Mystery no more: Road in O-R photo identified
This photo from the late 1930s was taken on what is now Beallsville Road looking down toward Bentleyville. The Yardas home is in the foreground on the left, the Chopp farm on the right.
This photo, taken Dec. 19, shows Beallsville Road looking toward Bentleyville.
A house on Route 231 just south of Claysville bears a close resemblance to the true Mystery Photo location.
Former and present residents of Bentleyville and Ellsworth jumped all over this week’s Mystery Photo, calling and emailing by the dozens to correctly identify the location as Peterman’s Hill, now called Beallsville Road, just outside Bentleyville.
“The home located on the left is that of my grandparents, Andrew and Mollie Yardas, and the home next door belonged to the Damich family,” Teddi Wisniewski Stevenson commented on observer-reporter.com. “The farm located on the right was that of the Chopp family.”
A photo taken Wednesday from the same spot confirms the Bentleyville location, even though the Chopp barn is no longer there, having burned down years ago.
Quite a few people called to suggest the photo was taken on Route 231 south of Claysville, including Robin Durilla, who thought the house on the left might be her own. Although buildings can change, appear and disappear, hills do not. Though the two scenes are very similar, topography ruled out the Claysville location.
John Smida of Finleyville remembers growing up in a house just over the hill from the Yardas home. In the 1940s, “There was a streetlight down the hill there, and we used to play there all the time after dark.” Smida’s wife, the former Dorothy Perschinsky, was raised in Ellsworth.
Dave McGraw called from his home in Forest Hill, Md., to identify the house where his grandparents lived. McGraw grew up in Ellsworth. He married Bonnie Puskarich, whose family farm was on the hillside to the left. The Bertovich farm was on the right.
Mollie Yardas died at the age of 104. McGraw said his grandmother lived in the house until she was 94.
One caller provided some valuable information regarding the date. He identified the car in the foreground as a 1937 Ford, so the picture could not have been taken before that year. He also said the license plate is on the correct side, which means that the negative was not reversed.
Some of the other locations suggested by our readers included Weirich Avenue in Canton Township, New Freeport in Greene County and places near California, Trax Farm and Jessop Place.
We’re sorry we could not return all calls, but your help is much appreciated.
Look for a new Mystery Photo next Monday.