Pittsburgh
As a blue collar city, Pittsburgh has always been apart of American culture. The people in the city know of Pittsburgh's power and influence involving world history. Today, it has a population of about 302,407 people, and its size is 58.34 square miles. Pittsburgh has a metropolitan area of 2.3 million people being the largest in the Ohio Valley and Appalachia. It is the second largest in the state of Pennsylvania (behind Philadelphia). It has the 27th largest one in America. From industry to jazz music, Pittsburgh is a place with dynamic culture. The great playwright August Wilson came from Pittsburgh. Education is a centerpiece of the location with universities like Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's current mayor is the Democrat Bill Peduto, and it has a diverse city council. It is land of rivers as it is located at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. As having more than 300 steel based businesses, it is known as the "Steel City." The city has 30 skyscrapers, two inclined railways, a pre-revolutionary fortification, and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. It once had a population as high as 675,000 people in 1950. Today in 2010, Pittsburgh has world renowned museums, medial centers, parks, research centers, restaurants, malls, and a diverse cultural district. Technology and research companies do find a home to Pittsburgh like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Apple Inc., Facebook, etc. People have occupations in Pittsburgh that deal with cyber defense, software engineering, energy research, and robotics. Back in 2015, Pittsburgh was listed as among the 11 most livable cities in the world. Many of my maternal, distinct cousins live in Pittsburgh too. Also, the Pittsburgh Steelers football is a large staple of the atmosphere in the city as well. The Steelers are long known for their multiple Super Bowl victories. Therefore, you can't understand America's diversity completely without understanding the components of the city of Pittsburgh.
The Early Era
The first people in Pittsburgh were the Native Americans. They lived in the region where the Allegheny and the Monongahela joined to form the Ohio; Paleo-Native Americans conducted a hunter gatherer lifestyle in the region as early as 19,000 years ago. There is an archaeological site west of Pittsburgh called Meadowcroft Rockshelter. It showed evidence of the first Americans who lived in the region. The Adena culture existed, and there was Mound Builders, who erected a large Native American mound at the future site of McKees Rocks. This location was about three miles (5 km.) from the head of the Ohio. The Native American Mound was a burial site, which was augmented in later years by members of the Hopewell culture. By the year of 1700, the Iroquois Confederacy (which is the Five Nations based south of the Great Lakes in present day New York) controlled over the upper Ohio valley reserving it for hunting grounds. Other tribes were the Lenape (called the Delaware), who had been displaced from eastern Pennsylvania by European settlement, and the Shawnee (who had migrated up from the south). After European explorers came into North America, many Native American tribes were devastated by European infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, influenza, and malaria when the tribes had no immunity to. In 1748, Conrad Weiser visited Logstown 18 miles downriver from Pittsburgh. He counted 789 warriors gathered; the Iroquois included 163 Seneca, 74 Mohawk, 35 Onodaga, 20 Cayuga, and 15 Oneida. Other tribes were 165 Lenape, 162 Shawnee, 100 Wyandot, 40 Tisagechroami, and 15 Mohican. Shannopin's Town, a Seneca tribe village on the east bank of the Allegheny, was the home village of Queen Aliquippa.
It was deserted after 1749. Sawcunk, on the mouth of the Beaver River, was a Lenape (Delaware) settlement and the principal residence of Shingas, a chief of theirs. Chartier's Town was a Shawnee town established in 1734 by Peter Chartier. Kittanning was a Lenape and Shawnee village on the Allegheny, with estimated 300–400 residents. The first Europeans who came into Pittsburgh were traders by the 1710’s. Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio via a manuscript in 1717, and later that year European traders established posts and settlements in the area.
Europeans first started to settle in the region seriously in 1748. That was when the first Ohio Company, an English land speculation company, won a grant of 200,000 acres in the upper Ohio Valley. From a post at present day Cumberland, Maryland, the company started to form a 80 mile wagon road to Monogahela River. He used a Native American chief named Nemacolin and a party of settlers (head by Michael Cresap) to start widening the track into a road. It mostly followed the same route as an ancient Native American trail. This trail is known as the Nemacolin’s Trail. The river crossing and flats at Redstone creek was the earliest point and shortest distance for a wagon road. Later in the war, the site fortified as Fort Burd (now Brownsville) was one of several possible destinations. Another alternative was the divergent route that became Braddock's Road a few years later through present-day New Stanton. As time came out, the colonists did not succeed in improving the Native American path to a wagon road much beyond the Cumberland Narrows pass before they were confronted by other Native Americans. The colonists later mounted a series of expeditions in order to accomplish piecemeal improvements to the track.
