#5 Rail & Titsworth Canal Warehouse

Continue walking down Hughes Street (away from town). The warehouse will be easy to see on your left hand side. It is at the corner of Hughes/Murray Hill Rd and Loftis.

Back in 1855, this structure sat in the midst of a bustling economy. At that time, onlookers would see this three-story canal warehouse full of trade merchandise, groceries, and general shipping & receiving offices. Italian would be a prominent language. The warehouse was flanked by some lumber yards and dry docks. Looking across this ditch (which was a 45 feet wide canal at the time) would have been a towpath used exclusively by horse and mule teams towing boats slowly up and down the canal. Behind the path stood a bakery and a hotel (owned by a Mr. Gleason).

By 1905, the Titsworth Canal Warehouse was abandoned when a train depot was built across the street from here (Site #6). Eventually, this canal structure was converted from a warehouse to a rowdy bar and brothel owned by the DeCillios. Mike DeCillio, a railroad foreman from Italy, and his wife "Mom" decorated the downstairs bar area with a garish-patterned wallpaper (some of the paper is still intact today). The upstairs was partitioned off into "bedrooms." It is no surprise that the fight story I am about to share with you took place when this was a site of a bar and brothel.

On April 20, 1910, two men were killed here - one right outside the door and the other in a hospital.

In an unfortunate evening out with buddies, Constable Norman Chalker, and near-by hotel owner Bruce Gleason, died of gunshot wounds. However, due to the chaos of the evening (and perhaps fear of Mafia repercussions), no one has yet paid for this crime. Though two men were tried for the crime in a span of 32 years, both were found to be innocent.

This crime is the oldest unsolved murder mystery crime in the history of Allegeny County. Though Chalker and Gleason's deaths are unaccounted for, the events of the night did lead to the owners of the bar (the Decillo's) being charged with a long list of crimes for which they chose to leave Belfast as a negotiated compromise. It is rumored they returned to Italy.

NEXT STOP: The Old Rail Depot