A former reporter for the Jamestown Post Journal might have the answer to what the archway and room found under 319 Pennsylvania Ave. W. was used for.

During excavation of an empty lot as part of the Impact Warren project last week, Anderson Construction workers uncovered a brick archway under the basement level of 319 Pennsylvania Ave. W., which houses Hairworks and Alpha Omega. The archway led to a large underground room.
John Evanetski, who worked for the Post Journal, wrote an article 20 years ago dealing with the mill race that ran from the Conewango Creek to the Allegheny River. The mill race flowed through the Island parking lot between what is now Point Breeze Landing and the buildings along the southern edge of Pennsylvania Ave. Evanetski said an article that ran last week in the Times Observer reminded him of the article he wrote.

"It was kind of like deja vu when I read the story," he said.

According to Evanetski, the archway under Hairworks and Alpha Omega was part of a tunnel system that branched off from the mill race. Downtown businessmen used the waterway from the Conewango to the Allegheny to transport items.

"The purpose was to send supplies and goods to the stores in the downtown," Evanetski said. "They would float them down in crates or barrels or mill race dingys." The items would then be directed into the tunnel system and unloaded beneath the buildings.

The mill race's water was supplied by the low head dam that spans the Conewango Creek next to Burger King. The dam, sometimes called the Carter Dam or the Mill Race Dam, was built during the Civil War to float logs through the mill race to a furniture factory and a sawmill located on the Allegheny River in the vicinity of Breeze Point.

The dam, which was recently given "orphan" status, is slated to be removed by the state later this year. The mill race was completely closed off from the Conewango water supply in the mid-1970s. The river end of the race was covered sometime after the 1950s.

In the meantime, the excavation pit next door to Hairworks has become a big duck pond filled with green water.

According to Anderson, the pit has been filling regularly due to digging below the Allegheny River level. At one point it was filled with 10 feet of water. Anderson doesn't believe the leakage will be a problem.

"Once you put the fill in, the basement level will be above the water," Anderson said. "The river is going down so the water has gone down a foot today. It's not a big deal."