SIA Fall Tour 2006 - Early Bird Tour

Wednesday, September 27 and Thursday, September 28 -

Early Bird Tour - Erie, PA

Accommodations: Avalon Hotel – 16 West 10th Street, Erie, PA 16501. The tour fee includes: one night double-occupancy at the Avalon – please indicate roommate preference on registration form; all admission fees, snacks, dinner Wednesday, and lunch Thursday. A shuttle on Wednesday from the Pittsburgh airport to the Erie hotel, and from Erie to Youngstown, is available for an additional fee – please select this option, if desired, on the registration form.

Wednesday – Shuttle departs Pittsburgh airport at noon for Erie. After checking in - all SIA members will meet in the lobby at 2:30 p.m. We will visit McCormick Structural (formerly Bucyrus-Erie) followed by a stop at the GE Transportation Rail History Museum. There are possible stops at Erie Forge & Steel, Erie Malleable Iron, and Riley Power. The group will convene for an SIA reception at the Erie Book Store located in the Lovell Manufacturing building. Kathleen Cantrell, the proprietor, will briefly discuss the adaptive reuse of this once-threatened building. The new Director of the Erie County Historical Society, British-born Tom Beardsley, will comment on preservation efforts for industrial structures. Dinner will be served in Matthews Trattoria & Martini Bar, located in the same building.

McCormick Structural

U.S. Brig Niagara

Thursday – We will start the day at the Erie Maritime Museum & U.S. Brig Niagara. Located in a former powerhouse on Presque Isle Bay you will see the original steam turbine and 50-ton crane. Our next stop will be at the Erie Water Authority, where Aaron Stankiewiz will guide us through two 1912 structures: the filtration plant and pump house (featuring the original “Big Bertha” Bethlehem steam pump.) We will lunch at the Pufferbelly Restaurant, a 1903 firehouse with a bare brick interior and firefighting equipment. Next, we will travel a short distance to Griswold Plaza with its still operational historic post office and rail station. We will tour Union station including the lobby, platforms and underground pedestrian tunnel. From Griswold, the bus will travel to Youngstown arriving at the conference hotel at approximately 5 p.m.