The French had built nearby Logstown as a trade and council center for the Native Americans to increase their influence in the Ohio Valley. Between June 15 and November 10, 1749, an expedition headed by Celeron de Bienville, a French officer, traveled down the Allegheny and Ohio to bolster the French claim to the region. De Bienville warned away English traders and posted markers claiming the territory. In 1753, Marquis Duquesne, the Governor of New France, sent another, larger expedition. At present-day Erie, Pennsylvania, an advance party built Fort Presque Isle. They also cut a road through the woods and built Fort Le Boeuf on French Creek, from which it was possible at high water to float to the Allegheny. By summer, an expedition of 1,500 French and Native American men descended the Allegheny. Some wintered at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny. The following year, they built Fort Machault at that site.
The French led incursions into the Ohio valley. That is why Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent George Washington (who was a Major at the time) to warn the French to withdraw. He was with Christopher Gist. He came at the Forks of the Ohio on November 25, 1753. Along the Allegheny, Washington presented Dinwiddie’s letter to the French commanders first at Venango and then at Fort Le Boeuf. The French officers received Washington with wine and courtesy. Yet, the French refused to withdraw. Governor Dinwiddie later sent Captain William Trent to create a fort at the Forks of the Ohio. By February 17, 1754, Trent started construction of the fort. This was the first European habitation at the site of modern day Pittsburgh. It was called Fort Prince George. It was only half built by April of 1754 when over 500 French forces arrived. They ordered the 40 some colonials to come back to Virginia. The French tore down the British fortification and built Fort Duquesne. Governor Dinwiddie then created another expedition. Colonel Joshua Fry commanded the regiment with his second-in-command, George Washington, leading an advance column. On May 28, 1754, Washington's unit clashed with the French in the Battle of Jumonville Glen, during which 13 French soldiers were killed and 21 were taken prisoner. After the battle, Washington's ally, Seneca chief Tanaghrisson, unexpectedly executed the French commanding officer, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. The French pursued Washington and on July 3, 1754, George Washington surrendered following the Battle of Fort Necessity. These frontier actions contributed to the start of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), or, the Seven Years' War, an imperial confrontation between England and France fought in both hemispheres. In 1755, George Washington worked with the British General Braddock’s expedition. They traveled into the Allegheny Mountains. They crossed the Appalachian Mountains. Braddocks’ road existed. This was part of the US40 National Road today. Some French people attacked Braddock’s forces. Braddock was wounded and killed. The British and colonial forces retreated. Native Americans and their French allies for a time controlled the upper Ohio valley.
On September 8, 1756, an expedition of 300 militiamen destroyed the Shawnee and Lenape village of Kittanning, and in the summer of 1758, British General John Forbes began a campaign to capture Fort Duquesne. At the head of 7,000 regular and colonial troops, Forbes built Fort Ligonier and Fort Bedford, from where he cut a wagon road over the Allegheny Mountains, later known as Forbes' Road. On the night of September 13–14, 1758, an advance column under Major James Grant was massacred in the Battle of Fort Duquesne. Forbes fought the French. The French lost Fort Frontenac and razed Fort Duquesne. Forbes ordered the construction of Fort Pitt named after the British Secretary of State William Pitt the Elder. This land was between rivers called Pittsborough or Pittsburgh. The French forces were soon defeated and signed the Treaty of Paris to end the French and Indian war. The French ceded their territories east of the Mississippi River. European settlements grew in Fort Pitt and around it. In April 1761, a census ordered by Colonel Henry Bouquet counted 332 people and 104 houses. Native Americans fought back to defend their lands via the Pontiac War. The Odawa leader Pontiac fought British forts in May of 1763 at the Ohio Valley. Great Lakes tribes overran forts. Many of the colonists were in ramparts for refuge. Pontiac’s attack at Fort Pitt lasted for 2 months. It started on June 22, 1763. The Iroquois signed the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768, ceding the lands south of the Ohio to the British.
