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Mount Union borough

Harbison-Walker

Harbison-Walker plant, HAER view 1
Harbison-Walker plant, HAER view 1Library of Congress HAER PA-242 l04

The plant that built Bricktown. The W. H. Haws Company of Johnstown began the Mount Union works in 1899 and sold the whole property to Harbison-Walker of Pittsburgh in 1900, and the plant expanded in 1905, drawn here by a main rail line and a mountain of ganister rock right at the back door. Its silica brick lined the steel furnaces of Pittsburgh. The complex joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Nothing further from the county histories. The six histories held here end in 1913 and this story belongs to 1990, so there is no passage in them that bears on it. Rather than attach an unrelated page and let it look like corroboration, this story stands on the sources listed below.
Checked against the record. The post as published said Harbison-Walker built the Mount Union works in 1899. It did not. The W. H. Haws Company of Johnstown began the plant that year and sold the property to Harbison-Walker in 1900. Two independent sources agree: the federal engineering survey cited in "The first of its kind in the country" on this site, and Nancy Shedd's 1991 county industrial sites inventory. Corrected 1 September 2026.

Sources

  1. Nancy Shedd, Huntingdon County Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites Inventory (1991), on the founding of the Mount Union works. Cited to confirm the date and the builder; still in copyright, so not quoted at length here.

Checked 2026-07-04 · Historic Mount Union collection

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Photographs from Mount Union borough

A ferry on the Juniata near Mount Union, as Myer Souders describes itA ferry on the Juniata near Mount Union, as Myer Souders describes itShared by Myer Souders
Perspective View of House Looking North. Gable End Not Visible in Photograph Was the Canal Side. - John Sharrar House, West Water Street near Division StreetPerspective View of House Looking North. Gable End Not Visible in Photograph Was the Canal Side. - John Sharrar House, West Water Street near Division StreetLibrary of Congress · pa2853.photos.038950p
View of Office Looking South. - General Refractories Company, Office, Market Street, Mount UnionView of Office Looking South. - General Refractories Company, Office, Market Street, Mount UnionLibrary of Congress · pa2851.photos.038947p
“The New P. R. R. Station”, as Charles Welch's history of Mount Union captioned it in 1909.“The New P. R. R. Station”, as Charles Welch's history of Mount Union captioned it in 1909.Welch, History of Mount Union, 1909 · stg08
General Interior View of Packing Shed, No. 1 Works - Harbison-Walker Refractories Company, Packing ShedGeneral Interior View of Packing Shed, No. 1 Works - Harbison-Walker Refractories Company, Packing ShedLibrary of Congress · pa2727.photos.134465p
View of Grefco Houses Looking South Along Water Street - Town of Mount UnionView of Grefco Houses Looking South Along Water Street - Town of Mount UnionLibrary of Congress · pa2822.photos.038890p

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