Invisible Histories of Downtown Pittsburgh - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. Heinz History Center

Located along Smallman Street in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, the Heinz History Center includes 275,000 square feet of exhibits and archives devoted to the study of western Pennsylvania’s history. The center opened for visitors in 1996 in the former Chautauqua Lake Ice Company building after ten years of fundraising and renovations and added a Smithsonian wing eight years later after becoming a Smithsonian Institution affiliate in 2000. Operated by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, the center is named for the noted politician and philanthropist Senator John Heinz. Since its inception, the Heinz History Center has become Pennsylvania’s largest history museum, with over 40,000 artifacts throughout six floors of exhibition space and satellite museums at the Fort Pitt site and the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. The Heinz History Center is open from 10 AM to 5 PM daily.

2. Accessibility Protest, May 4, 1990

This site was the start location for a demonstration against architectural barriers to people with disabilities that featured twenty protesters in wheelchairs making their way down Liberty Avenue to Market Square on sidewalks lacking curb cuts and ramps. The protest, which took place on May 4, 1990, was a response to downtown Pittsburgh’s lack of accessibility after a decade plus of advocacy to remove architectural barriers in the city’s other neighborhoods. The United Cerebral Palsy of Pittsburgh Association and Three Rivers Center for Independent Living organized the protest to coincide with “Barrier Awareness Week” in May, a commemoration highlighting barriers to independent living among people with disabilities. Shortly after the protest Congressional leaders passed the Americans with Disabilities Act mandating among other things that public spaces maintain certain accessibility standards, a stipulation that gave local activists in areas like Pittsburgh further grounds for enforcing the removal of architectural barriers. As a result, the sidewalks along which the protesters traveled on May 4, 1990 are accessible to anyone seeking to follow their route.

3. August Wilson African American Cultural Center

The August Wilson African American Cultural Center on Liberty Avenue is dedicated to housing and celebrating the creative work of western Pennsylvania’s African American community. Plans to open such a center began as early as 1996 but were not realized until 2009. The center is named for August Wilson, a playwright from Pittsburgh who won two Pulitzer Prizes and two Tony Awards. Honoring his legacy, the August Wilson Center has become a premier site for the commemoration of African American arts and culture in the region. The center presents performances, visual arts programs, rotating exhibits, and special events, and features galleries, classrooms, a 500-seat theater, gift shop, and a café. It is open from 11 AM to 6 PM Wednesday and Thursday, 11 AM to 8 PM Friday and Saturday, and 11 AM to 5 PM on Sunday.

4. Jane Grey Swisshelm Childhood Home Historical Marker

This historical marker commemorates the former location of Jane Grey Swisshelm’s childhood home. Born Jane Grey Cannon on December 6, 1815, Swisshelm’s family moved to the nearby village of Wilkinsburg the following year before returning to their Pittsburgh home in 1821 and then moving back to Wilkinsburg a final time after her father’s death in 1827. As an adult Swisshelm became one of the most successful women journalists and activists of the nineteenth century, founding a number of her own newspapers and playing a pivotal role in the passage of legislation in Pennsylvania securing property ownership rights for married women. Over the course of her life, Swisshelm achieved a number of firsts, being one of the first women hired by the New York Tribune and the first woman journalist admitted to the reporters' gallery of the House of Representatives. The childhood home where this saga began no longer exists, but a marker commemorating her life and connection to the city of Pittsburgh near its former location is viewable by any passersby.

5. Pegasus Lounge (1980-2012)

The basement of the building on the corner of Liberty Avenue and Strawberry Way was once the Pegasus Lounge, one of the most popular gay clubs in the city of Pittsburgh. Opened in June of 1980, the Pegasus Lounge was a fixture of gay life in the downtown neighborhood until its move to the North Side neighborhood in 2009. Owned and operated by David Morrow until 2005 and then Scott Noxon afterward, the Pegasus Lounge hosted leading drag queen performers like Chi Chi LaRue, Tiffany Jones, and Divine as well as Hollywood notables like Kathleen Turner. The Pegasus Lounge is most notable, however, for its many services to the gay community over the years, particularly its activism in fighting AIDS and providing a safe space for young gay men. Pegasus Lounge closed for good in 2012 and its former home on Liberty Avenue is currently vacant.

