Behind Offutt Field in Greensburg, a walk along South Urania Avenue offers an unencumbered view of the football game, along a long stretch of unusually thick concrete that runs for several hundred feet along the road.
As it approaches what is now MB Bride, the concrete wall is broken up by several large partitions, also made of concrete.
They are the remains of the former Greensburg Lumber & Mill Co., which once dominated the skyline west of Offutt Field.
Founded in 1888 as the J. Covode Reed Planing Mill, the company originally was located on West Pittsburgh Street. Following a massive fire in February 1940, the company relocated to South Urania Avenue, eventually becoming the Greensburg Lumber & Mill Co. until it closed in the 1980s.
“It was kind of the Lowe’s or Home Depot of that time,” said MB Bride owner Reed Pederson.
“The cement partitions are where they used to store wood.”
When the lumber mill was up and running, it operated on either side of South Urania.
Other partitions were a storage area for stone, which trains would bring to the mill.
“There was a track near one of the old buildings,” Pederson said. “Rail cars would come right up and dump stone. That’s why the concrete is so thick in that area.”
MB Bride moved into the last remaining building on the property in 2004, Pederson said. He said visitors to the store often have memories of what used to be there.
“People will sometimes pull up and say, ‘I used to come by here when I was a kid,’ or ‘I got scrap wood for my tree house from here,’ things like that,” he said.
