The Origin of the Carrick Overbrook Historical Society by Joe Krynock
This is my introduction and short history of the origins of The Carrick-Overbrook Historical Society
My first order of business was to be what I would title "The Hornaday Road Report.”
At a 2007 Hornaday Road Block Party John Rudiak and I, Joe Krynock, were discussing our street’s historical background. This is an annual neighborhood gathering where neighbors get together. Recently retired and with time on his hands, John mentioned that he was going to the Recorder of Deeds office to research deed information. Since I also wanted to explore my home’s past and to determine a build date, John and I decided to work together. I had researched deeds before but that seemed a very long time ago. As we talked more during the block party, other neighbors mentioned historic information about their homes, or rumored information of our Hornaday Road neighborhood. Even with these scattered tidbits of information not many knew specific details for sure. Since John had already been living here since 1976 when I moved into Carrick in 1982, I thought John knew more historic details about Hornaday Road than me.
"Not really" he said.
I told him that a Pittsburgh Councilman named Phillips was a friend of William T. Hornaday. In fact, when they were not hunting together, they promoted stuff like Boy Scouting, better zoos and conservation.
“Our Hornaday,” John asked “Who was he?”
I responded that William T. Hornaday was a conservationist writer but he was also a taxidermist and the director at the Bronx, New York zoo and that I found this out by accident. Years ago I bought a bargain priced book titled “Buck Fever” because it written by Mike Sajna, now deceased, an writer that I recognized. Mike Sajna's book was printed by the University of Pittsburgh Press and it was about deer hunting and the Pennsylvania Game Commission history. In that book there were the names of John M. Phillips and William T. Hornaday. We talked about that and I stated that I wanted to investigate that small bit of information, someday soon. John noted that I was retired so now was as good a time to start as ever.
The next day after our block party I found my copy of “Buck Fever” and re-read pages 68 to 78 to refresh my memory and sure enough the clues to our history where there. Then I then suggested to John that perhaps together we could collaborate on a Hornaday Road history project and we could do a story or report for our neighbors and friends before the next year’s block party in 2008.
With these few clues we started our search. John and I started at the Recorder of Deeds office downtown and we pulled dozens of dusty Deed books to track our own property records. We spent most of a day there when John found some very interesting information about J. B. Murray's housing plan laid out in December 1859 and made copies for later reference.
And then we found this map and its information was related to all of the homes and owners in the area which raised more questions for us.
A short time later we went to the Carrick Library and we asked if they had any local historical information there. Julianna Kuchta, librarian, showed us the file cabinets in one corner of the community room. Pleasantly surprised we found that Mr. Joe Spiecker, a local historian along with help from Mrs. Audrey Dawida, sorted and archived local history for close to twenty years. Joe and Audrey had assembled many binders of information, which we perused. Interestingly the information was not touched for a long time but John found a crumpled piece of paper, with something inside it. It was a Volunteer Fireman’s badge from when Carrick was a borough. We both felt that this item was not just rare but of great historic importance to the community, too important to just be lying in a file drawer easily lost. John immediately brought it to Julia’s attention asking if there was a secure storage location for it. As we looked at the collection of photos and articles, we found missing and misplaced as to page numbers. John commented that if all this stuff was scanned and digitized it would be easier to protect, store, document and collect. To give you an idea of what we found there were photostatic copies of old photos, some original photos, news articles and papers, loose papers all lying at the bottom of drawer; perhaps they fell out or ransacked or they just were never identified and mounted. Joe Speiker was contacted but he said he lost interest and was in ill health at the time, but asked us to take care of his collection.
A carpenter by trade computer work is not what I did for a living and I felt that my plan for a short historical letter to the neighbors had suddenly thrust me into much deeper waters than I had intended. John suggested that instead of making and saving copies of our findings which would have amounted to reams of paper that we digitize it all into a website for anyone to review, not just Hornaday residents, to explore in their own time and leisure. So it was John who took me into this new and uncharted internet territory with the website idea.
Together, with other community members, we formed the Carrick Overbrook Historical Society. Through this organization we also joined with what we call our parent group, South Pittsburgh History Group. We want to acknowledge particularly Mrs. Carol Anthony of Overbrook who is teaching us about historical collecting and is organizing our many files, Mrs. Julia Tomasic of Carrick who is helping with collecting, scanning and filing, our web designer expert Mr. Kevin Barsotti and our Carrick Librarian, Julianna Kuchta without whose assistance and watchful guidance we would not have any of the archives you see in this website. I want to thank everyone I didn't mention here and encourage all the Carrick Community members to visit the library and this web site and to donate historical items so that they are not lost.
