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43 results for “history”
attractionHeinz History CenterInteractive museum showcasing Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania history, including the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum.Pittsburgh historySports MuseumInteractive exhibits
attractionCarnegie Museum of Natural HistoryWorld-renowned museum featuring dinosaur fossils, gems, minerals, and extensive natural history collections.Dinosaur fossilsGem collectionHillman Hall
storyPittsburgh Cleaned Up City Hall—Then Power Learned the New RulesIn 1911 Pittsburgh replaced its sprawling ward-based councils with nine at-large seats; decades later, representation problems forced the city to reform the reform.Historycity council1911 reform
storyThe Day Donora’s Air Killed the TownIn October 1948, a temperature inversion trapped industrial pollution over Donora, killing 20 people immediately and sickening thousands in one of America’s defining air-pollution disasters.HistoryDonora1948 smog
storyThe Day Pittsburgh Swallowed an Entire CityAllegheny City voted against consolidation, but Pennsylvania counted Pittsburgh and Allegheny together; Pittsburgh’s larger majority prevailed and the fight ended at the U.S. Supreme Court.HistoryAllegheny CityNorth Side
storyThe Day Private Gunmen Invaded a Pittsburgh Steel TownAt Homestead in 1892, a labor dispute became an armed battle after Pinkerton agents arrived by barge to retake the Carnegie Steel works.HistoryHomestead Strike1892
storyThe Decade Homewood Was Left to Fight for ItselfHomewood’s late-twentieth-century crisis was not a one-cause story: disinvestment, housing change, job loss, drugs, violence and community resilience collided across the same streets.HistoryHomewoodBlack Pittsburgh
storyThe Mall That Pittsburgh Built to Save East Liberty—and Nearly Killed ItEast Liberty’s Penn Circle and pedestrian-mall experiment tried to compete with suburban shopping but disrupted the street network and commercial ecosystem it was meant to save.HistoryEast LibertyPenn Circle
storyThe Morning 239 Miners Vanished Beneath the YoughioghenyThe 1907 Darr Mine disaster killed 239 miners and exposed the lethal price hidden inside western Pennsylvania’s coal economy.HistoryDarr Mine1907
storyThe Neighborhood Pittsburgh Almost Erased—and the People Who Fought BackManchester and Chateau show two sides of urban renewal: clearance and industrial conversion on one side, preservation and resident organizing on the other.HistoryManchesterChateau
storyThe Neighborhood Pittsburgh Erased for ProgressLower Hill urban renewal cleared a dense Black neighborhood for a redevelopment vision whose promised replacement city took decades to materialize.HistoryLower Hillurban renewal
storyThe Night the Three Rivers Took PittsburghThe Great St. Patrick’s Day Flood of 1936 drove the rivers to roughly 46 feet at the Point and temporarily broke the machinery of Downtown Pittsburgh.History1936 floodSt Patricks Day flood
storyThe Price of a Pittsburgh CouncilmanPittsburgh’s early-twentieth-century graft investigations showed how council votes, bank interests and public business could acquire a private price—and helped destroy the old council structure.Historycity hallgraft
storyThe Strike That Turned McKees Rocks Into a BattlefieldIn 1909, immigrant workers at Pressed Steel Car challenged opaque pay practices and factory discipline in a strike that exploded into deadly violence.HistoryMcKees RocksPressed Steel Car
storyThe Week Pittsburgh’s Grief Became FireAfter Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 1968, grief, anger, unrest and a later peace march transformed Pittsburgh’s Hill District in different ways across the same week.History1968Martin Luther King Jr
storyThe Year Pittsburgh Became America’s Deadliest CityThe 1918 influenza pandemic killed nearly 4,600 Pittsburgh residents and exposed how war production, crowded transit, smoke and delayed closures amplified biological vulnerability.History1918 influenzapandemic
storyWhen the Steel City Lost the SteelThe collapse of western Pennsylvania steel in the late twentieth century erased jobs faster than communities could replace the wages, tax base and identity built around the mills.Historysteel collapsedeindustrialization
storyThe Restaurants Where Business Was Never Just DinnerIn Pittsburgh’s underworld folklore, every corner booth hides a meeting and every red-sauce restaurant has a secret history. Most of those stories cannot be proven.Historyrestaurantsnightlife
