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photo credit: John Coleman Collection

Welcome to Hazelhurst, Pennsylvania. Named after the Bradford resident B. F. Hazelton, owner of the sawmill and woodland around the buzzing town, Hazel Hurst used to be very industrious. Now a quite little town of less than 500 souls, this overview shows Hazel Hurst as a booming success in the early 1900's.

Hazel Hurst helped to make McKean County one of the top producers of glass in the country during the turning of the century. It had four glass factories: Interstate Glass Company, Keystone Glass Company, the Berny-Bond Glass Company, and Healy Glass Company. Its glass factories lasted from 1899 until 1929.

Hazel Hurst boasted a population of 2,000. It had three hotels which included Hotel Hazel and the more famous Eckhart Hotel. There were at least a dozen boarding houses to accommodate the large number of glass workers. For entertainment they had an opera house, a movie theater, and a circus of their own. Carnivals often appeared there and parades were a common thing in the good ol' days. But the nirvana only lasted for 30 years, when the last of the glass factories shut down in 1929 and the lumber industry had vanquished nearly 20 years earlier. People started to drift away and the glass boom was at an end.

This view was taken from the south east hill looking over eastern Hazelhurst. You can see the placement of all four factories:the Healy Window and Glass Factory on the right, the Berney-Bond Bottle Factory is to your left, and the Keystone/Interstate Factories to your far, far left. Behind the Berney-Bond Bottle Factory and the Keystone Factory you can see Belgian Town, named after the Belgian factory workers who lived there. From here you can stay on the hill and go to your left and check out Hazelhurst's school, you could go down on to Main Street into the heart of Hazelhurst to the Eckhart and Hazel Hotels, or you can check out the factories which made Hazelhurst boom for nearly 30 yrs.

McKean County Miner
Smethport, Pa., July 12, 1895

Several new houses have been erected in Hazelhurst recently, and altogether it is getting to be quite a hustling burg. A new boarding house is being built for the accommodation of the employees of the saw mill and chemical works, both of which are running full blast. Hazelhurst is coming to the front with a rush.