6. Original Site of the Rodef Shalom Synagogue

The original synagogue of Pittsburgh’s Rodef Shalom Congregation opened for services near this location after a dedication ceremony on March 20, 1862. A second structure replaced the first in 1901 to accommodate the congregation’s growth in the intervening decades, but the new synagogue quickly proved too small as well and Rodef Shalom made the decision to move to its current location between Oakland and Shadyside in 1907. The Rodef Shalom Congregation is noteworthy not only as the first Jewish house of worship in western Pennsylvania, but as a key figure in Reform Judaism in the United States as well. After a visit to the synagogue in 1863 by renowned Jewish reformer Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, Rodef Shalom embraced Reform Judaism. The congregation then went on to host the meeting that resulted in the publication of the Pittsburgh Platform in 1885, a document expressing the fundamental principles of Reform Judaism in the United States. Though the first two homes of the Rodef Shalom Congregation no longer exist, interested parties may visit the current synagogue during regular services and operating hours.

7. The Pittsburgh Agreement, May 31, 1918

The historical marker here commemorates the signing of a document known as the “Pittsburgh Agreement” that described the government of a potential Czechoslovakian state should the Czechs and Slovaks achieve independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Signed on May 31, 1918, the Pittsburgh Agreement was the result of decades of resistance to Austro-Hungarian rule in what became Czechoslovakia that culminated after the empire’s defeat in the First World War. The most notable signatory to the document, Czech politician Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, became president of an independent Czechoslovakia shortly thereafter and receives much of the credit for the Pittsburgh Agreement, but it would not have been possible without the cooperation of Slovak activists in the United States like Jozef Hušek as well. Regardless the Pittsburgh Agreement was a foundational document guaranteeing the rights of the Slovak minority in the union with their Czech neighbors and, when those guarantees were not upheld, later became a justification for a division of Czechoslovakia. The historical marker commemorating this event is open to the public twenty-four hours a day.

8. Premiere of Unconquered (1947)

Near this location in early October 1947, famed director Cecil B. Demille premiered his film Unconquered at what was then known as Loew’s Penn Theatre. Known as the final historical epic Demille directed in his four-decade long career, Unconquered follows the story of indentured servant Paulette Goddard (Abby Hale) and Virginia militia captain Christopher Holden (Gary Cooper) as they fight to survive the violence of Pontiac’s War from behind the walls of Fort Pitt in 1763. Like many other films from the era featuring Native characters (including Demille’s other historical epics), Unconquered relies heavily on stereotypes rooted in white perceptions of indigenous savagery and ignorance. Just as with many of those other films, however, American Indians found ways to utilize Unconquered as an opportunity for cross-cultural education. This is particularly true of those who participated in the film’s Pittsburgh premiere, among them the actors RoMere Martin (Pottawatomie) and Chief John Big Tree (Seneca). Loew’s Penn Theatre where Unconquered premiered is now home to the Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts and is open regularly for events throughout the year.

9. Pittsburgh's First Pride, 1973

This location marks the starting point of Pittsburgh’s first Pride parade, which took place on June 17, 1973. Pittsburgh was one of a growing number of cities across the United States and the world that began celebrating Pride over the course of the 1970s. Organized by the gay rights organization Gay Alternatives Pittsburgh, the Steel City’s 1973 parade was the culmination of a week-long series of events advertised under the tagline “Gay Pittsburgh is Coming Out!” The event connected Pittsburgh to a worldwide movement fighting for gay rights and societal progress. Its starting point, located in Pittsburgh’s Market Square, is open twenty-four hours a day.

10. Fort Pitt Museum

The Fort Pitt Museum is an indoor/outdoor facility located in Point State Park at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers where the Ohio River forms. First opened in 1969, the museum is a recreation of the original Fort Pitt constructed by British forces during the Seven Years’ War in 1758 alongside the nearby outline of the French Fort Duquesne that remains in existence by the museum today. Although initially operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the site has been under the purview of the Heinz History Center since its bankruptcy and sale in 2009. In both iterations, the Fort Pitt Museum has testified to the integral role colonial expansion and European-Indian relations played in Pittsburgh’s history. Anyone interested in that history can visit the museum during its regular operating hours from 10 AM to 5 PM daily.

11. Original Location of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf & Dumb

The first iteration of what is now known as the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf opened near this location in 1869. Originally known as the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and Dumb, the institution operated out of a room in a public school building on Short Street for a brief time before moving to a series of larger facilities and ultimately settling on a campus in Edgefield in 1884. Joel Kerr, Reverend John G. Brown, and John Wilson were the driving force behind the school’s foundation in 1869, winning approval from the Board of Education to form a board of trustees and hire brother and sister Archy and Sarah Woodside as the first teachers. In doing so, they opened the United States’ first day school for deaf children and left a legacy of deaf education in the Pittsburgh area that remains to this day. The location of the first version of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf is now part of Point State Park and accessible during the park’s regular hours. The current iteration, located on a campus in Edgefield, is likewise open during the school’s regular hours.

