Originally known as the Bulgaro-Macedonian Beneficial Association (BMBA), The Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center was founded in 1930 in West Homestead, Pennsylvania and is the oldest Bulgarian organization in the United States. The association was created to help and offer social, cultural, educational, and sporting programs/events and services and benefits to Bulgarian/Macedonian immigrant families in the 20th century. After its founding, the association grew in popularity and membership and was expanded to its current building in 1935.&nbsp;&nbsp;According to the organization's website, the combination of the integration of European immigrants into the mainstream of American life, combined with the demise of the steel industry, led to declining membership in the organization. This led the organization into&nbsp;debt by the 1980s that threatened to close&nbsp;BMBA’s&nbsp;doors until a reorganization in the 1990s led to the creation of the&nbsp;Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center.

The Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center 
("About Us")

Gathering at the original Bulgarian Center
("History")

BMNECC's official site with program and event info as well as pics.

Website

BMNECC's Youtube channel with some videos.

Video

The BMNECC's Facebook page with pics, event info, and comments.

More Info

Established in 1930, the Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center (BMNECC) preserves and shares the history and culture of the Bulgarian and Macedonian residents. The center is the oldest Bulgarian-Macedonian organization in the nation and offers numerous cultural and history programs throughout the year. The organization also has the most extensive collection of collection of Bulgarian books, art, and artifacts in the  United States.

Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center

This short drive includes stops at several historic buildings, including former steel mills and buildings such as churches and cultural centers that preserve the history of immigrants who came to the region to work in the steel industry. The tour also includes markers and buildings related to labor groups and some of the remains of historic blast furnaces. The tour concludes with the Braddock Carnegie Library and Braddock’s Battlefield History Center. 

Homestead to Braddock Driving Tour

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Geography, Language, and Culture Carpatho-Rusyns traditionally live within Ukraine (Transcarpathian region), northeastern Slovakia (Presov region), or southeastern Poland (Lemko region). Approximately&nbsp;225,000 Carpatho-Rusyns immigrated to the United States between&nbsp;the 1880s and 1914, giving the US the largest Rusyn population outside of Europe, with immigrants and their descendants primarily living in northeastern and north-central states.&nbsp; The Rusyn language is classified as&nbsp;East Slavic, though dialects vary based on region and may contain influence from&nbsp;Polish, Slovak, or Hungarian. What is the global Carpatho-Rusyn population? According to the Carpatho-Rusyn Society, it's hard to say: "As has historically been the case with stateless minority groups, Carpatho-Rusyns have been reluctant to identify themselves as such or have simply not been recorded by the governments in the countries where they have lived. Therefore, it is impossible to know precisely the number of Carpatho-Rusyns in any country. A reasonable estimate would place their number at 1.5 million persons worldwide." Aleksander Duchnovyč (1803 - 1865) <div>"I was, am, and will remain a Rusyn." These famous lines open&nbsp;Duchnovyč's poem "Vruchanie." Duchnovyč studied Theology and became a priest, though he is most remembered as a social activist and as the "national awakener of the Carpatho-Rusyn people." He sought to cultivate and&nbsp;improve the cultural, educational, and literary achievements of Carpatho-Rusyns, and to that end he founded the Presov&nbsp;Literary Society. A prolific writer himself, he composed poetry, schoolbooks and grammar texts, hymns, and prayer books.&nbsp;As one of the most famous Carpatho-Rusyns, Duchnovyč and his words left an indelible impact on the Rusyn community.</div><div> </div>Cathedral of St. John the Baptist&nbsp; During the 1890s, many Rusyns immigrated from&nbsp;Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland and Hungary&nbsp;to the United States to take jobs in steel mills. They formed a parish, and in 1903, hired&nbsp;Titus de Bobula to design a church. Based on a Rusyn church in Ukraine, the building provided a space for the community to expand over the following decades. In 1929, the church became the&nbsp;Cathedral for the Ruthenian (Rusyn) Diocese in America. It served as&nbsp;an active place of worship until the congregation left to a new building in 1993. The church was then acquired by the&nbsp;St. John's Eastern European Cultural Center, whose plans to restore it never materialized. In 2004, the&nbsp;Carpatho-Rusyn Society bought the vacant church for $25,000. As C-RS President noted, "It is the most historic building for Carpatho-Rusyns in the United States" (quoted in Ackerman). Unsurprisingly, it's located very close to Pittsburgh, which&nbsp;houses the largest community of Rusyns in the US.&nbsp; Today, visits to&nbsp;the Cultural Center can be arranged by appointment. <div> </div>

Formerly the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, this building now houses a Carpatho-Rusyn cultural center. It was built in 1903 for the Carpatho-Rusyn community by Hungarian architect Titus de Bobula, who gave it a striking resemblance to the Rusyn Greek Catholic Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, located in Uzhorod, Subcarpathian Rus. The parish began in 1897 and grew to over 700 families by the 1920s. Since 2004, the church has belonged to the Carpatho-Rusyn Society, which maintains it as a national cultural center--the first of its kind in the United States.

