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This website was created as a public service for residents of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

This weather station is privately owned and operated, is not affiliated with the City of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and should not be considered an officially recognized station for weather reporting.

About Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown, settled in 1770, is perhaps most famous for its three floods. The "Great Flood" of May 31, 1889 occurred after the South Fork Dam collapsed 10 miles (16 km) upstream from the city during heavy rains. At least 2,200 people died as a result of the flood and subsequent fire that raged through the debris. Other major floods occurred in 1936 and 1977.

Johnstown was formally organized as a town in 1800 by the Swiss German settler Joseph Johns (ne Josef Schantz). The settlement was initially known as Schantzstadt, but was soon anglicized to Johnstown. From 1834 to 1854, the city was a port and key transfer point along the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. Johnstown was at the head of the canal's western branch, with canal boats having been transported over the mountains via the Allegheny Portage Railroad and refloated here, to continue the trip by water to Pittsburgh and the Ohio Valley. Perhaps the most famous passenger via the canal to visit Johnstown briefly was Charles Dickens in 1842 (see below). By 1854, canal transport became redundant by the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which took away the canal's cargo and passenger business. The canal was abandoned soon afterwards.

With the canal's demise, iron, coal, and steel quickly became central to the local economy. By 1860, Cambria Steel of Johnstown was the leading steel producer in the United States. Through the second half of the 19th century, Johnstown made much of the nation's barbed wire. Johnstown prospered from skyrocketing demand in the western United States for barbed wire. By 1900, Johnstown primarily only produced and fabricated steel, with little other economic diversification, other than ancillary coal production to feed the mills. This singular focus caused significant problems for the Johnstown later. (Note that in July 1902, Johnstown's Rolling Mill Mine was the scene of a coal mining accident that killed 112 miners. The Rolling Mill Mine disaster still ranks as one of the most deadly mining accidents in the history of the United States.)

Johnstown in the inter-war years was a remarkably prosperous hard-working city. Its public transportation was considered the one of the best of any small city in the United States. The city's first commercial radio station, WJAC, began broadcasts in 1925. The downtown boasted at least five major department stores. However, the St. Patrick's Day 1936 Flood combined with the gnawing effects of the Great Depression left Johnstown struggling temporarily. A federally-financed flood control project, completed in 1938 and dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt, finally gave Johnstown temporary safety from its rivers. For the next 39 years, Johnstown proclaimed itself "Flood-free", a feeling reinforced when Johnstown was virtually the only riverside city in Pennsylvania not to flood during Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

The immediate post-WWII years mark Johnstown's peak as a steel maker and fabricator. At its peak, steel provided Johnstowners with more than 13,000 full-time, well-paying jobs. However, increased domestic and foreign competition, coupled with Johnstown's relative distance from its primary iron ore source in the western Great Lakes, led to a steady decline in profitability. New capital investment waned. Johnstown's mountainous terrain, and the resulting poor layout for the mills' physical plant strung along 11 miles of river bottom lands, compounded the problem. Extensive damage from the 1977 flood sealed Johnstown's demise as a steelmaker. By the early 1990s, Johnstown abandoned its steel production entirely, although some limited fabrication work continues. However, Johnstown's singular focus on steel for almost 150 years left little other viable, large-scale economic activity.

Johnstown has yet to find its economic footing for the 21st century. In 2003, US Census data showed that Johnstown was the city in the United States least likely to attract newcomers, demonstrating the weak opportunities provided by the local manufacturing and service economies. At the same time, Johnstown does show signs of recovering from its decades-long slumber. New or recent construction in the downtown and adjacent Kernville neighborhoods signal the increasing potential for Johnstown's service economy. Johnstown remains a regional medical, educational, and communications center. Medicine and education now provide the bulk of Johnstown's employment opportunities. The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ), a four-year, degree-granting constituent college of the University of Pittsburgh, has an enrollment of approximately 2700 full-time undergraduates.