attractionPoint State ParkHistoric park at the confluence of Pittsburgh's three rivers with a stunning fountain and riverfront views.Three rivers confluenceHistoric fountainFort Pitt Museum
storyDavid L. Lawrence: The Mayor Who Understood the MachineDavid L. Lawrence modernized Pittsburgh machine politics as Democratic leader and mayor — organization that reached from ward captains to Renaissance-era power.HistoryDavid L. LawrencePittsburgh mayor
storyPayday At City HallCity Hall corruption is often imagined as a single payoff. The larger danger is a payment system in which every office knows its price and every participant understands what silence is worth.Historycity hallbribery
storyReform Came With Cameras — And Left With The HeadlinesPittsburgh repeatedly announced that corruption had finally been exposed. Grand juries convened, raids filled front pages, officials promised clean government.Historyreformgrand jury
storyRoute 51 After DarkAfter the mills released a shift and Downtown offices went dark, Route 51 became a ribbon of headlights leading south from Pittsburgh.HistoryRoute 51nightlife
storyThe Badge, The Envelope, And The Blind CornerIllegal gambling cannot operate openly for long unless enforcement fails, is avoided, or is purchased. Pittsburgh’s record contains examples of all three, and the differences matter.Historypolicegambling
storyThe City Employee Who Knew Too MuchCorruption survives by making knowledge expensive. The Pittsburgh employee who notices a false invoice or missing payment faces a choice between silence, risk, and the paper trail.Historywhistleblowerscity hall
storyThe Contract Was Decided Before The BidA sealed bid can create the appearance of competition even when the winner is already known — Pittsburgh’s contracting record shows how process theater protects preferred firms.Historypublic contractsMagee-Flinn
storyThe Door With No SignA private club could hide in a building that looked closed — unmarked doors, covered windows, and membership rules that kept Pittsburgh’s after-hours economy off the street.Historyprivate clubsgambling
storyThe Hill’s Three-Digit DreamPittsburgh’s numbers economy turned three digits into a private language of hope — including the August 5, 1930 hit on 805 that lore says broke neighborhood banks.Historynumbers game805
storyThe Neighborhoods That Paid For Everyone Else’s SecretsCorruption stories usually follow the money upward. This chapter follows the cost downward — how protected gambling rooms raise traffic, debt, and fear on ordinary blocks.Historyneighborhoodsdisplacement
storyThe North Side Streets That Changed Names But Not ReputationsBefore it became Pittsburgh’s North Side, Allegheny City had its own government, industries, and reputations — street renames did not erase the older map of power.HistoryNorth SideAllegheny City
storyThe Outlaw Who Became A Newspaper CharacterRocco “Roxie Long” DiPippa lived twice: once in police and court records, and again in newspapers that turned him into a recurring character. Accounts describe a career that included theft.HistoryProhibitioncrime reporting
storyThe Precinct Captain’s Little Black BookBefore voter databases and campaign apps, political intelligence lived in notebooks, kitchens, saloons, union halls, and the memory of a precinct captain. The captain knew who had moved.Historyward politicsprecinct captain
storyThe Showman In The Council ChamberPittsburgh politics has always rewarded performance. A council member who could command a room and produce a headline often mattered as much as the ordinance on the desk.Historycity councilpolitics
storyThe Taverns Where The Walls Kept ScoreThe poker machine did not have to spit out coins to become a gambling device. In Pittsburgh-area taverns, the payout could happen at the cash register.Historygamblingvideo poker
storyThe Three Rivers Had A Fourth Current: CashPittsburgh’s maps show three rivers, but an older power structure moved on a fourth current: cash that rarely appeared in ledgers — through mills, ward clubs, and protected rooms.Historypittsburgh historycorruption
storyThe Vice District Built Beside RespectabilityPittsburgh’s vice districts did not exist outside respectable property markets. Brothels, saloons, lodging houses, theaters, churches, factories, and family homes could occupy the same few blocks.Historyviceproperty records