Editor’s note: ‘What’s That?’ is a recurring feature in the Tribune-Review’s Westmoreland Plus edition. If there’s something you’d like to see explored here, send an email to gtrcity@triblive.com or call 724-838-5146.
For the motorists whizzing by this Greensburg intersection, it looks like a nice spot to take a break with benches, trees and landscaping.
But look a little closer at the centerpiece, and you’ll find something from another era: a concrete horse-watering trough.
In an area of the city once dominated by farmland, it’s not completely a surprise. But its existence did factor into the development of a Rite Aid store in 2012 at the intersection of North Main Street and Cabin Hill Drive.
City Councilman Randy Frinfrock said the city asked Rite Aid and the developer to take the century-old historical artifact into account when removing trees from the property and building the pharmacy. Greensburg attorney Lou DeRose said he and late friend Ned Booher put on the pressure to have the item preserved and displayed during the construction.
“Rite Aid people and the contractor came up with a good plan,” said DeRose, a former Westmoreland County Historical Society board president and current volunteer. “It’s there today, and it’s in pretty decent shape.”
When the developer was working on the project, attempts to dig out the horse-watering trough resulted in it falling apart. Masons patched it up. It now sits on a bed of mulch surrounded by red bricks at the edge of the property.
DeRose said the trough was moved slightly from its original spot. He recalled Booher dating it to the early 1900s, but “I think it was older than that,” DeRose said.
The northern end of Greensburg was at one time mainly farmland, Frinfrock said. Homes and other developments started popping up about 70 years ago. He caught the school bus at that intersection as a child and never knew the trough was there.
Frinfrock was pleased Rite Aid and the developer cooperated with the city and several residents who asked it be preserved.
“Rite Aid was great,” he said.
DeRose also is grateful the piece of history still stands. He would like to see some kind of flowers planted inside the trough and possibly a plaque added.
“It’s a really important part of Greensburg,” he said. “I just think it was worth doing.”