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Leonard Alwine of Altoona submitted this photo taken in the late 1960s in downtown Altoona of the Mid State Bank Central Office across from the Altoona Post Office. Today, the open market fruit stand under the Pepsi sign is a parking lot and the main bank building is now converted into high end rentals through the Brett Building. The next building now houses the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art and also has upper story apartments. The level parking lot shown across the street is now a multi-story parking garage and also houses the Amtrak train station and the Greyhound bus terminal. (Note the burglar alarm box at the corner of the building is still in place today.)
Readers are encouraged to send or deliver old local photographs of general interest for use in Yesteryear. Information about people and places should be included. Photos must be 30 years old or older and should be sent to Yesteryear, Altoona Mirror, P.O. Box 2008, Altoona, PA 16603, or emailed to community@altoonamirror.com. For more information, call Brenda Carberry, community news coordinator, at 814-946-7459.
Local news on this date
Aug. 1, 1951
The Pennsylvania Railroad in Altoona held a blood donor day for the American Red Cross with 122 pints collected with the four highest PRR management officials in Altoona leading the donors: Clair Clugh, Rex McKinney, James McNeal and J.L. Parker.
Aug. 1, 1976
Miss Pennsylvania Marie McLaughlin and Altoona Mayor William C. Stouffer cut the ribbon for a new A&P Supermarket in the Park Hills Plaza, which was across the highway from the Logan Valley Mall.
Aug. 1, 2001
The Butterick Fashion pattern plant established in Altoona in 1947, laid off 100 workers with 100 more to go soon. Another 50 or so had quit or retired. The plant had been sold to McCall Pattern Co. and some Altoona work transferred to Kansas. The new name was McCall's and Vogue Pattern Co.
Aug. 1, 2016
Kelly (Bolger) Harris, a graduate of the Spring Cove School District, the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center and the University of Cincinnati, spent the last three years in China helping to build a Walt Disney theme park in Shanghai.
Aug. 2, 1951
The 60-member Hormel Girls Orchestra and Chorus, comprised of female World War II veterans and sponsored by the Hormel Meat Co., were to perform at the Jaffa Mosque in Altoona. The show was to be broadcast on local radio with a local girl as special guest.
Walter Talun, a 7'2" Hollywood actor who had played the part of Goliath in the movie "David and Bathsheba," made an appearance in Altoona for the Community Chest Red Feather fundraising campaign. He appeared in costume at Centennial Field to visit the players in a Little League baseball game, and his photo appeared in the Mirror.
Aug. 2, 1976
Youth Power, Mike Cassidy director, a job referral service for area young adults at 1410 11th Ave., had found jobs for 310 young people in its first nine months of operation with 40 referrals to companies not affiliated with them. The ceramic artwork of Adam Leiden, a student at West Virginia University who also studied at Mount Aloysius College, Cresson, and Juniata College, Huntingdon, decorated the office.
The LIFE Center of the Altoona Area Public Library, Mary Zajac director, was offering five free two-hour classes on how parents should care for mentally challenged children like language, self-help, behavior, coordination and others.
Aug. 2, 2001
The Altoona Beauty School, established on Broad Avenue in 1956 by Virginia Stoudenour, and had since moved to several other locations, and was now owned by Linzi Biesinger, was moving to 1528 Pleasant Valley Blvd. The school graduated 50 to 60 students a year. Biesinger also evaluated schools across the nation for the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts & Sciences.
Altoona native James Loy, with 41 years of service in the U.S. Coast Guard, was named commander of the entire 35,000-member U.S. Coast Guard. Loy was in Altoona for a celebration at the Calvin House, hosted by the local Navy League, retired Navy Capt. Joe Gildea coordinating.
Aug. 2, 2016
Altoona Public Works director Nate Kissell announced that a firm called KLA Roofing and Construction of Everett began the three week job of putting a new roof on City Hall at a cost of $139,700. The job involved the removal of eight skylights and some masonry work.
The State Department of Environmental Resources was holding a hearing at the Blair County Convention Center on the proposed Sunoco Mariner East II Pipeline that was to cross parts of Blair, Cambria and Huntingdon counties carrying natural gas to outside Philadelphia.
National, world news on this date
Aug. 1
In 1936, Adolf Hitler presided over the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Berlin .
In 1957, the United States and Canada announced they had agreed to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
In 1971, The Concert for Bangladesh, an all-star benefit organized by George Harrison of The Beatles and sitar player Ravi Shankar, was held at Madison Square Garden in New York.
In 1981, MTV began its American broadcast; the first music video aired on the new cable TV network was "Video Killed the Radio Star," by The Buggles.
Aug. 2
In 1790, the first United States Census began under the supervision of Thomas Jefferson; a total of 3,929,214 people were counted in the census, nearly 700,000 of whom were enslaved.
In 1873, inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and Britain's new prime minister, Clement Attlee, concluded the Potsdam conference.
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were driven out of Kuwait months later in 1991 by a U.S.-led military coalition in Operation Desert Storm.)
Local news compiled by Tim Doyle. National, world news from The Associated Press.