In recent years, the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center, a concert/theatrical venue at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, continues to attract high-quality performers. The Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and the recently-formed Johnstown Symphony Chamber Players provide high quality classical music. The Pasquerilla Convention Center was recently constructed in the downtown area, adjacent to the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. Under construction in 2005 is a new multi-use facility to replace the aging Point Stadium. Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center is about to construct a major medical complex on the site of an abandoned industrial property very close to the downtown area. A recently-passed zoning ordinance created an artist zone and a traditional neighborhood zone, to encourage both artistic endeavors and the old-fashioned "Mom and Pop" enterprises that had difficulty under the previous code. The Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center offers many exhibitions, events, performances, and classes that celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the Area. The recently-established ART WORKS In Johnstown! will house artist studios in some of the area's architecturally significant but unused industrial buildings. A pilot ART WORKS project is underway and will feature Johnstown's first fully LEED-certified green building. Both of these institutions are in the historic Cambria City section of town, which boasts a variety of ethnic churches and social halls. This neighborhood hosted the National Folk Festival for three years in the early 1990s. Johnstown also hosts the annual Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally during the fourth week of June. This event has been bringing motorcyclers from all over the Northeast to the city of Johnstown since 1998.

Significant and largely successful efforts have been made to deal with deteriorating housing, brownfields, drug problems, and other issues. The Johnstown Fire Department has become a leader in developing intercommunication systems among first responders, and is now a national model for ways to avoid the communications problems which faced many first responders during the September 11, 2001 attacks. United Airlines Flight 93, one of the four passenger airliners hijacked on Sept. 11 crashed at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a few miles south of Johnstown.

Geography

Johnstown is located at 40°19'31" North, 78°55'15" West (40.325174, -78.920954).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.7 km² (6.1 mi²). 15.1 km² (5.8 mi²) of it is land and 0.6 km² (0.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 4.11% water. The Conemaugh River forms at Johnstown from its tributaries, the Stonycreek River and the Little Conemaugh.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 23,906 people, 11,134 households, and 6,045 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,583.2/km² (4,097.0/mi²). There were 12,802 housing units at an average density of 847.8/km² (2,194.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 86.28% White, 10.71% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.61% from other races, and 1.92% from two or more races. 1.59% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 11,134 households of which 22.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were married couples living together, 15.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.7% were non-families. 41.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 19.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.11 and the average family size was 2.87.

Within the city, the population is spread with 21.3% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 22.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 84.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $20,595 and the median income for a family was $28,279. Males had a median income of $26,163 versus $19,791 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,236. 24.6% of the population and 18.9% of families were below the poverty line. Of the total population, 37.5% of those under the age of 18 and 12.6% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Johnstown in the Arts and Literature

Two major motion pictures have been filmed in Johnstown, taking advantage of the city's blue collar atmosphere and picturesque terrain.

The first is 1977's Slap Shot, directed by George Roy Hill and featuring Paul Newman as an aging hockey player/coach. The screenplay by Nancy Dowd was a parody loosely based on the real-life Johnstown Jets hockey team and its North American Hockey League championship in 1976. In the movie, the Johnstown was rechristened "Charlestown" and the Jets as the Charlestown Chiefs. The film's premiere engendered some local controversey, as some thought Johnstown was protrayed in a less flattering light. The name "Charlestown" itself is believed to be a reference to Charles Kunkle, an influential local businessman of the era. Slap Shot has gone on to become the iconic movie about hockey and its foibles. Film critic Gene Siskel noted that his greatest regret as a critic was giving a mediocre review to this movie when it was first released. After viewing it several more times, he grew to like it more and later listed it as one of the greatest American comedy movies of all time. (See below for information on Johnstown's current professional hockey franchise.)

The second major film shot in Johnstown is 1983's All the Right Moves, a high school football drama set in the fictional town of Ampipe and featuring Tom Cruise and Lea Thompson. Tom Cruise's only non-doubled, full frontal nude appearance in a film to date is in "All the Right Moves."

Historian David McCullough wrote what is widely regarded as the definitive history, The Johnstown Flood in 1968. McCullough completed his research while the last survivors of the Flood were still living. McCullough later wrote award-winning histories on the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, and the year 1776, among other well-regarded writings and broadcasts. McCullough has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies: Truman (1993) and John Adams (2002).

