BIO: B. M. Blake, Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Blair County, PA Contributed April 2003 for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches by J. N. Tillard Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 He Has Moved The Town Along B. M. BLAKE Has Changed The Scenery in Altoona by Moving Domiciles by The Wholesale - The City Improved With Every Move ALTOONA was not the sort of a community that grew up in a night. While it has reached quite respectable proportions as a city during the last half-century, it has not many buildings that are fifty years old or that have reached that age without many changes. The city has been builded, for the most part, by toiling, frugal mechanics of small means, who builded, not as they would, but as they could. The essentials of shelter and protection from the elements were the first consideration, and architectural effects were left for the development of more prosperous days. Having secured a building lot, the mechanic of long ago planned such a structure as would come within his limited means and at the same time afford an adequate living place for himself and family until such times as he could afford to make additions to his domicile. The Altoona mechanic builded along safe lines and there was probably no other town in the country where so few real estate mortgages were foreclosed on account of the owner failing to meet payments. A good part of this conservative management was due to the excellent judgment displayed by the officials of local building associations, from whom most of the money for building purposes was borrowed. The men would not lend a greater amount of money on any building proposition than conservative business methods warranted, thereby saving at once the stockholders from loss and the builder from over-reaching himself. As a result of this policy, the town, especially the East Side, was largely covered with small buildings, and when larger wealth came with the passing years, they stood in the way of improvements on valuable ground. But the frugal habits acquired by years of saving would not allow their owners to stand for their demolition, and they were either moved back on the same lot or transferred to some other locality, not unfrequently some distance away. This condition of affairs made an opening for a new industry and the men and the hour met when B. M. Blake, with Andrew Kipple as a silent but vigorous partner, went into the house-moving business. Mr. Blake was born in Duncansville in 1844, coming to this city in 1850, when the town was a very small place indeed. He has seen it develop from a series of frog ponds to what it is now, and has had quite a little to do with its progress, as he has kept a section of it literally moving since 1875. He attended the earliest common schools established in the community, and when he got old enough, learned the carpenter trade and then went to work in the car shops. While there he was associated with Andrew Kipple, the foreman of the freight shop and boss wrecker, in the clearing up of the numerous smashups that occurred along the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. "Andy" Kipple was a master hand at performances of this sort and the wreck that he could not take the kinks out of without stopping a minute to think it over, was so hopeless that there was nothing left to do but apply the torch. Under such tutelage as this Mr. Blake learned a few tricks himself in the way of handling bulky bodies by the use of hydraulic jacks, screw jacks, fulcrum and lever and block and fall. It was simply a matter of applying the power in the right place and the trick was done. Sizing up the situation, Mr. Blake saw that the house-moving business in Altoona was going to develop into large proportions as the years went on, and providing himself with the proper equipment, he left the shops and became a professional house mover with his old boss as a contributing and consulting partner. Some time later, he bought Mr. Kipple's interest in the enterprise and conducted it alone. Moving houses over the streets in the early days was a somewhat more difficult feat than it is now since so many cartways are paved, affording a smooth and solid track over which to roll the buildings. The hills and hollows were always here, but these have been much modified by grading and the deep ditches and chuck holes that garnished most of the streets twenty-five years ago, have disappeared. Mr. Blake without accident moved buildings up and down grades and across chasms in a way that was astonishing. There was no obstacle too great for him to overcome, though he frequently had to cut mighty close corners and do a lot of bridge work. While a majority of the buildings he moved were of frame construction, and he only had to keep them steady enough to avoid breaking the plastering or throwing down the chimneys, he never hesitated to tackle solid brick walls if the job came his way. It was not unusual for him to move a dwelling with all the furniture in, the family performing all their usual functions of housekeeping except firing the cook stove. He laid down a track of big timbers on as near a level as the character of the ground would permit; took the building off its foundations on rollers and heaved ahead. A continuous track was preserved by bringing the ground timbers forward and astonishing speed was made in the flitting. Among his most famous exploits was the moving of the Fourth Ward School Building from Seventh Avenue and Fifteenth Street to Fourth Avenue and Eighteenth Street; the old McCormick homestead from Eighth Avenue and Fifteenth Street to Sixth Avenue between Sixteenth and Seventeenth Streets; and a number of small brick buildings. He raised the brick stack, one hundred feet high, at Aetna Furnace, sixteen feet and built a new base under it; raised wholesale the roof of the old Eleventh Avenue Opera House so that another story could be added and raised the roof of the Altoona Hospital for the same purpose. He moved the big brick building at the railroad station at Mt. Union, when the station was changed some years ago, and moved the hotel at Frugality. Though he is not as young as he used to be, he is still at it, having taken out a permit a few days ago to move a building quite a distance over the East Side hills. He has surely done his part to keep the town moving in his time. Besides doing a big lot of useful professional work, he has always been a good citizen from every point of view. He has discharged his civic duties with zeal and fidelity, though he has never been an active politician or an aspirant for public office. He was one of the founders and pillars of the Eighth Avenue Methodist Church, and was always the type of citizen who could be depended upon to do his part for the common weal. When Johnstown was almost swept away by the flood of 1889, he went over there and his practical experience was of untold value in saving from the general ruin such dwellings as it was possible to put into serviceable condition. He is now drawing toward the close of a long and busy life, and in the days to come there will scarcely be so much need of the peculiar skill he developed in this community for the reason that more substantial structures are being put up, but he has been a great factor in the community's life, and his numerous friends will join in wishing him many years of pleasant ease before he goes hence. #