Book Review: Remembering Monroeville
Knight Ridder/Tribune
Oct 15, 2009
A new book, "Remembering Monroeville: From Frontier to Boomtown," by Zandy Dudiak has been released by The History Press in Charleston, S.C.
In the book, Dudiak, news editor of the Times Express in Monroeville -- a Trib Total Media newspaper -- relates 28 stories detailing Monroeville's evolution as part of Plum through its days as rural Patton Township, to its eventual transition into commercial Monroeville.
The book includes stories about people such as the Widow Miers, who opened one of the first stagecoach inns; the generations of the pioneer Johnston family; and Joel Monroe, the first postmaster of the small hamlet that bore his name.
One section, "That's Entertainment," recalls the days of the Burke Glen Amusement Park, Holiday House, Monroeville Mall Ice Palace, Joe Taylor's Auction Barn, restaurants and hotels and the development of Miracle Mile Shopping Center. The chapter on Monroeville Mall includes its roles in the cult zombie film "Dawn of the Dead" and in the recent release, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."
The book examines the importance of transportation, from highways to airfields to railroads in Monroeville's development. Because it was part of Patton until the late 1800s, the book chronicles Pitcairn's rapid growth after the Pennsylvania Railroad built its classification yards there. It examines how George Westinghouse's factories impacted Turtle Creek and Wilmerding.
Dudiak devotes chapters to Monroeville's corporate research centers, log houses, coal mines, schools, early churches, Cross Roads cemetery -- and even murders and ghosts.
Dudiak, a Penn Hills native, has won more than 80 journalism writing awards during her 30 years of covering the East Suburbs for Gateway Newspapers and other publications.
"Remembering Monroeville" is available in local bookstores and online at www.thehistorypress.com.
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Copyright 2009 by Knight Ridder/Tribune
