Fairchance, PA

Geography
?}	Georges Township, PA surrounds the borough of Fairchance, PA.
History
?}	Fairchance, PA in the 1940s By Robert Bailey Sr.During the 1940s Coal Mines, Coke Ovens and Railroads were at their prime. Uniontown, PA was a very busy thriving town, and streets were filled with shoppers every Friday & Saturday evening. The streetcars ran from Fairchance, PA to Uniontown, PA starting at Main & Church St. in Fairchance.At this time Fairchance had a bakery, union supply store, hardware, two dairy bars, appliance store, post office, four barbershops, drug store, theater, shoe repair, clothing store, cleaners, bank, 5&10 cent store, several service stations, two hotels, bars, bowling alley, and several grocery stores.Some of these store names were Jewell Bakery, Hatchets Hardware, Pegs Dairy Bar, The Hut, Dad Dunaways Drug Store, Kukalo Appliance, Darby Humbert Lumber Company, Fairchance Lumber Company, Dolittle Grocery, Gleason Grocery, Trouts Grocery, Marnellas Grocery, Steve Takotch Grocery, Trouts Cleaners, Bob Lowes Ice & Coal Delivery, White Front Meat Market, A&P, American Store, Romesburgh Garage, Archie Miller Service Station, Cloyd Carr Service Station, Rumpy Heavener Service Station, Gaydos Barber Shop, Sechler Barber Shop, Deans Barber Shop, Hunkers Machine Shop, Kapalko Pontiac Garage, Hawkins Photo Studio, Fairchance Feed Mill, Sharps Funeral Home was originally a bank and the Bank Tavern was originally a bank. We also had our own Grade School & High School.Doctors were Dr. Heath, Dr. Gretchner, Dr. Mark Montgomery, Dr. Bruce Montgomery, Dr. Patterson, and Dr. Waldon Moats. Dentists were Dr. Fast and Dr. Patterson.Coal miners made purchases at the Union Supply by charging it on their payroll account. Wires ran from each department to the store office and a carrier traveled this wire carrying the charge slip from each purchase (this was then replaced with a vacuum method).Stores were not self serve and clerks would retrieve each item from the shelves lined around the stores.Shoe stores had a ladder that traveled a rail on pulleys top & bottom of the ladder around the store shelves to retrieve shoes from top shelves.A&P was noted for their coffee they had three kinds 8 o'clock (red bag), Bokart (black bag) and Red Circle (Yellow bag).Each day a large cart on wagon wheels was pulled back and forth from the post office to the train station when the mail train arrived. All large packages were kept at the freight station along the B & O Railroad tracks. We also had the Pennsylvania tracks where coal was loaded on cars from the tipple.There were two outdoor theaters in the mid 1940s, the Moonlight at the top of Hights Hill and the Starlight in town. Roller skating rinks were Melody in town and Shadowland near Evans Manor, and Duck Inn in Fairchance. There was a powder mill off the mountain road on the north side of Fairchance in the early 1940's, and during the construction of Route 857 earlier there was a prison camp along the road near the West Virginia line just south of Fairchance, PA where the prisoners were kept that worked on the road construction.