Anyone who uses the Tarentum Bridge has seen the large, red brick building at East Seventh Avenue and Ross Street.
It’s hard to miss the black panther sign, Gatto Cycle Shop’s logo, painted on its side.
But before the Gatto family acquired the building in the late 1980s, it was home to the Tarentum YMCA. The YMCA was a gift to the citizens of Tarentum from Capt. John Baptiste Ford, founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.
Ford was born on Nov. 17, 1811.
In 1854, he got into the business of building steamboats and became quite successful. He earned his title as a steamboat captain on the Ohio River. During the Civil War, he had 28 boats in operation.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant referred to Ford’s boats as “invincible river attack boats,” and he gave them credit for the Union’s victory at Vicksburg. After the close of the war, Ford decided to sell his business, making him a wealthy man.
Ford was a kindhearted and generous man who readily cosigned many promissory notes for his friends. However, a good number of those friends defaulted on the notes, causing Ford to lose his fortune.
Around that time, his son came to Pittsburgh to attend a business college. The young man became interested in glass blowing and visited a number of factories in the area to observe the process. During a visit with his father, he enthusiastically related what he had seen.
The elder Ford saw an opportunity. He realized that, while plate glass was being produced in Europe, there were no plants manufacturing it in America. He discussed the matter with James Pitcairn, an executive of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., and they decided to go into business together.
They brought in a glass worker from Europe and imported three glass-making machines from England. In 1880, Ford chose Creighton for his first plant because it was close to the Allegheny River — a source of transportation and sand, the main ingredient for making glass.
At that time, Creighton had many natural gas wells, which could be used to power the furnaces needed for the glass-making process.
Creighton Works No. 1 began operation in 1881. In 1886, a second plant opened in Tarentum as Works No. 2. Shortly afterward, Works No. 3 opened in Ford City.
Ford was the first to successfully manufacture plate glass in the United States.
He hired many skilled glass workers from Europe, mostly Belgium, and brought them to the Alle-Kiski Valley to work in his plants. The company originally was named New York City Plate Glass Co., but on Aug. 17, 1883, the name was changed to Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.
Squire R.S. McCall, a justice of the peace, proposed the idea of a YMCA in Tarentum. In 1898, he approached Ford with the proposal, and Ford agreed to supply the funds to make it possible.
The building cost $35,000. The equipment and furnishings were an additional $10,000, and an endowment fund was established for $10,000.
When the YMCA building opened on June 7, 1901, it contained a gymnasium, bowling alleys, boardrooms, billiard rooms, library, auditorium, banquet hall, dormitories and classrooms. One of the conditions that Ford placed on the donation of funds for the YMCA was that it would house a public library for the citizens of Tarentum.
In 1901, the first Tarentum library opened in the building’s basement.
Later, in 1926, Tarentum raised $105,000 to install a swimming pool in the building.
Ford was 70 when he started his new business venture and amassed a second fortune.
He died at his home in Tarentum on May 1, 1903, at the age of 92.