Houston Avenue, Montgomery Through The Decades

Houston Avenue, West from High Street

Houston Avenue in Montgomery is named for Levi Houston.  Houston moved to Montgomery from New Hampshire in 1873, to manage a foundry and machine shop.  That shop eventually became the Levi Houston branch of the American Wood Working Machine Company.  He built a hotel, and contributed much to the town in the less than 20 years he resided in his summer house there.  Houston died in 1902, at age 57.

As with many of these posts, this is VERY incomplete, and very much a work in progress.  But it's a start.  :-)

When I travel through Montgomery I think of Houston Avenue as running North and South, but according to all maps, there is a West Houston (down hill from main street) and an East Houston (up hill from main street.)  

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Lets start by looking down hill, or "west" from Main Street:

In this photo the photographer would be standing on East Houston, looking across Main street.  The men in the middle of the photo would be on Main street, with the hardware store on the right, and a millinery [Decker Block] store on the left.

On the 1897 Sanborn Fire Map, left hand side of the street if looking down from Main street:  Decker Block, Montgomery Opera House, Baptist Church, Alley, two unlabeled buildings, Fire Engine House, Black Hole Creek.

On the right hand side, looking down from main :

Hardware store, barber, unnamed buildings, Brook street, two unnamed buildings, Education Hall [first school], and black hole creek.

Houston Avenue, from Main Street

On the left in this photo is the buildings known as the Decker block.  It housed one of the oldest mercantile businesses in Montgomery .In 1923 this building was torn down, and the new First National Bank building was constructed in it's place.  Today the bank building still stands, as home to the Montgomery Area Library, with the Montgomery Historical Society Adam Room museum in the lower level along Houston Avenue.

  On the right is Love's Hardware (note the iconic coffee pot hanging).  Zellers Furniture and Undertaking was on the right here as well. That building, and the home to the right of it (on main street) were torn down, and that area today is a municipal parking lot.

The Decker Block, with the Millinery sign. 

 (Today, the FNB building, occupied by the Montgomery Library)

The above description was written in 1939.  

This photo ran in the Williamsport Paper with the caption of Opera House Montgomery PA.

  This is the description of the opera house from the 1898 fire:

"There are three store rooms occupied by Housel and Baker, B. F. Decker, and an unoccupied room, also the Opera House over these.  All the crocks were ignited except the one under the front part of Housel and Bakers store.

The crocks were placed one at the outside wall near the Baptist church, one at the next partition, and two at the next (one on each end of the wall)  These rooms are all separated by walls with doors leading to each. "

The new First National Bank Building, which today houses the Montgomery Public Library, on the lower level, the museum of the Montgomery Historical Society.

2022

Photo taken in the 1890s during the I.O.O.F. parade.  

The horses are standing near Black Hole Creek, looking up towards Main street.

A sign beside the man in the top hat is for Zellers Undertaker and Furniture.

The Hotel Houston can be seen up on Main Street.

2022 - Looking Towards Main Street

Education Hall was located right beside Black Hole Creek. [Right side of the street, beside Black Hole Creek, on the Sanborn Map Above]

This was the first school building in the borough, and it was used from the 1870s until the new public school building was erected on East Houston Avenue in 1904.

The first fire company in Montgomery was organized in 1892.  They used the borough building on West Houston Avenue as the primary fire station.  This photo would be  looking towards Main street from Black Hole Creek.

The tall tower was used to hang fire hoses until they were dry.

2022 - Looking across Black Hole Creek, towards Main Street

West Houston as shown on the 1901 Sanborn Map

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East Houston Street - Uphill from Main Street.

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East Houston, 1901

The Hotel Houston was built by Levi Houston just one year before his death.

Five stories tall, it had 100 rooms and two porches across the front of the building facing main street.

The first electric lighted sign in the town was placed here on July 8th 1910.

Across from the Hotel Houston, on the opposite side of East Houston Street and Main, was the Farmers and Citizens National Bank

2022 view - the old bank building is gone, the area is now a parking lot.

East Houston Avenue, 2022

The H.D. Bob Shirt Factory had plants in Sunbury, Milton, and Danville  The Milton plant operated  until 1938, when it was forced to close due to financial difficulties caused by the depression, and compounded by a theft ring. Bobb liquidated all of his assets, personal and business, paying every debt.  He then opened a new factory in Montgomery Pa in 1940.

The H.D. Bob Factory, 2022