European expansion into the upper Ohio valley increased. An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 families settled in western Pennsylvania between 1768 and 1770. Of these settlers, about a third were English, a third were Scotch-Irish, and the rest were Welsh, German and others. Settlers dealt with harsh winters, bears, snakes, mountain lions, and timber wolves. Native Americans like the Shawnee, Miami, and Wyandot fought for their survival literally. The Dunmore’s War existed in 1774. Conflict spread all over the American Revolution. In 1777, Fort Pitt was an American fort. Seneca villages were destroyed along the upper Allegheny by forces from Colonel Daniel Brodhead in 1779 (with 600 men). With the war still ongoing, in 1780 Virginia and Pennsylvania came to an agreement on their mutual borders, creating the state lines known today and determining finally that the jurisdiction of Pittsburgh region was Pennsylvanian. In 1783, the Revolutionary War ended, which also brought at least a temporary cessation of border warfare. In the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Iroquois ceded the land north of the Purchase Line to Pennsylvania. By 1795, Pittsburgh started to grow. Farmers existed. There was the Pittsburgh Academy in February 28, 1787. Hugh Henry Brackenridge promoted education. After the American Revolution, the boat building industry flourished in Pittsburgh. Manufacturing grew. There was a courthouse and Market Square. Glass was readily created in the city via manufacturing.
The 19th Century
By the year of 1800, things started to change in Pittsburgh. Commerce was a big part of its economy. Manufacturing developed. It had great coalfields by then. The region became rich in petroleum, natural gas, lumber, and farm goods. There were blacksmiths who made iron, horse shoes, and nails. Pittsburgh by 1800 had a population of 1,565 persons, over 60 shops, general stores, bakeries, and hat plus shoe shops. By the 1810’s, Pittsburgh grew even more. The first steamboat was built in the city by 1811. Commerce would flow upriver. The War of 1812 further catalyzed the growth of the Iron City. The war with Britain, the manufacturing center of the world during that time period, cut off the supply of British goods, stimulating American manufacture. Also, the British blockade of the American coast increased inland trade, so that goods flowed all over Pittsburgh from all four directions. In 1815, Pittsburgh was producing $764,000 in iron, $249K in brass and tin, and $235K in glass products. On March 18, 1816, Pittsburgh was incorporated as a city; it had already taken on some of its defining characteristics, commerce, manufacture, and a constant cloud of coal dust. Other towns economically challenged Pittsburgh too. There was the National Road’s first segment completed in 1818 that linked Baltimore to Wheeling. It bypassed Pittsburgh. Later, there were many improvements in transportation infrastructure. The Smithfield Street Bridge opened the first step in developing the city of bridges in 1818. By October 1, 1840, the original Pennsylvania Turnpike was finished. It linked Pittsburgh and the eastern port city of Philadelphia. In 1834, Pennsylvania Main Line Canal was completed. It made Pittsburgh part of a transportation system that included rivers, roads, and canals. The first locomotive west of the Alleghenies was created by McClurg, Wade, and Co. back in 1835. Machines flourished, and Pittsburgh was one of the largest cities west of the mountains by the 1840’s. In 1841, the Second Court House on Grant’s Hill was finished. It was made up of polished gray sandstone; the court house had a rotunda of 60 ft. in diameter and 80 ft. high.
