the almanac J U N E 14, 2026
SOUTH HILLS COMMUNITY NEWS
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FIRST RAILROAD HAD IMMEDIATE IMPACT
ELEANOR BAILEY
Xena Fortier poses in front of the yard sign outside of Neil Armstrong Middle School after attending an open house to commemorate the history of the school before it closed permanently. The Bethel Park School District will open a new elementary education center on the grounds in the fall and all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders will now be housed at Independence Middle.
LAST TRIP AROUND NAMS
General Dodge, chief engineer for Union Pacific, is pictured shaking hands on the right, with Central Pacific engineer Montague on the left. This print was created before the original glass plate was broken.
By Eleanor Bailey
Editor’s note: This in one in a weekly series celebrating the history of America in observance of its 250th anniversary.
Final bell for BP middle school ebailey@thealmanac.net
With enthusiasm, Jocelyn Stein and Charlotte Crawley greeted visitors to Neil Armstrong Middle School. “Welcome to NAMS’s final mission,” they said as they opened the glass doors to the building that had educated Bethel Park “tweeners” since 1970. Both recently completed sixth grade and will enter Independence Middle School (IMS) in the fall. However, nobody will attend NAMS ever again as the school along with five elementary buildings in the district are closing for good. Stein and Crawley admitted they were sad that the building wouldn’t be used anymore but they were thrilled their teachers are moving to IMS with them. While they attended different grammar schools (Memorial and Abraham Lincoln respectively) they acknowledged NAMS holds a special place in their hearts. “My fondest memory was the first day of school and meeting all my friends,” Stein said. “We kind of just became good friends,” added Crawley. She added that she’ll long remember the last day of school. “That’s when all the buses go to leave and the teachers stand and wave to you,” she said. “I don’t know if they’ll do that at IMS.” NAMS, however, had one long goodbye. While the last day of class was June 4, NAMS said farewell to the community on June 3 when alumni and
citizens walked the hallways during a Final Bell goodbye. The open house attracted approximately 275 former students. “I love all the ramps and the nooks and grannies,” said Lisa Stugan, who has been a custodian in the building for the past two years. “They said the new school has some nice surprises.” Isabella Nath and Vivian Piccolino found one of those spaces and reflected upon their days at NAMS. “It’s basically a place where people can chill. A calming area for kids. Sometimes I study here,” said Nath, who is a member of the Class of 2032. “There’s a lot of good memories here,” added Piccolino, who sat with Nath in the area tucked along a ramp leading up to the classrooms. “Probably just meeting new people and making new friends,” she added of her best memories. After they left their respective elementary schools (George Washington and William Penn), Emma Bucheli and Samantha Degore forged a lasting friendship during their time at NAMS. As they scribbled their names on a bulletin board so as to be remembered, they recalled the movies they watched and the games like Four Square they played. Middle school years are important and crucial and they noted how they weathered them “because of the friendship” they made. “We are still friends,” they noted. While the magnitude of the event was overwhelming for SEE NAMS PAGE B2
OAKLAND MUSEUM
By Rob Nielsen
Ogden Standard-Examiner
ELEANOR BAILEY
Mike Milliken greets former students during a final walkthrough for Neil Armstrong Middle School. Milliken taught at the middle school for 28 of his 30 years in education. Of his time at NAMS Milliken said, “It’s been a lot of fun, a unique experience, but it’s time to go.”
ELEANOR BAILEY
Jocelyn Stein and Charlotte Crawley greeted former students and friends at the final walkthrough at Neil Armstrong Middle School.
It’s very rare that we can say a nation was fundamentally different the day after a major construction project was completed from what it was the day before. But that’s exactly what happened to the United States on May 10, 1869, as the First Transcontinental Railroad was declared complete in a far flung corner of the Utah Territory. Trips that previously had been measured in months could now be completed in days. Goods that would be a rarity on one side of the country could now be consumed on either coast. People on one coast could now reliably communicate with the other. The new rail line gave people who had only dreamed of owning land an opportunity to do so while simultaneously leading to many being forced from the lands they had called home for centuries. Its construction would also go on to heavily influence railroad building across the country and around the world. And while the machines that have plied it, the railroads that made it up, the routing and technologies surrounding it have evolved in ways its builders never could’ve imagined, the First Transcontinental Railroad still serves the country as it celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence. Recently, the Standard-Examiner spoke with Union Pacific Railroad Museum curator Patri-
cia LaBounty and explored the Golden Spike National Historic Park to learn a bit more about this achievement that continues to help bind a nation together.
A rebuilding nation
Construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad took place amidst the backdrop of the most tumultuous decade in the country’s existence. The Civil War had lasted from 1861-65 and would be immediately followed by a tense period of Reconstruction. LaBounty noted that the project’s origins came right in the middle of the war. “The Civil War divided families,” she said. “It certainly divided neighbors, and it was a huge economic and social impact to the nation as a whole. While that was going on, right, you had the Homestead Act (1862) signed the same year that the Pacific Railway Act was signed. And in many ways, those two pieces of legislation are intertwined. In the Pacific Railway Act, you have alternating one-mile sections of land that were provided to the railroad on either side of the track to sell, as part of the vehicle by which the railroads could pay for this endeavor. And the reason they were alternating is that the government retained the intervening miles. Those would SEE RAILROAD PAGE A2
Co-founder of P&G Pamela’s diner remembered By Rick Shrum For The Almanac
Pam Cohen lost more than a valued business partner a month ago. “We were best friends who were in business together six days a week for more than 40 years,” she said of Gail Klingensmith, who died of cancer May 12. Their dedication to each other and the enterprise they started enabled them to launch and nurture P&G Pamela’s into a popular and successful group of dining destinations in the Pittsburgh region.
The two are the P&G in name and deed. They celebrated a very happy new year in 1980 when they opened their first location, in the Squirrel Hill section of the city. That site eventually closed, but five are still operating: in Mt. Lebanon; the Strip District, Oakland and Shadyside in Pittsburgh; and Millvale. Pamela’s is now employee owned. “We sold shares,” Cohen said. P&G is renowned for its breakfasts and draws large groups of diners, especially in the large Strip and Oakland restaurants
LOCATION South Hills Interfaith introduces food lockers PAGE A6 What’s happening, B3
and in Mt. Lebanon. Some local residents remember the Strip location for another reason. Campaigning for re-election in the erstwhile Steel City, President Barack Obama stopped there for lunch and mentioned Pamela’s name in TV and radio interviews. “One of the things that put us on the map was the presidential attention,” said Jason Zmenkowski, a longtime employee who now manages the Strip locale. “The day after he came, we started hiring more staff.” Obama was enamored of Pamela’s and its pancakes, and his
memories at the Strip continue to endure. On Memorial Day 2013, following his re-election, the president invited Klingensmith and Cohen Pam to prepare breakfast at the White House. “Gail was en route to the Strip when she got a call from the White House,” Pam recalled. “She said, ‘Yeah, I don’t believe it.’ But it was real. Afterward, the president invited us to eat with a group of government officials. That wasn’t Gail and Pam’s last contact with the commander in chief. Pam said she and Gail
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Pictured with former President Barack Obama are Pam SEE PAMELA PAGE B2 Cohen, left, and Gail Klingensmith.
SPORTS USC’s historic win revives memories PAGE B1 Classifieds, B4
SIGHTS & SOUNDS Bridgeville to celebrate 125th anniv. PAGE B3 Real estate transactions, A3
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