Our History

 

Typically, when one hears the name “Charles Schwab”, they think of the investment banking firm. However, those in Loretto think of, and know, another Charles Schwab.

 

Charles M. Schwab was born in Williamsburg, PA in 1862. At the age of three, he moved to Loretto with his parents who settled in town. Schwab would go on to attend St. Francis College, as it was known then, for two years, dropping out in order to pursue work in the steel industry in Pittsburgh. Schwab’s first job was that of a stake-driver. He quickly rose through the ranks and, at the young age of thirty-five, became President of Carnegie Steel and, later, US Steel and Bethlehem Steel.

 

Schwab’s success led him to become one of the richest men in America during the Gilded Age. He eventually returned to his boyhood home of Loretto, acquiring a thousand acres on which he built his summer home, “Immergrun” which means “evergreen” in German. His estate would comprise eighteen buildings with a forty-room mansion built of limestone and include opulent gardens, a nine-hole golf course, pools, amphitheater, stables, a poultry farm, gardens and orchards. “Here even the chickens lived in the lap of luxury with replicas of French cottages replacing traditional chicken coops” (Dietrich). The Lehigh Valley newspaper The Globe ran an article on September 5, 1913 entitled, “Luxury Chicken Coop” which read, “Charles M. Schwab, the steel maker, is having a $15,000.00 chicken house erected at his country estate in Loretto, north of Altoona, and will go into the poultry business this fall. An Altoona contractor is erecting a brick and concrete structure which will be heated with steam, lighted with electricity, and will contain electric incubators. Meanwhile a commissioner is buying up the best breeds to occupy the ‘poultry palace’ and his instructions are to get hens that will lay. Mr. Schwab, it is said, has had difficulty in getting a sufficient supply of fresh eggs” (Express Times).

 

It is these chicken coops, which were part of Schwab’s estate and poultry farm, that are the Brick Road Apartments today. At the time of his death in 1939, Schwab was heavily in debt and his estate was auctioned off in an estate sale. The mansion, gardens, golf course and acreage were purchased by the Friends of St. Francis College and today is home to the Franciscan Friars TOR. The poultry farm or “coops” as the locals refer to it, was purchased by Mr. Joseph Hines for $4000.00. Mr. Hines converted the coops into the Country Motel which was passed onto his son and daughter-in-law, Bill and Rosetta Hines. After operating the motel for several decades, the Hines family decided to transform the motel into apartments. In 1997, Coleen and Ward Prostejovsky returned to Loretto where they had both attended St. Francis College and purchased the building. For over the past twenty-eight years, Ward and Coleen have made a home on the property that was once part of the estate of Charles M. Schwab. 

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Sources

 

Dietrich, William III. “Smilin’ Charlie Schwab: Life on a Large Canvas”. Pittsburgh Quarterly. Web.

 

Express Times. “Steel Chief Builds Private Chicken Coop”. Web.