Pittsburgh’s growth back then outstripped some of its resources like the water supply with dependable pressure. That is why on April 10, 1845, a great fire burned out of control. It destroyed over a thousand buildings and caused $9M in damages. As the city rebuilt, the age of rails arrived. In 1851, the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad began service between Cleveland and Allegheny City (present-day North Side). In 1854, the Pennsylvania Railroad began service between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Despite many challenges, Pittsburgh had grown into an industrial powerhouse. An 1857 article provided a snapshot of the Iron City. By 1857, there were 939 factories in Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, more than 10,000 workers were employed, it produced almost 12 million dollars of goods, etc. It was the third busiest port in the nation surpassed only by New York City and New Orleans. The iron industry was big in the city. Later, many of the Scotch Irish people had a stronghold of the industry in Pittsburgh. New immigrants after 1800’s made this a reality. For example, Thomas Mellon (b. Ulster 1813–1908) left Northern Ireland in 1823 for the United States. He founded the powerful Mellon family, which played a central role in banking and industries such as aluminum and oil. As Barnhisel (2005) finds, industrialists such as James H. Laughlin (b. Ulster 1806–1882) of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company comprised the "Scots-Irish Presbyterian ruling stratum of Pittsburgh society." Iron furnaces used coke fire smelting in the region. The American Civil War allowed Pittsburgh’s economic power to grow. Arms were created. A milestone in steel production was achieved in 1875, when the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock began to make steel rail using the new Bessemer process. Industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew W. Mellon, and Charles M. Schwab built their fortunes in Pittsburgh. Also based in Pittsburgh was George Westinghouse, credited with such advancements as the air brake and founder of over 60 companies, including Westinghouse Air and Brake Company (1869), Union Switch and Signal (1881), and Westinghouse Electric Company (1886).
Banks played a key role in Pittsburgh's development as these industrialists sought massive loans to upgrade plants, integrate industries and fund technological advances. For example, T. Mellon and Sons Bank, founded in 1869, helped to finance an aluminum reduction company that became Alcoa. Ingham (1991) shows how small, independent iron and steel manufacturers survived and prospered from the 1870s through the 1950s, despite competition from much larger, standardized production firms. These smaller firms were built on a culture that valued local markets and the beneficial role of business in the local community. Small firms concentrated on specialized products, particularly structural steel, where the economies of scale of larger firms were no advantage. They embraced technological change more cautiously than larger firms. They also had less antagonistic relations with workers and employed a higher percentage of highly skilled workers than their mass-production counterparts. By the 1870’s, entrepreneurs transformed the economy from small, craft-organized factories located inside the city limits to a large integrated industrial region stretching 50 miles across Allegheny County. The new industrial Pittsburgh was based on integrated mills, mass production, and modern management organization in steel and other industries. Labor unions fought for economic rights.
There was a rapid growth of capital, plants, railroad equipment, and glass resources. This led to more mill towns, satellite cities, and hundreds of mining towns. Strikes came about too. Many people wanted more environmentalism. Residents of Vandergrift caused loyalty among McMurtry’s skilled workers. German immigrants came into Pittsburgh too. During the mid-19th century, Pittsburgh witnessed a dramatic influx of German immigrants, including a brick mason whose son, Henry J. Heinz, founded the H.J. Heinz Company in 1872. Heinz was at the forefront of reform efforts to improve food purity, working conditions, hours, and wages, but the company bitterly opposed the formation of an independent labor union. There was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 involving labor unions. There were demonstrations. There was violence via the Pittsburgh Railway Riots. Militia and federal troops came to the city to stop the strike. There were more strikes too. The Pinkertons were sent to break the Homestead Strike. Labor strife continued into the years of the Great Depression, as workers sought to protect their jobs and improve working conditions. Unions organized H.J. Heinz workers, with the assistance of the Catholic Radical Alliance. Andrew Carnegie was an immigrant from Scotland. He made the Carnegie Steel Company and he was a former PA Railroad executive turned steel magnate. He was a philanthropist too. Carnegie made the Carnegie Library in 1890. He also funded libraries in various cities. He was involved in making the Carnegie Institute in 1895.
