Posted: July 12, 2024 3:12 pm
The 1977 Johnstown flood was a landmark event in our city’s history. A line of severe thunderstorms stalled over Johnstown on July 20, 1977, dropping as much as a foot of rain in some areas. Small streams – Solomon’s Run, Sam’s Run, Peggy’s Run – carved new channels and smashed through expressways, apartment buildings, factories and homes. An earthen water supply dam collapsed at Laurel Run Reservoir, one of several dams that failed. The waters overflowed the channel system in Johnstown that was to have left the city “flood-free.” However, according to later estimates by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the water level could have been as much as 11 feet higher if the channel system had never been built. The death toll would reach 85, and property damages exceeded $300 million.
JAHA has created a new temporary exhibition on the second floor of the Heritage Discovery Center showcasing the 1977 flood photography of George Kollar, who grew up in Coopersdale, a neighborhood in Johnstown’s western corner. After completing his schooling at St. Casimir’s, Garfield, and Johnstown High, Kollar worked in the axle department of Bethlehem Steel until he was drafted into the military in 1969. After completing 22 months in the service and earning a degree at the Ivy School of Arts, Kollar moved to Pittsburgh and started his career as a professional photographer.
When Kollar and his wife Deborah (Dragovich) heard reports of the flood on July 20, they were stunned. Having grown up beside the Conemaugh River, Kollar could not imagine how the Army Corps of Engineers’ river walls had been overcome with water. Despite the fact that Mrs. Kollar was eight months pregnant and under doctor’s orders not to travel, the Kollars drove to Johnstown on the evening of July 21. Since Rt. 403 was still impassable, they had to come in via Benshoff Hill and then walk a half mile to Mrs. Kollar’s parent’s home on Laura St. in Tanneryville, which received only basement flooding. Kollar’s childhood home on Cooper Ave. was inundated with seven feet of water, ruining the interior floors, walls, furniture, appliances, and cherished family photo albums. His grandparents’ house was also severely damaged and later had to be rebuilt.
Kollar and his wife returned the next day with supplies, food, a camera, and three rolls of Tri-X 36-exposure film to document the disaster, the results of which are included in this exhibition. Kollar developed the film himself. The majority of the prints in this exhibition were produced in 1977.
In addition, some 1977 flood items from JAHA’s collection and archival on display: 2 cans of Pepsi water, a calendar stopped on July 19th from a business on Horner St., a sweatshirt and hat, a paperweight, and two newspapers.
Finally, JAHA has added a 1977 flood artifact to “Forging a Nation: Johnstown Iron & Steel,” the new permanent exhibition providing a comprehensive timeline of Johnstown’s steel history: a commemorative plaque showing the names of all Bethlehem steelworkers who perished in the flood.
A gallery of some of the photos, and the exhibit itself, is below.
This memorial plaque now hangs in “Forging a Nation: Johnstown Iron & Steel.”
Some flood items from our collections are also on display.
The exhibit is in the second floor gallery of the Heritage Discovery Center.
