In this ongoing series, we feature a piece from our Museum Director, Billie DeLancey, originally published in The Johnstown Breeze on August 28, 2025. Enjoy this look back, and keep an eye on the paper for the newest stories shaping our community.
William Parkin and John Sansom purchased lots on the east side of Main Street (Parish Ave) in April 1906 for $800 under a stipulation that they would erect a building valued at a minimum of $800 within one year, or the property would revert back to the seller – the Great Western Railway Company.
William had seen the newly built Yancey Block Building in Windsor and was so impressed he hired its builder A. M. Femlee to erect an exact duplicate in Johnstown.
He named this stately structure the Eureka Block Building. He and others, including his son Sam and John Sansom, formed The Eureka Mercantile Company. The ground level housed a grocery store on the north end and a clothing and dry goods store on the south end. They were separated by a common wall and a staircase that accessed the second floor offices, initially occupied by lawyers, doctors, and dentists, and later used as apartments.
Other uses over the years included Jud Martin’s pool hall in the 1920s, followed by other successive pool hall proprietors through the mid-1950s. It also served as home for a time by The Gem Mercantile, Duck Pin Alley, liquor stores, and the famous Leo’s Bar and Grill, which operated for many years before Jake and Amy Bachman bought the building in 2020 and opened The Black Sheep Coffee & Crepes.
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Sources: A Tribute To Johnstown, Rebecca S. Healy, 1977; Various area newspaper articles.