The Early 20th Century
In 1901, as the U.S. Steel Corporation formed, he sold his mills to J.P. Morgan for $250 million, making him one of the world's richest men. Carnegie once wrote that a man who dies rich, dies disgraced. He devoted the rest of his life to public service, establishing libraries, trusts, and foundations. In Pittsburgh, he founded the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
The third (and present) Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail was completed in 1886. In 1890, trolleys began operations. In 1907, Pittsburgh annexed Allegheny City, which is now known as the North Shore. In the early 1900’s, Pittsburgh became an industrial powerhouse. It produced thousands of freight yards. It produced pig iron, steel, and other shoes. Bootlegging was found in the Prohibition era. During that time, Prohibition Administrator John Pennington and his federal agents engaged in 15,000 raids, arrested over 18,000 people and closed down over 3,000 distilleries, 16 regular breweries, and 400 'wildcat' breweries. Even the term "Speakeasy," meaning an illegal drinking establishment, is said to have been coined at the Blind Pig in nearby McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Flooding has existed in 1936 in Pittsburgh. Also, Pittsburgh developed its culture in Oakland. There was the University of Pittsburgh, the 42 story Cathedral of Learning, and Forbes Field where the Pittsburgh Pirates played from 1909 to 1970. By the late 19th century to the early 20th century, new immigrants arrived from Italy, Eastern Europe, Russia, Hungary, etc. They were Polish, Jewish people, and other ethnic groups. Many restaurants today show the multicultural aspect of Pittsburgh. The years 1916–1940 marked the largest migration of African Americans to Pittsburgh during the Great Migration from the rural South to industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest. These migrants came for industrial jobs, education, political and social freedom, and to escape racial oppression and violence in the South. Known as the cultural nucleus of Black Pittsburgh, Wylie Avenue in the Hill District was an important jazz mecca. Jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Pittsburgh natives Billy Strayhorn and Earl Hines played there. Two of the Negro League's greatest rivals, the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays, often competed in the Hill District.
The teams dominated the Negro National League in the 1930s and 1940s. Pittsburgh had strong Republican support back then. The Great Depression came and overnight, Pittsburgh became a strong Democratic stronghold. There was the New Deal Coalition where many ethnic groups voted in favor of the WPA, and other Democratic programs for jobs and relief. Joseph Guffey, statewide leader of the Democrats, and his local lieutenant David Lawrence gained control of all federal patronage in Pittsburgh after Roosevelt's landslide victory in 1932 (and the election of a Democratic mayor in 1933). Guffey and Lawrence used the New Deal programs to increase their political power and build up a Democratic machine that superseded the decaying Republican machine. Guffey acknowledged that a high rate of people on relief was not only "a challenge" but also "an opportunity." He regarded each relief job as Democratic patronage. By World War II, Pittsburgh supplied the Allies steel, aluminum, munitions, and machinery for America during that era. Pittsburgh's mills contributed 95 million tons of steel to the war effort. The increased production output created a workforce shortage, which resulted in African Americans moving en masse during the Second Great Migration from the South to the city in order to find work.
The Civil Rights Movement of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh has a long history with civil rights. In 1788, the General Assembly was petitioned to form Allegheny County (four of the signatories were free black men). Black people back then worked in steel mills, steamboat buildings, and in the service sector. During the Revolutionary War, black people fought on both sides for their goal of ultimate freedom. By the early 1800's, slavery was gone in Pennsylvania. The African American photographer Teenie Harris took pictures of the black community and the Civil Rights Movement in general taking place in the great city of Pittsburgh. The Freedom Corner is a famous memorial in the Hill District that remembers or commemorates the civil rights marches and protests that took place in the city of Pittsburgh. Freedom Corner is found on the intersection of Centre Avenue and Crawford Street. It was a meeting point for 2,000 citizens from Pittsburgh who gathered in 1963 to go to the 1963 historic March on Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his great “I Have a Dream” speech at D.C. Long ago, Pittsburgh was a key location of the Underground Railroad (which included extensive routes were enslaved people came into in order to be free from bondage and injustice). The Underground Railroad (with black leaders like John B. Vashon, John Peck, and Lewis Woodson) facilitated the escape of about 100,000 African Americans from the slaveholding South and Midwest. The North Side or the Allegheny was one local location of the Underground Railroad.
North Side’s Avery College was created to allow black people to have the opportunity to receive a higher education (when black people back then were not admitted to other colleges and universities). The people involved in the College were both black and white civil rights leaders. Their names are Martin Delany (he was one of the first black people admitted to Harvard Medical School. He was a writer, scientist, and physician. He founded Pittsburgh’s first African American University), John Vashon, and Lewis Woodson (who are black Americans) including Charles Avery, Julius Lemoyne, and Jane Grey Swisshelem (who are white Americans). During the U.S. Civil War, Pennsylvania had the 2nd highest enlistment of Union soldiers at 340,000 along with 8,600 being black people. More than 33,000 Pennsylvanians died in the war. After 1863, many black people worked in Pittsburgh factories to get economic work. Slavery wasn’t in Pittsburgh at the time, but black people fought racism and oppression in the city. That is why black leaders organized several protests to try to end discrimination. In 1910, the Pittsburgh Courier was founded. This is one of the oldest and well known black newspapers in America. The Pittsburgh Courier regularly inspired the cause of civil rights constantly. The Pittsburgh Board of Education hired its first black teacher named Lawrence Peeler in 1937. It was a victory. By 1930, there were 55,000 black Americans in Pittsburgh. The black community created the Urban League, churches, the NAACP, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Homestead Grays, etc. Mary Lou Williams, Errol Garner, Lena Horne, and Billy Eckstine performed in the city. Hill District is a mecca of black culture in the city.
