Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Joseph Johns set aside space on all four corners of this intersection for “parklets.” Three remain and only the corner containing City Hall is occupied. Constructed in 1900 to replace an earlier building on this site, the new City Hall held special significance for the community. Here one of the flood’s most beneficial changes to the town took place - the consolidation of many of the valley’s small boroughs into the City of Johnstown. Before the flood, each borough guarded its governing rights but rebuilding together made more sense and so consolidation was voted in on November 6, 1889.

The city fathers wanted to be sure that the new City Hall, constructed in 1900 to replace an earlier municipal building on the site, symbolized what they believed was the modern, progressive nature of Johnstown. To that end, Charles Robinson of Altoona designed a Richardsonian Romanesque structure, which at the time was the style of choice in America for monumental civic buildings. Walter Myton served as project architect; he designed at least forty residences in the area, along with
as many churches, schools, and stores.

A square wooden cupola, rising out of the western end of the roof, contains miniature features found in the larger building, such as false arches with voussoirs and small arched balconies.  It also has clock faces on all four sides. Note also the markers on the wall of City Hall, showing high water lines during Johnstown’s three worst floods. Flood control measures were taken after the 1936 disaster, yet in 1977, a “once in 500 years” storm caused a flood resulting in 85 deaths and $200 million in damage.

For decades, one of the residents of the parklets around Market and Main streets was Morley’s dog, a statue ]made in the late 1800s by J.W. Fiske Iron Works, a New York City-based maker and retailer of ornamental iron and zinc products. Cambria Iron executive James Morley bought the statue and placed it in his lawn at Main and Walnut, where it stood until being washed away by the floodwaters in the great flood of May 31, 1889. Recovered in the debris pile at the stone bridge, it was returned to Morley. The Morley family kept the statue at various residences throughout the city, including a house on Palliser Street in Southmont. In the 1940s, the statue was donated to the city, and became a beloved icon. It has since been removed in anticipation of needed restoration.

Over time people came to believe that Morley was a dog that saved a child during the great flood. There was such a dog, a Newfoundland named Romey who saved three people, but Morley’s Dog has nothing to do with that incident. This misconception was spread further by a reference in the 1977 Paul Newman movie Slap Shot.