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Illustration of the bronze Kaufmann's clock on the corner of the Kaufmann's department store in downtown Pittsburgh

Meet Me Under the Kaufmann’s Clock: The Store Behind Pittsburgh’s Favorite Landmark

Pittsburgh’s favorite meeting spot grew out of a South Side tailor shop. Here is how the Kaufmann’s clock got its corner, and what became of the Big Store behind it.

Illustration of a Lower Hill District row-house street with a wrecking crane at the end of the block and the downtown skyline behind.

The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Demolished to Build the Civic Arena

Before the Civic Arena’s roof opened to the skyline in 1961, about 95 acres of the Lower Hill District were cleared. Here is what stood there, who left, and what the records can and can’t prove.

Murray Avenue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood on an autumn afternoon, the tree-lined commercial street showing Jewish delis and bakeries with residents walking past, capturing the enduring community character of one of Pittsburgh's most beloved neighborhoods.

Squirrel Hill Pittsburgh: History of a Beloved Neighborhood

Squirrel Hill Pittsburgh sits on the eastern edge of the city where the land rises above Schenley Park and the great university campuses of Oakland, a neighborhood of tree-lined streets, brick rowhouses, and a commercial district on Murray and Forbes avenues that locals call “upstreet.” It is the traditional center of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, and…

A Black female jazz pianist performs under a single spotlight on a concert stage, hands on the keys of a grand piano, capturing the mastery and artistic authority of Mary Lou Williams at the height of her career.

Mary Lou Williams: Pittsburgh’s Queen of Jazz

Mary Lou Williams Pittsburgh origins begin with a child sitting at a piano in East Liberty who could play anything she heard before she was old enough to read music. She was born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1910, but her family moved to Pittsburgh when she was young, and it…

Billy Strayhorn: Pittsburgh’s Hidden Jazz Genius

Billy Strayhorn Pittsburgh origins are the beginning of one of the most remarkable stories in the history of American music, and almost nobody outside of jazz circles knows it. The song “Take the A Train” is one of the most recognizable pieces of music the twentieth century produced. It served for decades as the signature…

A recreated portrait of Martin Delany in Union Army Major's uniform, seated at a desk with books and papers, conveying the intellectual authority and historic significance of Pittsburgh's first Black field officer and founding Black nationalist thinker.

Martin Delany: Pittsburgh’s Father of Black Nationalism

Martin Delany Pittsburgh history begins with a remarkable fact that most people, including most Pittsburghers, have never heard. In February 1865, President Abraham Lincoln personally commissioned Martin Delany as a Major in the Union Army, making him the first Black field officer in the history of the United States. The two men met in early…