: Pittsburgh’s cemeteries are both interesting and educational. From the stately beauty of Allegheny Cemetery to the new Green Burial practices of Penn Forest Natural Burial Park, there is something to interest everyone.
Read the Full Article →
Pittsburgh is a city like no other for many reasons; one of which is our terrain. Our hilly–and in some cases mountainous–peaks as well as our numerous creeks, streams, and three rivers have shaped our landscape and our culture. Our geography has resulted in more bridges than Venice, Italy; inclines to shuttle people up and down hillsides; a system of color-coded beltways for navigating our sometimes
Read the Full Article →
An examination of the long history of the Jewish people reveals immigration to many lands across the globe. Over the millennia, whether by force or by necessity, that Diaspora has left the world with communities of Jews scattered all over the world. Pittsburgh is no exception as Jewish people have lived here since the 1800’s. The exact time when Jews began to come to Pittsburgh
Read the Full Article →
The people who settled Western Pennsylvania were a resourceful lot, making use of everything at their disposal and wasting nothing. Those characteristics are still present in residents here today. The first settlers in this area faced a savage wilderness. They were isolated; they warred with the native peoples they were displacing; and their lives depended upon scratching out an existence from the untamed land. Most
Read the Full Article →
The dictionary defines a riot as a “violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd.” Riots start for different reasons. Pittsburgh’s first riot occurred in 1794. Unfortunately, it was not the last riot to be seen in Southwest Pennsylvania. Whiskey Rebellion After the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States government was deeply in debt in 1791. At the urging of the Secretary of Treasury
Read the Full Article →
Nearly 100 years after his death, Andrew Carnegie still provokes a spectrum of emotions, everything from admiration to disdain. Perhaps that is because he himself was a man of stark contrasts. His story is a fascinating one of rags to unfathomable riches, labor champion to union enemy, autocrat to delegator, ruthless competitor to the most magnanimous philanthropist in history. Andrew Carnegie was born on November
Read the Full Article →
Shakespeare wrote: “All the world’s a stage.” That may be so, but some make their entrance at precisely the right moment in history’s drama. Such is the case with legendary golfer Arnold Palmer. Counted among the greatest golfers of all time, Palmer made his debut during the rise of the television age, making him a household name, setting off a boom in golf, and establishing
Read the Full Article →
Pittsburgh may be most associated with black and gold, but when it comes to the Irish in the area, they’d paint the city green. Almost from its founding there have been Irish in Pittsburgh. The first arrivals were the Scots-Irish in the 1700s, and then later in the 1800s the Irish Catholics began to arrive. Near the middle of the 1800s, The Great Potato Famine
Read the Full Article →
Ah, St. Patrick’s Day. Shamrocks. Green beer. Parades. Rubber boots. For Floyd Hughes, my late grandfather, St. Patrick’s Day always reminded him of rubber boots. In March 1936, Pup-Pup, as his grandchild and great-grandchildren called him, was a 21-year-old shipping clerk for Eastman Kodak in Pittsburgh. A husband and father with a 9-month-old daughter, he lived on Spring Hill and took a streetcar to work
Read the Full Article →
In the movie Back to the Future, teenager Marty McFly goes back in time by way of a souped-up DeLorean and the help of an eccentric scientist. But you don’t need an old sports car or the assistance of Doc Brown to go back in time. All you need is a visit to Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Incline. The Duquesne Incline, located at 1197 West Carson Street
Read the Full Article →
