Photo submitted to Times Observer Dave Sherman, standing beneath the new Baby Arch, speaks to those in attendance at the Baby Arch Project’s dedication ceremony in June, 2017. The Baby Arch project was initiated by the Committee of Retired Boilermakers to honor the former employees of PDM and to inform the public that the Gateway Arch’s visible external components were fabricated at the PDM shop in Warren, 1962-65. (photo by Walt Atwood, Committee of Retired Boilermakers).

The Committee of Retired Boilermakers, in cooperation with the Warren County Visitors Bureau, will hold a Builders’ Day gathering at the Visitors Center located at Rt. 6 and 62 just west of Warren, on Monday, Oct. 28.

Past workers from the former Pittsburgh – Des Moines Steel Co.’s (PDM) fabrication plant in Warren will attend.

The boilermakers organized this event to observe Builders’ Day, held each year on Oct. 28 in Saint Louis, Mis. On this day in 1965, PDM workers finished erecting the Gateway Arch for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. This day is set aside to honor all those who were involved in the construction and completion of the monument. Committee members attended the 50th-anniversary Builders’ Day in 2015 in Saint Louis. After that event, the Committee volunteers set to work raising funds to fabricate and erect a Baby Arch in front of the Visitors Center in the unincorporated village of Starbrick in Conewango Township on the four-lane west of Warren. Committee volunteers initiated the Baby Arch Project to make it clear to the visiting public that PDM employees fabricated the Arch in downtown Warren from 1962 to ’65, the pieces shipped 700 miles to Saint Louis via rail. To this day, the Gateway Arch remains the largest stainless steel monument erected in the world.

The Lumber Heritage Region of Pennsylvania, a grant partner involved with the project, will also hold an open house at Builder’s Day.

The Committee and the Visitors Bureau wants to extend a special invitation to all past workers at the PDM- Warren shop and their families so they can share memories of their work at the shop, focusing on the original Arch project. The public is welcome to attend. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28, at the Visitors Center, 22045 Route 6, Warren. Those interested in participating should R.S.V.P. Ed Atwood at (814) 726-2774.