National Carpatho-Rusyn Cultural Center

The Bost Building was built in 1892 as a hotel for the increasing working population coming from Europe to labor the mills. That summer, the building became the headquarters for the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. Union leaders used the third floor of the building as a watchtower to monitor the Homestead mill and Monongahela River. Below the watchtower was the base for an&nbsp;American and British newspaper. They printed stories mostly after the episodes of conflict at Homestead concerning the labor union and Carnegie Steel Company. After a $4 million renovation, the National Historical Landmark became a visitor’s center for the Rivers of Steel National Heritage in 2002.

The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers was a successful strong union in Homestead formed in 1876. By 1890, the organization had 1,123 men on their membership roll at the mill. A committee was formed for the Homestead strike, consisting of forty men with similar ideas concerning the Carnegie Steel Company. Hugh O’Donnell was the chairman of the Amalgamated Associations Strike Committee and had five advisees as representatives for each of the union’s 8 lodges. Together, they revealed the weakness of the trade union in steel. Because of the terrible working conditions at the Homestead mill, the committee asked for support from all employee; 3,000 voted to strike.

Many of their supporters were English-speaking, white, and skilled workers looking for better conditions. Throughout the 1880s, they lost many of their members during strikes. However, it was after joining the American Federation of Labor in 1887 that they regained their strength. It was this power that played a central role in the strike efforts during Homestead in 1892, causing their number of members to rise to 24,000. After the Homestead strike, the organization was weakened and their members were mostly from steel mills in the West. By 1935, the AAISW total number jumped down to 8,600. The organization soon became dependent on the Congress of Industrial Organization.&nbsp;

The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers was one of the earliest steel worker labor organizations in Pittsburgh. This organization heavily used the Bost Building as a meeting place and as a watchtower over Homestead mill. During the Homestead Strike, the AAISW played a major role in acting against the Carnegie Steel Company. 

The Bost Building

With a three-year contract coming to an end, the most powerful corporation, owned by Andrew Carnegie, instituted longer hours and lower wages for its steelworkers at Homestead Mill. The prompt proposition led to an outraged response from union workers, becoming one of the most significant labor conflicts in American History. In June 1892, the union workers of Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers refused to attend to the production demands of Carnegie. In response, Carnegie told Henry Clay Frick, the Homestead plant manager, to lock the workers out to prohibit their entrance into the mill. However, the workers counteracted with violence and resistance to the orders. So on the morning of July 6, 1892, Frick ordered for 300 Pinkerton guards to arrive by barge in hopes of gaining control of the chaos. Upon arrival, thousands of steelworkers and local citizens successfully bombarded the guards, forcing them to surrender after 14 hours of confrontation. The Homestead Strike set a precedent for any union seeking to reign against the powerful collaboration of the state and federal troops. Although Andrew Carnegie was distressed about the extent of violence, he did not do anything to influence the decisions being made by the plant managers. At this point, the mill itself was out of control, along with the town. Frick and Governor William Stone requested that 8,000 militia arrived on July 12 to take over the plant. After the strikebreakers seized control, the union workers who were not killed were charged with lesser crimes, while the strike leaders were charged with murder. The Homestead Strike officially ended on November 20, 1892, sweeping the unions out of the Pittsburgh area. Those who survived the strike were forced to accept reduced pay, twelve-hour work shifts, and the elimination of the Amalgamated Association. Although the Homestead Strike led to the serious weakening of unions in the steel industry, Pittsburgh continued to thrive through production despite the new working conditions. As a result of the devastating experience, Andrew Carnegie carried the guilt of the lives lost in response to these attacks. Carnegie responded to a note from Governor Gladstone, "It is expecting too much of poor men to stand by and see their work taken by others. . . The pain I suffer increases daily. The Works are not worth one drop of human blood. I wish they had sunk." Six years later, he returned to Homestead to build the Carnegie of Homestead. He hoped the multipurpose building would be a contribution to the community to boost their development.  Seen in LiteratureThe Homestead Strike appears in fiction, as well as historical scholarship. Thomas Bell's Out of This Furnace also discussed the Homestead Strike. In the novel, Bell's characters, Slovak immigrants, work in the steel industry in western Pennsylvania. His character Andrej mentioned the strike in the novel. This work of fiction brought in true events in history to show a broader understanding of Slovak immigrants in Pennsylvania's history.

As depressed steel prices scattered across Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, corporations continued to grow in power. Working conditions diminished, forcing dedicated steelworkers to conform although they were extremely unsatisfied. The Homestead Strike, which lasted from June to November of 1892, is one of the many episodes of conflict concerning rights of labor during American History. The overt violence fabricated by this labor movement is immersed throughout the town.

