Erie, Pennsylvania The Industrial Contrarian

Abstract

Due to its geographic location and abundance of natural resources, the city of Erie had immense potential for an explosion of industrial development during the "Gilded Age." This article shows that the Erie community developed into a diverse, self-sustaining industrial center thoroughly opposed to the spasmodic, uncontrolled growth which characterized the urban expansion of most, if not all, of America’s larger communities. The essential ingredient of a huge industrial complex by the turn of the twentieth century was the dominance of a centralized wealthy elite class. An examination of Charles Manning Reed’s and William L. Scott’s business interests shows that Erie’s richest citizens had the necessary power and influence to create an expansion similar to those fostered by Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. From the available evidence, however, it seems that Reed and Scott chose to participate in the development of Erie rather than take control of it.