Washington man shares his passion for covered bridges
Douglas St. Clair of Washington, left, and Charles Devenney of Washington hold the frame containing eight covered bridge postcards Devenney made for St. Clair. Also pictured is St. Clair’s mother, Florene St. Clair.
Cox Farm Bridge, which spans Ruff Creek and has a 27-foot, 8-inch Kingpost truss, was built in 1943. It is located west of Lippincott in Morgan Township, Greene County.
Shriver Bridge, which spans Hargus Creek and has a Queenpost truss design that is 41 feet long, was built in 1900 in Center Township, Greene County.
Barrackville Bridge spans Buffalo Creek in Marion County, W.Va, It has a 145-foot 9 3/4-inch Multiple Kingpost with a Burr Arch truss and was built in 1853.
Charles Devenney had met Douglas St. Clair just once, but the 48-year-old Washington man made such an impression on Devenney that he wanted to do something nice for him.
And Devenney’s random act of kindness didn’t disappoint St. Clair, bringing a wide smile to the man’s face as soon as Devenney presented him with a collage of covered bridge postcards, made from photos Devenney, 77, has taken during his lifelong love affair with the structures.
“I researched and investigated until we found out where you live,” said Devenney, who made the presentation on the campus of Presbyterian SeniorCare, where Devenney now resides in assisted living.
“Ahhh, you tracked me down,” said St. Clair, who has cerebral palsy.
Then when he saw the framed postcards, St. Clair said, “That’s pretty nice. Thank you.”
Devenney, who has Parkinson’s disease, was residing at Southmont at Presbyterian SeniorCare when St. Clair came to visit his roommate. “They brought the boy to meet me, and he was like a kid in a candy store,” Devenney said.
Devenney said he handed St. Clair one postcard at a time.
“He wanted to know where they are. He wanted to go see them. There’s no way I can take him to see them,” Devenney said. “If he puts the collage on the wall, he’ll be able to see them all the time. I just wanted to do something for him.”
Devenney’s interest in covered bridges began as a young child during visits to the Greene County farm of his great-grandfather, John Scott.
“Every time I went to the farm, I always wanted to go through the covered bridge,” he said.
His fascination with the structures grew stronger when he began working on the pipeline from Waynesburg to Philadelphia. When he was on the road, he never left home without his camera, snapping photos of whatever covered bridges he glimpsed along the way.
After Devenney retired from Columbia Gas with 40 years of service, he concentrated on covered bridges, traveling extensively with his wife, Mary Ann, who died in October 2015.
“Some people say, ‘You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all,'” Devenney said. “I disagree.”
Devenney has seen every covered bridge in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He’s also searched for covered bridges in the eastern third of ohio, New Hampshire, Vermont and Indiana, where, he said, there is a “big concentration.”
“When we traveled, we saw much of the land. We went on the back roads. Part of the fun was looking for them,” he said. “At one time, there were 1,500 covered bridges in Pennsylvania. Now, there are only 200. They either burned down or fell down.”
Among his favorites is Barronvale Bridge in Middlecreek Township, Somerset County, the longest remaining bridge in that county at 162 feet, 3 inches. The bridge, which spans Laurel Hill Creek, was built around 1845, and wooden arches were added when repairs were made to the bridge in 1907. It is open to foot traffic only.
Eventually, Devenney began converting his photos into postcards, and became membership coordinator of the Bridge-Covered Quarterly, an organization for collectors of covered bridge postcards.
He also is a member of the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania Inc., an organization that lobbies politicians to preserve covered bridges.