NEW FLORENCE, Pa. – Standing on a grassy field along Plant Road, Lynn Harding recalled happy days sledding on Ray’s Hill, digging for redworms and crossing railroad tracks to his childhood home.
Among nearly 100 fellow former Robindale residents, Harding also recalled Saturday the last time they huddled on that same patch of grass.
They sought refuge from the 1977 floods that washed away Robindale, he said.
On Saturday, the group joined state Rep. Jim Struzzi, R-Indiana, in preserving that history by dedicating the Indiana County road as the Robindale Memorial Highway.
“This is more than just a layer of concrete,” said Harding, 73. “This is where we rode our bikes … and hitchhiked to football practice. It’s (what’s left of) the neighborhood where we used to live .”
Harding’s family has remained steadfast in preserving their former Smokeless Coal Company town, which was left in ruins and later bulldozed.
The family hosted a community reunion in 2017. Lynn Harding wrote a book about the close-knit Indiana County village and helped direct efforts to add a historic landmark.
But he and his fellow Robindale natives wanted to ensure the remaining main road would also preserve the community’s heritage, he said.
Saturday’s dedication followed an effort by Struzzi to pass the legislation into law, officially renaming the road between the Route 56 and Huff Road intersections Robindale Memorial Highway.
“This is about resilience and community,” Struzzi said of the Robindale story.
And it’s a reflection of dedicated Robindale friends and family members “preserving their history and heritage – and looking to the future,” said Struzzi, who was also joined by staff from U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler’s office.
“It’s incredible,” Struzzi said, adding that he was stunned that so many residents of the former community — now nearly 50 years removed — returned to celebrate the occasion.
Memorial roads and roadside ceremonies are often reserved for fallen heroes from previous wars, he said. It’s not always easy to convince the House Transportation Committee — let alone the entire House and Senate — that renaming a state highway is worth it, he said.
The memories shared Saturday illustrate why the Robindale story is a deserving exception, he said.
Marge Busony-Franklin agreed Saturday.
Just weeks before her 98th birthday, the former Robindale resident stood next to her family and reminisced about the bond the neighborhood shares – even all these years later.
“But we’re all getting old,” she said with a smile.
“We had everything back then: our own baseball team,” Roger Fritz said. “And now it’s all gone.”
Except for one thing, said Karen Franklin Coffman.
“Robindale,” she said, “was always like one big family.”
‘Hearts’ for the victims of the hurricane
As the group commemorated the history of the floods, a 500-mile path is still being excavated in the southeastern United States following the horrific devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.
Robindale residents, like few others, can understand the trauma and grief that a powerful flood can bring.
In 1977, more than 10 inches of rain fell in 12 hours, causing the Conemaugh River to rise and rainwater to rush down Robindale’s bony stack boundaries, filling the city like a bowl.
Asheville, North Carolina — which, like the Johnstown region 47 years earlier, was already flooded by previous storms — received an estimated 12 inches of rain on September 27.
“Our hearts are with them,” Fritz said. “There are people in the mountains who still need to be saved.”
And in the wake of such widespread destruction, there are no guarantees that “home” will ever be the same, he said.
“At the time we thought we would rebuild too,” Fritz said.
