Sylvester's Dairy - New Castle PA

Domenick “Dom” Sylvester (1898-1964), an Italian immigrant, and his wife Margaret (DeSalvo) Sylvester (1905-1992) purchased an existing dairy at #1109 N. Croton Avenue in about 1928. They acquired the business from prominent local businessman Clem Crisci, who had bought it back in the fall of 1916. The Sylvester family delivered milk and sold ice cream from this location for many years. Domenick and Margaret Sylvester retired in the early 1950’s and turned the business over to their children. Their son Raymond Sylvester, daughter Eleanor (Sylvester) Juliano, daughter Dorothy (Sylvester) Smith, and other family members managed the dairy for many years. Dorothy’s husband Walter “Smitty” Smith was a well-known milkman with the company. (1953)

Italian immigrant Domenick “Dom” Sylvester (1898-1964) founded Sylvester’s Dairy in about 1928. (c1960)

Dom Sylvester was greatly assisted in the management of the dairy by his wife Margaret (DeSalvo) Sylvester (1905-1992). (c1975)

(1953)

(Jun 1957)

Sylvester’s Dairy was closed in late 1981 and the contents of the building were sold off. In the coming years the building was utilized as rental apartments and for a fitness center. It was listed for sale in early 2003. In about 2004 it became the new home of an existing weightlifting club known as the Iron Works Gym, which changed hands several times in the next decade. The reorganized “New Castle Iron Works Gym,” a state-licensed facility operated by Angelo Greco, has occupied the building since October 2012. I’ve been told that at one time there was a fallout shelter/bunker in the basement, possibly with tunnels leading to other such bunkers. (2014)