FMY Photos

About The Fred Yenerall Collection

Fred Yenerall was a normal guy who worked 40 hours a week till he retired. But he had a passion for taking photographs of buildings and nature and bridges. In his spare time he would travel around different states and photograph things with his camera. He didn’t make photography his business, but his hobby.

He would take many pictures of the same thing so that he was sure that he got the perfect shot of it. Then he would get the images back on 35MM slides and then look over each one looking for the best shot of what he was taking.

He would write on each slide from notes he took when taking the photo. Which is how we got all this valuable information about the images that are in his collection.Each slide had information such as names, dates and sometime even the time the picture was taken. There were less than 10 slides that had nothing written on it. Usually these were family photos that we knew who they were.

To date we have scanned over 30,000 slides each logged, and repaired in Adobe Photoshop. The slides were in metal and plastic containers and stored for over 20 years since his death. After the death of his daughter the slides were then passed down through the family and that’s when we decided to share them. It took 3 scanners and over 5 years to do this task. We scanned them in at the highest DPI that was reasonable, since we knew that we would only have one chance to save the images, We still have thousands of photos that need repaired, but they are all scanned and back in storage.  At least they are all digitalized now, and save from slide deterioration.

What is In the Collection:

Covered Bridges. We have bridges that are no longer standing. Bridges that were taken over a span of several years showing improvements, and also bridges that need repaired. Since some of the bridges were taken years ago, road names were changed. Also Bridges were moved from one county to another county. It was a little confusing.

Mills: Mills from all over the place. I didn’t know there were so many mills.

Iron Furnaces: As kids we used to walk through the woods with him to find a pile of stone. But he had them all marked on maps, and knew exactly where to go to find them.  We Still have the old maps that he used and still have the markings.

Wood Churches: Churches were never passed by without taking photos of. He loved Wooden Churches the best. He said they had Character. He also would take pictures of brick churches.

Road Signs: This was one thing that I never understood. When I opened the boxes and found Road signs after all these years, I thought How nice. These signs are no longer really used and it’s interesting to see them.

Log Houses: He was fascinated by log houses, old houses and unique houses.

Octagon Buildings: The architectural layout of these designs were a favorite of his.

One Room Schools: There weren’t many left, but he managed to find them.

Barns: Mail Pouch Barns, Round Barns, Big Barns, Collapsed Barns it didn’t matter. He loved Barns. I think because they always were great photoshots.

Special Events: He didn’t take professional photos at weddings but when the Appalachian Wagon Train or the re-enactments and the rebuilding of Hannastown in Westmoreland County PA was happening, he was there. I have a photo diary of these events.

Misc Things: Cowfolk as Fred called them can be seen in many photos. Yes he actually wrote cowfolk on the slides. He photographed the Dinosaurs exhibit when they came to Greengate Mall in Greensburg PA, the mall itself, car shows at the mall.  He would take pictures of water falls, flowers, and just about anything that caught his eye.

There are many slides that will not be on the website, such as flowers, family photos and misc shots. But I don’t know if he knew it or know when he was taking the photos that he was capturing history. To him it was just a hobby.

Places where you can see his photos:

Lost Bridges A website that is data basing ALL Covered Bridges in the World. If you are looking for a particular bridge, Lost Bridges will have it. They are a work in progress, but list all known bridges.

Indiana County Parks and Recreation. Fred had a paper that was old, typed but had information on about Blairsville Covered Bridge. Indiana County created a pamphlet about that information which can be found here.

Adam’s Roadsign Website. This is an awesome website that has Roadsigns from all over the United States. He has pictures from many states and will update you on new signs, as well as historical signs.

York County Pa Newspaper: You will find an article and photo about one of the bridges that are no longer standing.

Ohio Barns: Great website with many historical photos.

Green County PA tourism A link to the Green County Photos taken by Fred.

Greengate Mall Revisited – Gary has done a wonderful job with this website, If you ever been to Greengate mall, this site will bring back many great memories. It’s a great place to relive the days and memories of GreenGate Mall.

Greensburg’s Main Street. Gary has built another great website this time it’s about Greensburg PA. It has some of Fred’s photos on there, and many other great photos and history of the city of Greensburg.