As the twentieth century dawned on western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, the region’s steel industry faced a struggle for unionism. Unionists like Philip Murray, John L. Lewis, Samuel Gompers and Gus Hall battled for fair wages, hours and working conditions. Strong managers like Judge Elbert Gary and Tom Girdler opposed their every move. Tensions from […]
PA Books: “Looking Up: From the ABA to the NBA, the WNBA to the NCAA”
In April 2003, Jim O’Brien was the first Pittsburgher inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. This book is a celebration of 60th anniversary of a career as a professional sports writer. O’Brien was the founding editor of Street & Smith’s Basketball Yearbook in 1970 and continued to be associated with the magazine […]
“Prohibition Pittsburgh”
When Prohibition hit the Steel City, it created a level of violence and corruption residents had never witnessed. Illegal producers ran stills in kitchens, basements, bathroom tubs, warehouses and even abandoned distilleries. War between gangs of bootleggers resulted in a number of murders and bombings that placed Pittsburgh on the same level as New York […]
“The Whiskey Rebellion And The Rebirth of Rye: A Pittsburgh Story”
“The Whiskey Rebellion and the Rebirth of Rye” takes readers on a tour of the spirit’s founding, floundering, and current flourishing. Authors Mark Meyer and Meredith Meyer Grelli explore rye whiskey’s revolutionary origins in Western Pennsylvania, the role of Gilded Age robber barons in developing the rye industry and the reemergence of craft distilling in […]
PA Books: Therese Rocco: Pittsburgh’s First Female Assistant Police Chief
Therese Rocco is known to her colleagues as “The Rock.” At the age of nineteen, she began her career in law enforcement as a clerk in a small, all-female missing persons unit of the Pittsburgh Police Department. Her career ended nearly fifty years later as an honored and acclaimed Assistant Police Chief—the first woman in […]
Exploring Pennsylvania Boroughs: Whitehall
Whitehall is a proud and unified borough celebrating its 70th Anniversary, this year. Close proximity to downtown Pittsburgh makes Whitehall Borough a great place to live or visit!
Battlefield Pennsylvania: The Homestead Steel Strike
On July 6, 1892, 300 Pinkerton agents, a private security force hired by Henry Clay Frick, attempt to disperse 5,000 locked out Homestead steelworkers by landing at the pump house in barges pushed by tugboats up the Monongahela River. They were defeated in the Battle of Homestead, and surrendered to the striking steelworkers. Unrest continued […]
PA Books: The Slide: Leyland, Bonds, & The Star-Crossed Pittsburgh Pirates
In the deciding game of the 1992 National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, the Pittsburgh Pirates suffered the most dramatic and devastating loss in team history when former Pirate Sid Bream slid home with the winning run. Bream’s infamous slide ended the last game played by Barry Bonds in a Pirates uniform and […]
PA Books: “Pittsburgh Drinks”
Pittsburgh’s drinking culture is a story of its people: vibrant, hardworking and innovative. During Prohibition, the Hill District became a center of jazz, speakeasies and creative cocktails. In the following decades, a group of Cuban bartenders brought the nightlife of Havana to a robust café culture along Diamond Street. Disco clubs gripped the city in […]
PA Books: “The Schenley Experiment”
“The Schenley Experiment” is the story of Pittsburgh’s first public high school, a social incubator in a largely segregated city that was highly—even improbably—successful throughout its 156-year existence. Established in 1855 as Central High School and reorganized in 1916, Schenley High School was a model of innovative public education and an ongoing experiment in diversity. […]