12. John Bathan Vashon's City Baths

Prominent Black abolitionist John Bathan Vashon opened Pittsburgh’s first public bathhouse near this location in 1834. Until Vashon’s death nearly twenty years later, the “City Baths” catered to prominent white and Black Pittsburghers alike. The business’s basement played a role in its owner’s political activities as well, serving as an Underground Railroad location for refugees from slavery traveling north through the area. This location is not only remarkable as the city of Pittsburgh’s first public bathhouse and as an Underground Railroad stop, it is also noteworthy for its connection to the area’s most prominent abolitionist and wealthiest Black businessmen in the mid-nineteenth century. Nothing remains of Vashon’s bathhouse today, but the location can nonetheless be visited at any time of day.

13. Martin R. Delany Historical Marker

The historical marker at this location commemorates the nearby site of the offices of Martin R. Delany’s newspaper The Mystery. Published between 1843 and 1848, The Mystery was the first African American newspaper established west of the Allegheny Mountains. The Mystery was only one of Delany’s many notable ventures, which together spanned a remarkable career as physician, abolitionist, Black nationalist, and US Army officer. As a resident of the city off and on for decades in the nineteenth century, Delany was one of Pittsburgh’s most famous Black citizens and one of the most prominent African Americans of his day. While the original offices of The Mystery no longer exist, the historical marker commemorating the newspaper’s publications can be viewed here twenty-four hours a day.

14. 314 Fifth Avenue (Downtown Milk Shake Factory)

This site’s occupants, past and present, connect it to the city of Pittsburgh’s long history at the forefront of entrepreneurial development in western Pennsylvania and the United States. From 1874 to 1900 this site housed the lodging rooms of Duff’s Business College, the first such institution in the United States. From 2016 to today it has been the home of the Milk Shake Factory, the second of a projected twenty-five locations that will be constructed across the region as part of a significant expansion of local chocolate company Edward Marc (which has existed in Pittsburgh since 1914). Together, this site’s connections to Duff’s Business College and the Milk Shake Factory place it at the center of Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurial history. It also highlights the unique role that immigrants have played in that history. Anyone interested in viewing this site for themselves may visit the Milkshake Factory during its regular operating hours.

15. Possible Adena Burial Mound

Historians believe that a possible Adena burial mound was situated near this location on what was once known as Grant’s Hill. The mound was never formally excavated and Grant’s Hill itself was removed in a series of gradations by the city of Pittsburgh between 1836 and 1914, making it impossible to know for sure whether or not the location (known locally as “The Hump”) was a burial site for Native peoples. The consensus among early Pittsburghers, however, was that Grant’s Hill did in fact feature a Native burial mound and this widespread agreement is shared by scholars today. The possible existence of a Native burial mound at this location serves as a reminder that Pittsburgh is built atop a long history of indigenous activities in the region. This reminder is especially poignant given that the site is now occupied by the Alleghany County Courthouse and the city council building, the civic center of a community built on the remains of a sacred center for Native life in western Pennsylvania.

16. Pittsburgh's First Suffrage Parade, 1914

Pittsburgh’s first suffrage parade held its closing ceremonies near this approximate location on May 2, 1914. It was one of many such events organized across the United States between the first Woman Suffrage Procession held in Washington, D.C. in 1913 and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The Equal Franchise Federation was primarily responsible for organizing the Pittsburgh parade in 1914, an organization founded and led by white suffragists. The event is notable, however, as the only suffrage march in the United States in which Black women held positions on the planning committee and the procession was integrated. This location is, as it was in 1914, public space and is accessible twenty-four hours a day. The Carnegie Museum has also created a miniature reconstruction of the parade, which can be viewed during its regular operating hours.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Invisible Histories of Downtown Pittsburgh

Created by Nathan Wuertenberg on August 4th 2021, 10:21:11 pm.

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Description

The history of a place isn’t always where you can see it. Indeed, the sites that came together to make up the world of the past are often moved, erased, or misplaced as time goes on. Sometimes this process is the result of sheer happenstance. At others it’s a deliberate effort to sideline marginalized communities in the historical narrative. Downtown Pittsburgh is no exception. Much of what made up the heart of the city in days gone by has disappeared. In the process, the connections between marginalized communities in the area and the center of the city have been erased and the fundamental role of those communities in Pittsburgh’s history has been obscured. Pittsburgh would not be the city it is today without the contributions of its Native, Black, immigrant, women, disabled, and LGBTQ+ residents. This tour highlights those contributions by traveling through Downtown Pittsburgh to historic sites that no longer exist, reminders of the experiences of marginalized Pittsburghers over the last several centuries. It also stops at the area’s multiple world-class museums and offers tourgoers an opportunity to grab a tasty frozen treat near the end of the tour at a favorite local eatery with some interesting history.

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