If you grew up in the Pittsburgh area before the collapse of the Steel Industry and the city’s industrial base in the 1980’s, there’s a good chance you knew someone who graduated from high school and took a well-paying job in a mill or factory. Or maybe you went to college and had a summer job in one of the area’s factories or mills that
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In the late 1800s, traveling any great distance was expensive, time-consuming, and inconvenient. Television and radio were yet to be invented and the first primitive cars were just coming on the scene. Manned flight was still years away. For the average person, the chance of ever seeing a cactus or a palm tree outside of a book was only a dream. Yet throughout history, perhaps
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The Pittsburgh Penguins, over the past forty-plus years, have turned themselves into one of the most storied franchises in the history of the National Hockey League. Today, led by their young captain, Sidney Crosby, the Penguins have proven year after year to be one of the NHL’s most successful franchises, as well as boasting the title of Stanley Cup Champions in 2009. There has been
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(The History of Pittsburgh Jazz mural by Karen Bognar Khan.) Learn more about it and other great paintings, drawings, collages, and murals on the website www.ArtAddictPrints.com). Jazz is a purely American art form. No one is quite sure where it first began, but its roots lie in the African American experience of the South at the beginning of the 20th century. Perhaps the reason so many
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A quick scan of Pittsburgh’s newspaper archives reveals that Pittsburghers have always been fond of gambling, whether legal or not. Headlines from old issues of The Post-Gazette read like something from Al Capone’s Chicago. “Police Seize Big Gambling Stronghold” emblazoned the front page of the January 20, 1934 issue. “Numbers Rackets Gets Set-Back” headlined the January 26, 1942 edition. The 1942 article details how bookies held
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When you hear “hockey” and “Pittsburgh” in the same sentence, you probably assume that the Penguins are being talked about. Contrary to popular belief, Pittsburgh did have an NHL franchise before the Penguins, which was known as the Pirates. The Pirates came to be in 1925 after the departure of an amateur team called the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets. The Yellow Jackets were a successful team,
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Nine national championships, four hall of fame coaches, countless legendary players and rabidly loyal fans. No it’s not the Steelers but the well-kept Western PA secret known as Pitt Football! With 28 bowl appearances, 86 first team All-American honors and 23 first round NFL draft picks, Pitt football has its own unique and storied history as part of the local sports landscape. Inspired by legends
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While names such as Honus Wagner, Pie Traynor, Lloyd Waner, Paul Waner, Bill McKechnie, Fred Clarke, Arky Vaughan, Ralph Kiner, Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski and Willie Stargell sound like the surnames of a diverse modern Pittsburgh neighborhood, they are part of the honor roll of Hall of Famers who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The franchise’s proud history boasts five World Series titles, nine National
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I didn’t grow up under a roller coaster, like Woody Allen’s character Alvy Singer in the movie Annie Hall, but I did grow up very close to one. I grew up in West View, the home of West View Amusement Park. I was a kid in the 1960’s and 1970’s, right before the park went into decline and closed. But even in its waning days,
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From Poorhouse To Golfer’s Paradise: The Transformation of Woodville All that remains is a makeshift cemetery. The graves are abandoned, smothered by weeds and brush in summer, and buried by snow during winter. Tucked away in transitional space between one of Pittsburgh’s most upscale housing developments and the commercial/industrial area that supports it, there is one major gravestone, marking and commemorating the institution for what
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