And back we go to White Haven....

The lower (foreground) portion of White Haven is much more business/industrial than the section away from the tracks that I've already more or less finished and I talked about in a previous blog entry.

To mimic what was there in 1976, I have to do some research. Alot of my questions center around when the Jersey Central ceased operations in town and sold off their land in town, which was substantial due to a small yard and some facilities including a station. When was the station torn down? When were the tracks pulled up? What buildings remained or were repurposed?

I did find out that ACME put up a market in town in the former yard entry back in 1971. I'll see if I can model something there. I also need to find out when the water treatment system was installed and upgraded near that yard area.

Nonetheless, there are still some of the buildings still standing in town, especially the large industrial complex north of Berwick Street. Here's two shots - one from a current Google Map output, the other a topo map from 1950:

One thing is pretty constant in both maps - Main Street runs above the yard and between the LVRR and the CNJ mainlines and it's mostly businesses - and that's what I'll model on that street. I just bought Central Camera and a print shop from Clever Models and I'll be building those soon.

I did a little research on the LVRR station that also existed in town - it was located north of Berwick Street near the diner in town. I will be modeling the diner, but I also needed to know when the LVRR station was torn down. Answer? Sometime in the 1980's.

I found a couple of photos on a website devoted to Pennsylvania train stations here: whitehaven.jpg (2531×2694)

It's a relatively simple building - looked to be (by the photos about 60 feet long and only about 12 feet wide running along at LVRR track level. I decided to scratchbuild the structure using a Clever Models texture called Lucky and Knott's siding. Pictures of the build follow:

The siding sheets cut to the sizes of the ends and sides of the building.

I added a bunch of detail parts from a variety of Clever Models kits including the small Chicago house, the Cream City kit, the Warehouse and the Creamery

Walls joined.

Walls and floor reinforced and roof trusses built for the building roof overhangs.

Trusses installed.

Roof underlayment glued on to the trusses and roof supports.

Fascia and roof added.

Loading deck added on this side as well as stairways and railings

Same on this side.

I need structures for Main Street, most of which will be small businesses (a bank, a grocery store, a barber shop, a diner, etc.). I'm not trying to get a one-for-one representation of what was there in 1976, because I can't find a good listing or photos of what's there, but I can at least get the spirit of the town. One of the businesses that I've had in mind for quite a while is a Clever kit called Central Camera - it's a great shop with a lot of interesting details including some internal details and great signage. Here are a couple of shots of the build:

3 of the sides were relatively easy with only a few details to add (windows, doors, etc.

The front of the store has some nice entry details including glassed display cases.

Adding the internal detail shadowbox and some lighting gives this store a lot of depth and interest.

I love the signage on this one - just a great store that had to be part of White Haven even though I have no idea if there would have been a camera shop in town.

Another Clever kit I bought at the same time was Rudy's Printing, which is a bit smaller but with still the same spirit (shabyy shiek, brick).

There were options on signage, so I elected to go with a realtor's office...

Four walls and the difficult front facade completed including some internal detailing.

Walkup added.

Signage, awnings and a water tank added.

And here are four of the structures that will make up Main Street. I need a few more before moving down toward the river.

While I was building Central Camera and the Realtor's office, I was also thinking about the area currently occupied by a strip mall in White Haven. If you go back to the Google satellite photo, you'll see a string of buildings, one of which is the current White Haven Market. I ran into someone else's blog that covers (of all things) independent grocery stores (TOUR: White Haven Market - White Haven, PA).

Reading that blog divulged that the current White Haven Market occupied the space of an ACME market built in 1971 on the site. The other portions of the strip mall were added (I think) much later. I don't have a photo of the original ACME, but we had one in Stroudsburg that my mom used to visit once every couple of weeks. I decided to model the White Haven ACME on that same model of grocery store and found a photo of the Nanticoke ACME here: acme_style_WMain_01.jpg (400×249) (another grocery store history blog!).

If you click that link and take a look at the photo, you'll see that the front face of the building is mostly glass all the way to the peak of the roof with brick corner sections. Based on the photo I laid out approximate dimensions. Bought some Plastruct strips for the metal frame supports for the window along with some transparent plastic sheet to serve as the window material. I also found some ACME signage. Here's some pix of the build ( I used several Clever kits to make the corner brick units including Cream City Tool Works and the glass doors were taken right from Central Camera):

The cinderblock wall between the two corners was created from a Clever texture download.