicyclists. We can ride out our driveway to the end of street, turn left, and head out into open country, with covered bridges and horses and buggies."

The railroad-riven town calls to mind a model-train layout, a 1.9-square-mile microcosm that includes a variety of retail businesses and housing; the borough even encompasses a working farm.

Wanda Eller, 53, who was sweeping the walkway outside her apartment on First Avenue last week, moved to Parkesburg in December from the outskirts of Coatesville because Parkesburg's small-town character reminded her of growing up in West Chester. Her motorcycle, parked out front, has never been molested, she said.

But a few doors down, Erin Tatum, 22, was not quite so positive about Parkesburg. Her neighbors are friendly, and she likes taking her son to Minch Park, she said, but a coarser element has moved into town, and drugs are a problem.

Indeed, the peace of the borough was shattered last month when two men were shot and wounded outside the Parkesburg Arms Hotel. The last time someone was shot in Parkesburg was more than 10 years ago, said Police Chief Brian Sheller. The victims were targeted, suspects have been identified, and arrest warrants are pending, he said.

"Parkesburg is not immune to the drug problem in society," the chief said.

Indeed, though comfortably isolated, Parkesburg is no Brigadoon, and its history has reflected happenings beyond its pastoral borders. The town's heyday was the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Parkesburg Iron Co. was thriving. The company specialized in making steam pipes and boiler tubes, used by virtually every railroad in the country. At one point, the company employed 900 people and had its own police force.

Horace Beale Jr., president of the iron works and son of the founder, was a colorful sportsman who raced cars, experimented with radio, built an airport that hosted barnstormers, and fielded semipro basketball and baseball teams.

Parkesburg boasted an opera house and movie theater and was served by a trolley line, but when the iron company closed in 1926, the Depression hit the town hard. Eventually, many residents found work at the Lukens steel mill in Coatesville, and Parkesburg became a blue-collar bedroom community. The wages at Lukens were ample, and during the 1950s the borough's business district was healthy.

Parkesburg did not escape the social unrest and turmoil of the '60s. In 1969, racial skirmishes erupted, culminating in a shootout between a motorcycle gang from outside town and black residents. The event was more telling about the temper of the times than the character of Parkesburg, where residents today feel comfortable walking the streets after dark.

In 2002, the borough's struggling commercial district was dealt a blow with the opening of West Sadsbury Commons, a sprawling shopping center a few miles away, featuring a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Home Depot. Shortly thereafter, the town's only grocery store, an Acme, shut down, as did its two surviving hardware stores.

But the wound seemed to spur regeneration. The most obvious symbol: the new $3 million government-services center on First Avenue. The renovated buildings contain a police station, a district court powered by solar panels, and a meeting hall created from the Parkesburg Iron boiler room.

Rising across the street is a four-story apartment building for low- to moderate-income senior citizens. The 72-unit building is to open in October.

In addition, 960 new housing units have been approved or proposed for the borough.

The developments would not be "isolated suburban enclaves sprawling off into some farm field," Councilman Tom Curtin says. Instead, they would be close enough so residents could walk to the train station or barbershop.

The mayor and Borough Council, a combination of relative newcomers and old-timers, have worked harmoniously to advance Parkesburg's interests.

"It's a do-something council," says Gerry Treadway, a longtime resident and amateur town historian. "You won't find buttin' heads in Parkesburg."

An example of the borough's capacity for reinvention: a new open-air produce market, set to debut Saturday.

An abiding challenge is keeping old businesses alive and selling Parkesburg to new businesses. "You don't have to travel to Downingtown or West Chester to get the products and services you need," says Eric Jameson, president of the Parkesburg Area Business Association.

A Mexican restaurant and an art-and-antiques shop recently opened on Main Street, and a Chinese eatery is about to take Acme's spot.

When Thomas, the borough manager, envisions the future, he goes so far as to use the M word.

"We want to make this the Manayunk of western Chester County," he says. "I would love to see restaurants with tables on the sidewalk, where you can sit outdoors and dine. I hope we get built up to where we can do that."

Population (estimated): 3,700.

Municipal budget: $3.1 million.

Median house value (2006): $160,000.

Median household income (2007): $57,219.

Police force: 10 full-time officers.

Developed proportion of the borough (2000): 67 percent.

Oldest structure: Fountain Inn (circa 1734).

Influential citizens: John Parke, after whom the town is named, and Horace Beale Sr. and Jr., managers of the Parkesburg Iron Co., which provided most of the world's steam tubes for railroad and industrial uses in the 20th century.

Claim to fame: The railroad shops in Parkesburg pioneered standardization, the basis for mass production.

Pop-culture trivia: The Parkesburg train station was used for a scene in the 1985 movie Witness.

EndText