Monessen, PA. / Rich Yost 5/13/25

Old Black Magic

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Monessen is a city in southwestern Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, located along the Monongahela River. The population was 6,876 at the 2020 census. Steel-making was a prominent industry in Monessen, and it became a third-class city in 1921. With restructuring of the steel industry in the later 20th century and loss of jobs, it is considered a Rust Belt borough in the “Mon Valley” of southwestern Pennsylvania.

The photo was taken around mid-day on a cloudy day as Rich traveled to this area for some insurance adjustment work. He found a spot looking down on the downtown of the town with the diner. A train is in the background and behind the train what looks to be a steel mill. Th train is Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad. The diner you see is the Bailey Diner.

Rising above the steel mill is a large square black with two square, black, eyes looking over the whole scene. (Really, where coke was stored). But In some ways, almost like the eyes of Fitzgerald’s Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes which first appear in Chapter 2 as he looked out over the valley of ashes in The Great Gatsby.

Valley of the Ashes

The “valley of the ashes,” was a real thing. The rust belt in our town a real thing. The valley was a sprawling refuse dump located in New York City during the 1920s. The dump was made famous in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Today, the area is Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in  in Queens.

The overall scene is framed appropriately by two smokestacks. In the background of the photo, the thick green of the Pennsylvania valley trees under a grey sky. To me, it is like a scene from an Edward Hopper painting. A classic view of a rustbelt downtown. One of his great outdoor paintings. (Coincidentally, I have just beeen looking at one of my favorite books about Hopper.) On the right is a building that gives great depth of field to the scene. It continues on with this depth of field throughout. Past downtown and over the tracts and the great square eyes looking at the scene and wooded hills of Pennsylvania. A courthouse or some government building. The framing and depth of field aspects are important by themselves.

Like all great photos, they pull their viewers into it.

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Photo by Rich Yost. Shot with and iPhone 15+ProMax.

Editing, text & website by John Fraim using Photomatix Pro 6 software.

John is a long time student, researcher and writer on symbols and symbolism.