"You got to be right with yourself before you can be right with anybody else."
"“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness."
-August Wilson
The Late 20th Century
After World War II, many changes happened in Pittsburgh. Back then, smog was everywhere in Pittsburgh. It was so thick that streetlights burned during the day. Rivers looked like open sewers. Civic leaders like Mayor David L. Lawrence (David L. Lawrence, elected in 1945), Richard K. Mellon, chairman of Mellon Bank and John P. Robin began smoke control and urban revitalization, also known as Urban Renewal projects that transformed the city in unforeseen ways. "Renaissance I" began in 1946. Title One of the Housing Act of 1949 provided the means in which to begin. By 1950, vast swaths of buildings and land near the Point were demolished for Gateway Center. 1953 saw the opening of the (since demolished) Greater Pittsburgh Municipal Airport terminal. By the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Lower Hill District (an area inhabited by mostly people of black African descent) was completely destroyed. 95 acres of the lower Hill District was cleared suing eminent domain. Hundreds of small businesses and more than 8,000 people (of 1,239 black families and 312 white families) were forcibly displaced. The city wanted to make a cultural center that included the Civic Arena which opened in 1961. Other than one apartment building, none of the other buildings planned for the cultural center were ever built. In the early 1960's, the neighborhood of East Liberty was also included in Renaissance I Urban Renewal plans, with over 125 acres (0.51 km2) of the neighborhood being demolished and replaced with garden apartments, three 20-story public housing apartments, and a convoluted road-way system that circled a pedestrianized shopping district. In the span of just a few years during the mid-1960's, East Liberty became a blighted neighborhood. There were some 575 businesses in East Liberty in 1959, but only 292 in 1970, and just 98 in 1979. Preservation efforts done by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (along with community neighborhood groups) resisted the demolition plans.
The neighborhoods with rich architectural heritage are the Mexican War Streets, Allegheny West, and Manchester. The center of Allegheny City has culturally and socially important buildings. It wasn’t as lucky. All of the buildings, with the exception of the Old U.S. Post Officer, the Carnegie Library, and Buhl Planetarium were destroyed. They were replaced with the pedestrianized Alleghany Center Mall and apartments. Pittsburgh’s industrial base grew in the post war era. It was assisted by the area’s first agency which was totally devoted to the industrial development (called the RIDC). Jones and Laughlin Steel Company expanded its plant on the Southside. H. J. Heinz, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Alcoa, Westinghouse, and U.S. Steel (plus its new division of the Pittsburgh Plate Company along with other companies) continued robust operations in the 1960’s. In 1970, Renaissance I completed its building projects. There was the U.S. Steel Tower and the Three Rivers Stadium. In 1974, with the addition of the fountain at the tip of the Golden Triangle, Point State Park was completed. Although air quality was dramatically improved, and Pittsburgh’s manufacturing base seemed solid questions about the negative effects Urban Renewal continue to have on the social fabric of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh would later go into a dramatic transformation. Rebellions existed in Pittsburgh like in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By the 1970’s and the 1980’s, the U.S. steel industry came from more pressure from foreign competition and form American mini mills that had much lower overhead by using salvaged steel. Manufacture in Germany and Japan was booming. Foreign mills and factories, built with the latest technology, benefited from lower labor costs and powerful government-corporate partnerships, allowing them to capture increasing market shares of steel and steel products. Separately, demand for steel softened due to recessions, the 1973 oil crisis, and increasing use of other materials. The era began with the RIDC's "Building on Basics" report in 1974. Free market pressures exposed the U.S. steel industry’s own internal problems. Their problems dealt with a now outdated manufacturing base that over expanded in the 1950’s plus the 1960’s, hustle management including labor relationships, oligarchic management styles, the inflexibility of the United Steelworkers involving wage cuts and work rule reforms, and poor strategic planning (by both unions and management). Pittsburgh had