A GOOD DEED — Longtime USW Local 1190 officers Carmen DeStefano, left, and Ken Aspenleiter look over the deed to the union hall on South Third Street. The hall was built in 1951. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — The regret in Carmen DeStefano’s voice is unmistakable as he looks up at the old USW Local 1190 hall on South Third Street.

“Everything we used to know when we worked is gone,” said DeStefano, who spent 20 of his 40 years with Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel as a union leader. “This building was our last link.”

Built in 1951, the two-story brick building closed its doors about eight years ago after serving the local steelworker population for 69 years. DeStefano said he was recently advised by a USW district director to clear out any memorabilia local members wanted to preserve, like the plaque listing the names of 1190 members over the years who were killed on the job. The building has been sold to an unnamed buyer, the broker handing the deal explained.

“Knowing the history of this building, knowing the things that happened here the last 10, 12 years, we deserved better,” DeStefano said.

“We deserve to have some input into how this building ends up.”

The hall cost the union $75,000 to build. DeStefano and two other 1190 old-timers, Ken Aspenleiter and John Slivka, said the $750 monthly mortgage payment was covered by union dues.

All three worry that it will be torn down and with it, their memories.

“It wasn’t all good memories,” DeStefano said. “There were bad times when we had to go tell someone their husband or son wasn’t coming home, that was bad. But most times we were like a family.”

The union hall had two big meeting rooms and back in the day it was a popular spot for wedding receptions, sometimes two a day. There were dances there as well.

“Back in the 50s, 60s and early 70s, it was the hall,” Aspenleiter said.

DeStefano recalls going to the union’s Christmas parties when he was a kid, “They’d take us to the Capitol Theater for a show, then we’d come back here and give us a bag of fruit and candy as a Christmas gift,” he said.

Aspenleiter pointed out the clerical and plant protection unions also worked out of the hall.

“We have some unbelievable memories,” he added.

“There were a lot of friendships,” DeStefano agreed. “We had good times and bad times — when people died on the job, those were the worst times.”

There were also six strikes — one each in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, then two in the 90s. He said the “big ones” were in 1985, when workers walked off the job for 98 days after the now-defunct Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. won court approval to dissolve their labor contract and cut wages, and 1996, when workers fighting over pensions spent 316 days on the picket line.

“The length of them didn’t mean as much, just that the men struck for a purpose and we stuck together,” DeStefano agreed. “The memories and friendships, we developed in here.”

Slivka said members didn’t always leave the union hall with the answer they’d hoped for, “but we’d help anybody who came through those doors. We had a five-star operation here, believe me.”

At the end of the day, he said, “They were your friends, that was your union brother or sister.”

The building has been vacant for eight years now. The water and electricity are off, the boiler isn’t working and the entire building smells musty.

“It gives me chills that I’m here like this and there’s nothing here, it’s like you’re going to a haunted house,” DeStefano said.

“That’s one thing we never had here,” Aspenleiter interjected.

“It’s haunted now, if these walls could talk,” DeStefano replied.

All three of them are concerned about the building’s future.

“This is the last piece of the puzzle,” DeStefano said. “It’s a shame it came to this, that we can’t keep coming here to socialize with our friends who are still living and remember the ones who have passed away.”

Aspenleiter said he’d like to see the hall “be a tribute to the men and women who worked here over the years. I just hope it doesn’t get torn down.” Someone actually tried to purchase the building a few years back for a steel museum and the USW International turned them down.

“Whatever their plans are, it deserves a better fate,” Aspenleiter added. “You’ve got to remember, this was the last bastion.”

“To me, this building belongs to our members,” DeStefano added. “It’s sad that it’s come to this juncture in our lifetime.”