The Magic City: The Mills, Men, & Homes of a Company Town Forged in Steel by Taylor Galaska (260 pages, paperback, 6 x 9")

“The Magic City: The Mills, Men, & Homes of a Company Town Forged in Steel” is a deluxe, full-color book chronicling the history and development of South Sharon (what is now Farrell, Pa.) as a company town, the birth of the steel industry in the Shenango Valley, the men responsible for its success, and the grand mansions of steel barons and modest homes of millworkers during this transformational era. This publication will offer readers an in-depth look into America’s Age of Steel with detailed research paired with historic and current photography.

Skeptics watched and waited during the first years of the 20th century for the decline and sudden death of the little “boomtown” of South Sharon, now the city of Farrell, Pennsylvania. So quickly had it appeared amid the Shenango Valley’s established communities of Sharon and Sharpsville that many called the new steel-making settlement “The Magic City” and fully expected it to disappear with equal rapidity. Overcrowded boarding houses, the influx of immigrant laborers for the steel mills, and the ensuing building boom all led to speculation that although a bonanza had been struck, it would be of only temporary importance to the Valley. They underestimated the strength of steel and of the men who made it. But not all that glitters is gold. With the influx of immigrant workers, a rise in crime through the Italian Black Hand Society gave South Sharon the notoriety of being the Society’s headquarters. In 1919, the Great Steel Strike due to unfair wages erupted in the region, chaos and rioting left four dead. Uncover the rich history of one of the region’s largest employers, the Sharon Steel Corporation, the men responsible for its success, and the homes of steel kings and average workers who all played a critical role in the development of South Sharon into an important steel town in Western Pennsylvania.