Olan West is remembered by many as the guy who lived next door to W. A. Young & Sons Foundry & Machine Shop in Rices Landing. He was a retired coal miner who loved tinkering with old machines and he was willing to keep an eye on the shop and its historic contents, years before Greene County Historical Society mustered the funds to purchase it in 1985. Here he is in an undated photo from foundry archives, perhaps conducting an impromptu tour with whoever called him up and asked for one.
Longtime volunteer Bly Blystone remembers those early years after the museum bought the property and Olan had the key. If Olan was home, a tour would be in order. Otherwise the machine shop and foundry was closed to the public, until the yearly Hammer In every third Saturday in April. That’s when a brigade of blacksmiths trouped in, fired up the forge and demonstrated to wide-eyed visitors a craft that’s about as old as civilization itself.
When members of the Appalachian Blacksmith Association (ABA) discovered this shop that once made everything from brass fittings to mouse traps they fell in love. The machine shop was still intact and the forge in the foundry stood waiting to be fired up. And Olan West was the guy who opened the door with a smile.
ABA member Boyd Holtan of Core, WV heard about the foundry in the early 1980s from “someone whose wife had a gift shop in Morgantown. We were all surprised how amazing the place was.”
The woman in question was Karen Maset of Waynesburg and the man was her husband Dave, who along with the late George Kelly of Point Auto, Waynesburg and the late John Bryan of Bryans Dairy, spent years of spare time hanging out with Olan, getting those machines in working order.
“The whole shop was powered by a five phase electric motor and the electric company wouldn’t put service back in so we got a gas powered aircraft towing motor from someone in Rices Landing and converted it to run everything. It’s still there,” Dave told me when I called. “Someone had rewired the place with modern wire and it didn’t look authentic so we replaced it with original steel cable.”
Everyone involved was worried about the building, from its crumbling foundation and rotting beams to the leaks in the roof. But how to draw attention to this industrial gem of the past with its beautiful view of the river and riverboats pushing barges of coal to Pittsburgh as they have since the 1800s? The Pittsburgh Area Blacksmith Association (PABA) joined forces with ABA in 1988 to help host the first annual Hammer In and the fires of enthusiasm were lit.
The public loved watching hot metal take shape and a growing number of foundry volunteers kept busy throughout the year doing what they could to shore up the building with what money was available. The Hammer In was making the outside world aware of this historic artifact. Newspaper coverage of the yearly Hammer In was consistent and those who attended become cheerleaders for the event, bringing their kids, who in time would bring kids of their own.
When Olan West died on March 15, 1996 at age 67, it was the end of an era, as volunteers scrambled to fill his shoes. The April PABA newsletter that year paid him homage.
“Olan always had the coffee started and was at the door as a perfect host. He gave many of us our first tour of the great machine shop along the banks of the Monongahela River. I don’t think the machine shop would have lasted in the good shape it has without Olan. He will be greatly missed.”
The newsletter also noted that without Olan as a caretaker there had been talk of canceling the upcoming Hammer In on April 23 but volunteers saved the day. George Kelly kicked off the event with a group of new recruits. PABA member Mike Lubich of Rices Landing helped out at the forge and Historic Society president David Lesako put out a plea for more volunteers and more ideas for fundraising. The Historical Society let visitors know that donations were desperately needed for repairs and restoration.
Happily that ninth annual Hammer In of 1996 also marked the year Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area was created by an act of Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Rivers of Steel, a citizens group that organized in 1988 to preserve the region’s industrial river past, was the driving force behind the historic designation that would save sites like the Boat Building in Homestead, Carrie Blast Furnaces and soon, William Young’s machine shop.
That November, Observer-Reporter Christine Campbell wrote “Efforts are underway to match a $37,500 Steel Heritage grant for the W.A. Young Foundry and Machine Shop.” The Greene County Commissioners had signed a proclamation declaring the week of June 17-23 “Friends of the Foundry Week” and the public was taking note.
Campbell reported that “the foundry was been placed on the National Registry of Historic Places and that the grant “must be matched by Dec. 31, 1997.”
The next chapter was about to be written as Friends of the Foundry took the challenge and would soon welcome the support that Rivers of Steel had to offer.
The W. A. Young & Sons Foundry & Machine Shop is alive and well today thanks to countless volunteers who did their part, including Olan West, who loved to tinker with the old machines he found next door – and stayed to keep an eye on things.