challenged. Local coke and iron ore despotized were depleted. This raised material costs. The large mills in Pittsburgh region faced competition from newer, more profitable mini mills and non-union mills with lower labor costs. By the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the steel industry in Pittsburgh started to implode. There was massive deindustrialization in America. Following the 1981–1982 recession, for example, the mills laid off 153,000 workers. The steel mills began to shut down. These closures caused a ripple effect, as railroads, mines, and other factories across the region lost business and closed. The local economy suffered a depression, marked by high unemployment and underemployment, as laid-off workers took lower-paying, non-union jobs. Pittsburgh suffered as elsewhere in the Rust Belt with a declining population, and like many other U.S. cities, it also saw white flight to the suburbs. In 1991, the Homestead Works was demolished, replaced in 1999 by The Waterfront shopping mall. As a direct result of the loss of mill employment, the number of people living in Homestead dwindled. By the time of the 2000 census, the borough population was 3,569. The borough began financially recovering in 2002, with the enlarging retail tax base. Larger firms brought out top corporate headquarters like Gulf Oil (1985), Koppers (1987), Westinghouse (1996), and Rockwell International (1989). There was the loss of high paying, white collar headquarters and research personnel. Many massive charitable contributions by the home based companies to local cultural and educational institutions declined. At the time of the Gulf Oil merger in 1985, it was the largest buyout in world history involving the company that was No. 7 on the Fortune 500 just six years earlier. Over 1,000 high paying white collar corporate and PhD research jobs were lost in one day. Today, there are no steel mills within the city limits of Pittsburgh, although manufacture continues at regional mills, such as the Edgar Thomson Works in nearby Braddock.
Many educational services exist in Pittsburgh. They include the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and Duquesne University. Many of these university places deal with research, science, technology, etc. There are other regional collegiate institutions like Robert Morris University, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and the Community College of Allegheny County. By the 1980’s, Pittsburgh shifted its economy from heavy industry to services, medicine, higher education, tourism, banking, corporate headquarters, and high technology. Today, the top two private employers in the city are the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (26,000 employees) and the West Penn Allegheny Health System (13,000 employees). Some improvements did exist in the mid-1970's. Arthur P. Ziegler Jr. and the Pittsburgh History and landmarks Foundations wanted to have historic preservation. They wanted economic development to grow. The catch was that many wanted eminent domain or public subsidies. Landmarks acquired the former terminal buildings and yards of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, a 1-mile (1.6 km) long property at the base of Mt. Washington facing the City of Pittsburgh. In 1976, Landmarks developed the site as a mixed-use historic adaptive reuse development that gave the foundation the opportunity to put its urban planning principles into practice. Aided by an initial generous gift from the Allegheny Foundation in 1976, Landmarks adapted five historic Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad buildings for new uses and added a hotel, a dock for the Gateway Clipper fleet, and parking areas. Now, shops, offices, restaurants, and entertainment anchor the historic riverfront site on the south shore of the Monongahela River, opposite the Golden Triangle (Pittsburgh). Station Square is Pittsburgh's premier attraction, generating over 3,500,000 visitors a year. It reflects a $100 million investment from all sources, with the lowest public cost and highest taxpayer return of any major renewal project in the Pittsburgh region since the 1950's.
A New Era
In 1994, Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation sold Station Square in to Forest City Enterprises which created an endowment to help support its restoration efforts and educational programs. Each year, the staff and docents of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation introduce more than 10,000 people – teachers, students, adults, and visitors – to the architectural heritage of the Pittsburgh region and to the value of historic preservation. Many people like Dorothy Mae Richardson fought for community development in Pittsburgh.
