Mahantongo and South Second Streets

Mahantongo and South Second Streets. The Rich History in this City Block. , You are standing on the site where once stood the home of Walter Scott Sheafer, the famed civil and mining engineer, real estate and insurance businessman. He was one of the developers of the Mahanoy and Shenandoah coal fields. Mr. Sheafer was instrumental in getting the Tilt Silk Mill to locate in Pottsville, bringing employment to many, as well as starting the Steam Heat Plant. Not many people realize that Mr. Sheafer acquired a great deal of land in New York City, bounded on the north and west by Riverside Drive and the east by Broadway. Walter Sheafer died in 1908, and these NYC holdings of his were sold by his heirs to none other than John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1917 for a pretty penny., Around that time, Joseph L. Warne, M.D., had come to Pottsville as a young intern and opened a private practice next to the Presbyterian church, located across the street at Mahantongo and South Third Street. He opened a hospital on March 8, 1923, with a modest capacity of ten to twelve beds. It was located in the old Walter Sheafer home, which he purchased from Sheafer's daughter, Mrs. Frances Halberstadt. His hospital was named in honor of his beloved wife, Lemos B. Warne, who died in 1919 due to a septic ulcer., Soon after, the building was enlarged with more beds. A formal opening to the public was held on July 15, 1926. Dr. Warne had acquired the smaller adjoining home of Miss Sally Sillyman, who was the daughter of the late Margaret Sillyman, the first female postmaster in the United States. The Sillyman house was not destroyed, but rather moved to Howard Avenue for a nurses quarters. More additions were added as the years went by, with the Warne Hospital taking on the appearance of a square with a courtyard in the middle. There were also several offices for doctors and nurses, as well as a pharmacy managed by E.S. Fernsler. Dr. Warne, of course, now had his office there. In 1945, Dr. Warne turned the hospital over to the city, and it was governed by a board of local directors. Shortly afterward, Dr. Warne died of a heart attack at age 60. In 1964, the Pottsville Parking Authority bought the old clinic for $65,000 in 1967 and began the process of creating a modern, state of the art parking complex to address the parking needs of a thriving city. That three story, 325 space parking lot opened for business on October 6, 1969. The Mahantongo Parking Garage stood on this site and was operational as a parking facility until it closed for structural reasons on October 26, 2016., The Mahantongo Parking Garage is in a strategic location in the southern portion of the city and needed to be replaced. The Parking Authority searched for two years for ways to fund a new parking garage facility and examined ways to enhance the project to compliment a resurgence in downtown revitalization. A new multiplex movie theater, to be located on top of the garage, was one concept, but it never came to fruition., When funding sources seemed bleak, Richard L. "Dick" Yuengling came forward and aided the Authority. Mr. Yuengling's personal generosity and benevolence, in addition to a grant from the commonwealth's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), originally earmarked for a Yuengling Brewery project, helped to move the project forward. Subsequently, additional loan funding from USDA Rural Development and the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority have all compiled to make this project a reality., The City of Pottsville and the Pottsville Parking Authority are forever grateful for the financial assistance and the efforts of numerous individuals that worked to make this project come to a successful completion., It is worthy to note, and with grateful appreciation to J. Robert Zane, Esq, that much of the information portrayed herein came from the blog of the Schuylkill County Historical Society, The Forgetten Warne Hospital, authored by J. Robert Zane, Esq.