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Mulhearn building on south Centre Street
This building was torn down in December 2017. It featured on the home page then, including these photos from Charlie Gallagher, myself, and the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society.
NOTE: 10-16-2022: Nine photos removed temporarily, will replace them in early 2023 (server space issues). - CT]
This is to remember the old Mulhearn building that was just torn down in December 2017. Charlie had emailed me these and other photos of the demolition as it progressed over a number of days, and reported that the land and building were purchased by MMI for the purpose of expanding their parking lot.
When I was in Freeland in March 2017 I photographed some buildings, including that one. I don't know what the original purpose of the building was, but here are six photos I took then that show some interesting features of the building.
When I heard that it was being torn down, I checked to see what was in my files about it. Not much, but I do have these mentions of that site/building and one just to the north of it as they were listed in early city directories and on maps in the days before Mulhearn's Plumbing and Heating:
239 Centre Street (old address 805 or 806 Centre)
1890s - it was an empty lot
1910s - Hay warehouse (1912 Sanborn map)
1920s - Charles Karnatski, grocery (1928-1929 directory)
229-231 Centre Street (old address 804 Centre)
1890s - it was an empty lot
1900s - Bottling works on the north side of the train tracks (1900 and 1905 Sanborn maps)
1910s - Bottling works (1912 Sanborn map)
1920s - Mrs. Hilda Boyle, gasoline, automobile accessories and supplies (1928-1929 directory)
Here are details from the 1912 and 1923 Sanborn maps. When I posted this page on New Year's Eve 2017, I was confused about which building shown on these maps was the building that was torn down! So now I see that it was the building right next to the tracks, 229-231 Centre street. Looking at the 3rd photo from the left of my 6 photos above and comparing it to the left photo of the two from Anthracite Railroads below makes it clear that they are the same building. I apologize for any confusion encountered by those who read this page before I made this correction! So apparently the Mulhearn building was a bottling works in its early life.
Charlie
Gallagher pointed me to these photos from
1912; they are part of the Joe Zogby collection of the Anthracite
Railroads Historical
Society (ARHS), used by permission.
Both were taken by someone standing on the railroad tracks, and Charlie
tells me that these photographs were made during accident
investigations.
The
one looking east shows the railroad depot at left and across the street
on Centre shows the building at 229-231 Centre, with a storefront
visible. The one looking west
shows the Freeland Overall Company left of the tracks with a train car
parked alongside to load or unload a shipment, while to the right of
the tracks in the foreground we see the building at 229-231 Centre, and
the railroad
depot across the street. Behind the brick building there is a small
wooden addition and behind that is a Farmer's Dairy horse-drawn wagon.
In 1912 this
building was listed as a bottling works; perhaps the Freeland Dairy
wagon was there to pick up some new milk bottles.