Continental Rubber Works 19th and Liberty Street Erie PA

Continental Rubber Works, 19th and Liberty St., Erie PA. From 50th anniversary booklet. The building along West 20th Street still stands, as does the building on the left, 2000 Liberty St., which is now Triangle Tech.

Continental Rubber Works started operation on November 26, 1903 in the same factory where the Black Manufacturing Company made the Tribune bicycle on 19th and Liberty Street. Click here to read more about Black Mfg. Co. 

Continental Rubber was chartered in August 1903 in Pennsylvania. Theron R. Palmer, founder of the company, was President and General Manager. Alex Jarecki was Vice President, Charles S. Coleman was Treasurer and Charles Jarecki served as Secretary. (Alex Jarecki was also the superintendent of the Jarecki Manufacturing Co., which was co-founded by Charles Jarecki. Learn more about Jarecki's here. 

"Mr. Palmer had found an ideal plant location at 19th and Liberty Streets. The new plant, formerly occupied by the Tribune Bicycle Works, consisted of four large brick and stone buildings with a floor space of approximately 115,000 square feet...Within four years, all the original buildings were occupied by new machinery and other production facilities to meet the ever-growing demand for Continental tires, tubes, hose and other rubber products...

From the beginning, Continental was organized to produce bicycle tires and tubes, industrial hose and various calendared and molded rubber products. It was the bicycle tire, however, that was to provide the vehicle of rapid company progress in those early years...Within a few short years, Continental bicycle tires under the trade name Vitalic were accepted as the standard of quality not only in the United States but throughout the world...

When the nation mobilized for war in 1917, the company was equipped and staffed to take an important part in the fight to 'save democracy.' Tires, tubes, gas masks and scores of other rubber products for the armed forces were turned out as Continental's greatly augmented staff worked 'round the clock, seven days a week...

By 1914, it became apparent that still greater plant capacity was needed to keep pace with increasing sales. In that year, a three-story brick building known as Number 6 was erected. In 1923, an addition was made to Number 6 which extended it a full block from Plum to Liberty Streets. The new building almost doubled the manufacturing area." -Fifty Years of Service booklet.

The booklet failed to mention that workers went on strike April 2, 1941. "Officials of the Continental Rubber Works' Erie, PA, and of United Rubber Workers (CIO) union were asked to meet a mediation board panel here Friday to try and end the five week old tie up of the plant, which was making synthetic rubber for airplane engines. The union asked wage increases, a union shop, and vacations with pay, for the 840 plant employees."-Ellensburg Daily Record, Wednesday, May 7, 1941.

"The Continental Rubber Works...was reopened today with 100 men returning to their jobs. A seven cents an hour wage increase was negotiated at a Defense Mediation Board hearing. Of the 700 workers who went on strike, asking a 10 cents an hour increase, more than 300 are employed on other jobs, it was said." -Pittsburgh Press, May 14, 1941,

When the anniversary booklet was printed in 1953, John Beecher and Rose Pongratz had worked for Continental Rubber Works for 45 to 50 years each.

Pasquale DiMarco, Lena Hartline, F. R. McCarty and Fred Wolf had worked for the company for 40 to 45 years each.

People who worked at Continental Rubber Works for 35 to 40 years included: Joseph H. Bohrer, John Brutcher, James Ford, Joseph Hagmann, Dr. Paul H. Henkel, John Kosobucki, H. Edward Mehl, Clacy McNary, Anton Nowak, Delmar Shanks and Rolla Sturgeon.

Erie Forge & Steel bought Continental Rubber Works in 1961, and then sold Continental Rubber to Continental Copper & Steel Industries, Inc in 1963. The Liberty Street plant closed many years ago.

Five hundred workers at Continental Rubber were on strike from July 1 to September 13, 1963.

A rental hall called the Continental Ballroom operated in the eighties and nineties in a portion of the old Rubber Works on the northeast corner of West 20th and Plum Streets.

Enjoy more historical facts and photos of Erie, Pennsylvania at: Old Time Erie

Lost rocked the Continental Ballroom in Erie PA

Lost at the Continental Ballroom. L. to r.: DiPlacido, Beveridge and Stadtmueller. Photo ©Debbi Lyon 1989.

Erie punk band Lost releases EP

by Debbi Lyon ©2012

Lost, the thinking man's punk band, makes its vinyl debut this week with a self-financed, four-song e.p.

No stranger to the Erie scene, Lost has played almost a dozen times for an enthusiastic audience at the Continental Club. They've also recently traveled to Buffalo and Pittsburgh. The band will make a special appearance on Friday at Norb's Bar, 25th and Peach, to celebrate the release of its record.

Three of the four members of Lost have been together for a year and a half-vocalist Brian DiPlacido, guitarist Jim Beveridge and drummer Pete Stadtmueller. Bob Rhodes, who played bass on the record and demo tape, quit about a month ago, citing musical differences. Craig 'Freddy' Krugger has since joined the band.

The songs on the single are "99%," "More," "The Clown" and "Cut Out The Heart." Fortunately, a lyric sheet is enclosed, because at times the lyrics are hard to understand. According to Brian, there is no hidden message behind the songs. "What we want to emphasize is we're doing it ourselves. Most people think that if you're not on a major label the music's no good. But that's not true." Putting out a record "seemed more noble than not doing it," he said.

The passing months have brought a marked improvement and a sense of self-confidence in their live show. The guys no longer stand around between songs trying to decide which one to do next. The set list is tight but not confining. They plow through originals such as "I'm Sick," "Sometimes I Do" and the intense favorite "On and On." During the latter, Brian thrusts the microphone into the face of the closest fan, who screams "Who's right, who's wrong, who knows," at which point Brian grabs the mike to finish the line "On and on and on it goes."

Seeing Lost live is an experience in itself. One minute Brian is squirming on the floor. The next he's leaping in the air, with veins building from his neck, a sinewy body covered with sweat. 

Lost has received favorable reviews in Plain Brown Wrapper and in Jackhammer Pogostick. Maximum RockNRoll called its music "catchy, energetic stuff," like "the first Descendents' album. And fan mail has arrived from as far away as Mexico.

Since Jim, Brian and Craig are attending college, will their education interfere with their musical ambition? Jim doesn't think so, because "Most of our touring will be next summer." Plans for the future include a trip to Washington, D.C. this fall to lay down tracks for their upcoming album. They hope to secure the talent of producer and former Government Issue member Tom Lyle. The album will likely be released on the independent label D.S.I., which is based in the nation's capital. For now, they'll stay close to home and try to recoup the $1,000 that was spent to finance the single.

As a treat to loyal Lost fans, Brian kidded, with a devious gleam in his eyes, that "If over 100 people show up at Norb's on Friday, we'll play in the nude." To find out if he's serious or not, get there early and find a good seat.

Only 500 copies of the Lost record were pressed, and it's available in record stores now.

-30-

(Article by Debbi Lyon; originally published in Showcase, August 31, 1989)