She founded Neighborhood Housing Services in 1968. This organized was the foundation for the national NeighborWorks Americans. Richardson is an activist. She wanted to rehabilitate Pittsburgh rather than demolish and redevelop. In 1985, the J and L Steel site on the north side of the Monongahela River was cleared and a publicly subsidized High Technology Center was built. The Pittsburgh Technology Center, home to many major technology companies, is planning major expansion in the area soon. In the 1980's, the "Renaissance II" urban revitalization created numerous new structures, such as PPG Place. In the 1990's, the former sites of the Homestead, Duquesne and South Side J and L mills were cleared. In 1992, the new terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport opened. In 2001, the aging Three Rivers Stadium was replaced by Heinz Field and PNC Park, despite being rejected by voter referendum. In 2010, PPG Paints Arena replaced the Civic Arena, which at the time was the oldest arena in the National Hockey League. Also in 1985, Al Michaels revealed to a national TV audience how Pittsburgh had transformed itself from an industrial rust belt city. Today, Pittsburgh has a diversified economy. Many places have a low cost of living compared to other large cities. There are educational and cultural institutions. Tourism has grown in Pittsburgh with almost 3,000 new hotel rooms operating since 2004. Meanwhile, Apple, Google, Uber, and Intel have joined the 1,600 technology firms choosing to operate out of Pittsburgh. The region has also become a leader in green environmental design, a movement exemplified by the city's convention center. In the last twenty years the region has seen a small but influential group of Asian immigrants, including from the Indian sub-continent. Pittsburgh has gone through ups and downs, but Pittsburgh is still here in its strength and beauty.
The Culture of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s culture has a long history of philanthropy, cultural diversity, and research. Many nonprofit organizations donated millions of dollars to educational and cultural institutions. The Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh is influenced by diverse architectural influences. The David L. Lawrence Convention Center is found on the south bank of the Allegheny River. It is a very well-known place where conventions, exhibitions and conferences are held. It is the first ever green convention center and the world’s largest green building. That is why the building was certified with a Gold rating by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Initiative. The region of Pittsburgh is a location where over 1,000 film and television works have been hosted since 1898 (when the first production film in the city). Since 1990, the Pittsburgh Film Office has marketed the greater southwestern Pennsylvania region as a great location for movie, television and commercial productions. The PFO has assisted more than 102 feature films and television productions to southwestern Pennsylvania to generate an economic impact of more than $575 million for the region. Pittsburgh Filmmakers teaches media arts and runs three "arthouse" movie theaters and since 1981 the Three Rivers Film Festival has brought national attention to local talent and artists of the region. Theater is prominent in Pittsburgh. The late Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson was involved in Fences and other plays about African American life. The Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University has four resident theater companies like Bald Theater Company, etc. Multicultural cuisine is found in the city. They came from European immigrants, African Americans, and other human beings. There are foods like the Slavic American pierogi, cabbage rolls, chipped ham, city chicken, Clark bar, halusky, Italian sausage, and Sarris Candies. Many parks like Schenley Park, Grand View Scenic Byway Park, and Highland Park represent the major parks of the city. Jazz had great importance in Pittsburgh. The Hill District had many jazz musicians like Billy Strayhorn, Ahmad Jamal, Mary Lou Williams, and other people. There are tons of African American historic places in Pittsburgh like the Pryor Furst/Ella-Reen Beauty School. It was the first black beauty school in Pittsburgh. Crawford Grill No. 2 was opened in 1943 as a place where black social life was abundant. It was owned by William A. (Gus) Greenlee. He was the owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords black baseball team. The well-known Mark’s AME Zion Church in Pittsburgh existed in the brick Romanesque Revival style. It united black people in the Lawrenceville area. The religious location promotes social leadership and spiritual plus moral strength in the community.
Conclusion
When you think about blue collar strength, you think about the city of Pittsburgh. It has existed for centuries in America. From the Revolutionary War to the U.S. Civil Rights movement, Pittsburgh has been at the center of the confines of American culture. We live in unique times. Yet, we always remember that we do share many things in common. We believe in equality and justice for all. We care for our families. We realize that we are mortal in realizing that caring for the environment is a quintessential part of our duty to the Universe. The grit of the people in Pittsburgh is inspirational. It's a city that doesn't have dull experiences. From being involved in the Civil Rights Movement to developing diverse industries, Pittsburgh outlines the power of American resiliency. In life, you have to live. Being on this Earth for almost 4 decades have made me aware of the great value of the diversity of the human race. I will never forget the power of my ancestors, and I will always strive to fight for a better future.
By Timothy
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