Alcoa-inspired flagpole with metal Christmas tree shines on near Route 66 in Gilpin

A flagpole in Gilpin has a unique holiday addition, compliments of a former Alcoa employee.

“It’s Dad’s Alcoa flagpole tree,” joked Joseph Kovalchik of his late father’s handmade aluminum creation.

John Kovalchik worked for 34 years as a maintenance electrician at Alcoa’s research lab in New Kensington. He died in 2015.

A proud handyman and aluminum enthusiast, Kovalchik made his first flagpole during the 1970s while living in Allegheny Township.

A second flagpole and Christmas tree was created during the 1980s, while the family of nine was living in Florida.

Joseph Kovalchik, 62, of Gilpin inherited the unique pole after his father died at age 91.

“Like everything else he did, the flagpole was a whim,” Kovalchik said. “It’s a testament to him. A Navy veteran and a flagpole built by hand. I just couldn’t leave it there with a stranger,” said Kovalchik, on his decision to relocate the flagpole back to Western Pennsylvania.

John used sections of conduit from Alcoa to assemble both flagpoles.

The first pole still remains in Allegheny Township.

The second, metal tree-topped pole in Kovalchik’s front yard on Shaffer Road in Gilpin is about 30 feet tall.

The illuminated tree topper is visible to motorists traveling on Route 66.

Having his father’s beloved flagpole is sentimental for Kovalchik.

“It encompasses every project and every Christmas past that I remember as a child with my dad,” he said.

Kovalchik said his father, a Leechburg Area High School graduate and Navy veteran, was a tireless worker.

“The man was always working for money or improving the house or making our lives better,” Kovalchik said. “I don’t know how he and my mom did it — raising seven kids.”

John was married to the late Marleen Kovalchik of Leechburg for 66 years.

The tree was originally designed to accommodate electric lights. It can be lowered and raised by pulling out one bolt.

“He was always designing and building something. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do,” Kovalchik said.

In addition to his job at Alcoa, John Kovalchik worked as a TV repairman.

His affinity for aluminum was evident throughout the family home with aluminum projects that included a star for the exterior of the home and a dumbwaiter elevator that lifted firewood from the ground to the first-floor fireplace.

“We kids never knew his inspirations for any of his projects,” Kovalchik said, “but knew if it hadn’t been for Alcoa our lives would have been different.”