How Pittsburgh became an industrial powerhouse, told through its mills, furnaces, factories, inventors and workers.
Ida Tarbell Standard Oil began in Titusville in 1872, with a tank builder’s daughter listening to her father. Here is what is documented, what she recalled, and where Pittsburgh refiners fit.
Jones & Laughlin owned the houses, the police and the ballot box in Aliquippa. Ten fired steelworkers’ cases led the Supreme Court to uphold the Wagner Act in 1937. Here is the story.
In October 1948 a smog settled over Donora, Pennsylvania. Twenty people died and thousands fell ill. Here is what happened, what the federal inquiry found, and what is still argued.
The Darr Mine disaster of December 19, 1907 killed 239 men and boys near Van Meter. Here is what caused it, how many died, what the reports said, and what remains.
At its peak Pittsburgh ran streetcars on 606 miles of track and 99 routes. Here is how it fell to 58 miles by 1967, the 1917 tunnel disaster that scarred it, and why the South Hills lines survived.
The Liberty Tunnel was built between 1919 and 1922 and opened to traffic on January 30, 1924, before its ventilation was ready. Here is the timeline, the 1924 scare, and the city’s other road tunnels.
Gimbels Pittsburgh shut its doors on September 13, 1986. The reasons were a parent company that wanted out, steep losses, a labor fight, and the shift to the suburbs.
The night of November 2, 1920, was cold and clear in Pittsburgh, and somewhere on the roof of a Westinghouse factory in East Pittsburgh, a small group of men huddled around a transmitter inside a makeshift wooden shack and did something that had never been done before. They broadcast a radio program to the general…
Hard Times on the Iron Rails In the mid-1870s, life for American railroad workers was harsh. The country was mired in a severe economic depression following the Panic of 1873, often called the Long Depression. Businesses were failing by the thousands, unemployment was high, and those who still had jobs saw their wages dropping. The…
When it comes to Pittsburgh comfort food, few aromas evoke nostalgia like the warm, yeasty scent wafting from a fresh loaf of Mancini’s bread. For nearly a century, Mancini’s Bakery has been more than just a purveyor of bread – it’s a beloved institution and a family legacy woven into the fabric of the Steel…