The film The Johnstown Flood, written and directed by Charles Guggenheim , won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subjects in 1989. The film currently plays daily at the Johnstown Flood National Memorial, at the site of the remmants of the South Fork Dam.

Mystery novel writer K.C. Constantine currently resides near Johnstown. He has fictionalized many elements of Johnstown and its culture as "Rocksburg" in his novels, although the nearby city of Greensburg, Pennsylvania also provides some of the lore for Rocksburg.

In 2000, Kathleen Cambor published In Sunlight, In A Beautiful Garden. The novel followed its characters through the events leading up to and including the 1889 flood. Although the protagonists in the novel were fictional, several historical figures, such as Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, and Daniel Morrell were also depicted in the book. Cambor was awarded a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, partly on the strength demonstrated by this novel.

Johnstown is the birthplace of actor Emil Sitka (whose famous line "Hold hands, you lovebirds!" earned him the moniker as the fourth of the Three Stooges), actor Tim Kazurinsky (of television's Saturday Night Live and Police Academy movies), and actress Carroll Baker. Actor Johnny Weissmuller was born in the Johnstown suburb of Windber, Pennsylvania, although Weissmuller later claimed he only lived there as a child. Author James Patterson had his fictional serial kidnapper Gary Soneji from Along Came A Spider stopping at a convenience store on his way through Johnstown, Pennsylvania; while author David Morrell had his fictional character "Eliot" recruit two brothers from an orphanage in Johnstown to train as assassins in The Brotherhood Of The Rose.

Charles Dickens briefly visited Johnstown in 1842. From his travelogue, published as American Notes, he observed, "It was very pretty, travelling thus [on the Allegheny Portage Railroad] at a rapid pace along the heights of the mountain in a keen wind, to look down into a valley full of light and softness; catching glimpses, through the tree-tops, of scattered cabins; children running to the doors; dogs bursting out to bark, whom we could see without hearing; terrified pigs scampering homewards; families sitting out in their rude gardens; cows gazing upward with a stupid indifference; men in their shirt-sleeves, looking on at their unfinished houses, planning out to-morrow's work; and we riding onward, high above them, like a whirlwind. It was amusing, too, when we had dined, and rattled down a steep pass, having no other moving power than the weight of the carriages themselves, to see the engine, released long after us, come buzzing down alone, like a great insect, its back of green and gold so shining in the sun, that if it had spread a pair of wings and soared away, no one would have had occasion, as I fancied, for the least surprise. But it stopped short of us in a very business-like manner when we reached the canal [at Johnstown]."

Education

The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ) is a four-year, degree-granting constituent college of the University of Pittsburgh. UPJ has an enrollment of approximately 2700 full-time undergraduates in the arts, humanities, sciences and engineering technology. UPJ was founded in 1927 as the first regional campus of a major university in the United States (it pre-dates the University of California at Los Angeles by a few months). UPJ located to its suburban Johnstown campus in 1970.

Sports

Johnstown has been home to a long succession of minor league hockey franchises dating back to 1940. The current team, the Johnstown Chiefs, were named for their Slap Shot counterparts. The team made their ECHL debut in 1988.

Johnstown has a rich history in amateur and professional baseball as well. Johnstown has long been known as the host city for the AAABA Baseball Tournament held each summer. The tournament began in 1944 and continues to this day. Several Major League Baseball Players have played on AAABA teams over the years.

In addition, the city has hosted several incarnations of a Minor League Baseball team, the Johnstown Johnnies, which first set up shop in 1884. The last team to play as the Johnnies, as a part of the Frontier League, left the city in 2002.

More recently Johnstown has also added an indoor football team; the Riverhawks of the AIFL.

Additionally, Johnstown hosts the annual Sunnehanna Amateur golf tournament at its Sunnehanna Country Club. The invitational tournament hosts top amateur golfers from around the United States.

Landmarks

Johnstown is home to the world's steepest vehicular inclined plane, the Johnstown Inclined Plane.

Johnstown is also home to one of Pennsylvania's largest cemeteries: Grandview Cemetery. Grandview is home to over 47 burial sections and more than 235 acres of land. Grandview also holds the remains of the 777 victims of the 1889 Johnstown Flood who were not able to be identified.

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