The Homestead Strike

Founded in 1881, the Homestead Steel Works was purchased by steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie, in 1883 and incorporated into his larger Carnegie Steel Company.&nbsp; It later became famous and infamous in 1892 when it was the site of one of the most violent labor disputes in the country’s history.&nbsp; J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Steel then purchased Carnegie Steel, to include the Homestead Works, in 1901.&nbsp;

The two remaining furnaces (numbers 6 &amp; 7) were built in 1907 to smelt iron which would then be converted into steel across the river.&nbsp; Once fired up, the two furnaces rarely shut down and at their peak, produced over 1,000 tons of iron in a single day, consuming four tons of iron ore, coke, and limestone to produce each ton of iron.&nbsp; The Monongahela River provided the five million gallons of water needed daily to cool the huge furnaces.&nbsp; Despite the massive amount of steel the Homestead Works produced, especially leading up to and during World War II, all was not well at U.S. Steel.

As the 20th century progressed, many American steel companies faced the same serious problems, the two primary being failure to modernize and foreign competition.&nbsp; After its peak production of the 1960s, it all began to fall apart for U.S. Steel and furnaces number six and seven were shut down in 1978 and the Homestead Steel Works produced its last steel in 1986.&nbsp; The beginning of the end of the steel era had arrived in the Steel City.

The former steel complex was then purchased by the Park Corporation in 1988 which, in turn, sold it to Allegheny County in 2005 when its redevelopment plans never came to fruition.&nbsp; The Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County later partnered with the Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation to clean up the site and open it to the public.&nbsp; Carrie Furnace is now part of the larger Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, an eight-county, nationally mandated National Heritage Area dedicated to “…preserving the industrial, cultural, natural and recreational resources of southwestern Pennsylvania.”

Today, Rivers of Steel conducts guided tours of Carrie Furnace from May through October.&nbsp; The site is now home to a sanctioned graffiti area for aspiring artists; the Carrie Deer, a massive, 45-foot tall deer’s head constructed (sometime around 1997) of steel wire, pipe and other discarded pieces of metal; and the Iron Garden, a section of the former mill where nature has been permitted to reclaim the former industrial land. Carrie Furnace also hosts an urban art and photography tour and numerous weddings, concerts, beer tastings, and a regional qualifier for American Ninja Warrior in 2018.&nbsp; There are currently plans for the further development of the site.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

Built in 1907, these two furnaces are all that remain of the massive Homestead Steel Works that operated on both sides of the Monongahela River. At its peak, Homestead employed over 12,000 workers and occupied 430 acres. The two remaining furnaces, furnaces number six and seven, are known as the Carrie Furnaces and operated until 1978. The entire Homestead Works closed in 1986 and most of the structures were dismantled. These two massive furnaces were left standing as a lasting memorial to Pittsburgh’s steel producing past. Today, tours of the furnaces and surrounding site are offered May through October by the Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation. Carrie Furnace was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006 and there are plans for future development on the site. 

Carrie Blast Furnaces, Homestead Steel Works (1907-1978)

This stamp commemorates the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Braddock’s Field. This stamp is significant because during the struggle of the British to free the Northwestern Territory from French occupation (French and Indian War), General Edward Braddock ignored the advice of George Washington about Indian methods of fighting from ambush.  At the Battle of Braddock, British troops were scared by war whoops and confused by Indians fighting from behind trees.  General Braddock was killed and his troops defeated. Another significant fact about Braddock is he's buried further away near Great Meadows, PA and many things are named after him.

The Battle of Braddocks Field 

General
Edward Braddock was dispatched by the British crown to capture the French Fort
Duquesne.&nbsp; The fort was strategically
located at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers which came
together to form the Ohio River in present day Pittsburgh.&nbsp; Braddock accepted colonial Colonel George
Washington’s offer to accompany him, as Washington knew the area after traveling
to Fort Le Boeuf in 1753 and his failed attempt to reach Fort Duquesne in 1754.

Braddock’s
expedition was met by a smaller combined force of French and Native American warriors
15 miles southeast of Fort Duquesne on July 9th, 1755.&nbsp; During the ensuing battle, most of the
British and colonial officers were either killed or wounded, to include
Braddock, who received a mortal wound.&nbsp;
Washington then led an organized retreat back to Virginia.&nbsp; Along the way, General Braddock died on July
13th and was buried near Fort Necessity, which Washington had
hastily built the previous year.&nbsp; An
historical marker now marks his grave site.

This battle
enhanced the reputation of Washington and involved numerous soldiers who would
go on to lead troops during the Revolutionary War, including Horatio Gates and
Charles Lee, and was later recognized as a template by the colonists for methods to defeat British forces when
they later became their enemy.&nbsp; Braddock’s
Battlefield History Center seeks to impart the importance of this often
overlooked battle to the general public. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Located in North Braddock, Pennsylvania, Braddock’s Battlefield History Center commemorates and provides information about the Battle of the Monongahela, or “Braddock’s Defeat” which was an early battle during the French and Indian War.  The Center opened in 2012 and displays 50 works of art, over 250 artifacts from the battle, and numerous reproductions of period weapons and uniforms.  It also presents various informational films in its video room.

Braddock's Battlefield History Center

Andrew Carnegie chose Braddock as the location for his first free public library due to the fact that the town was also home to his Edgar Thompson steel mill and he sought to provide his workers with a place of learning and recreation.&nbsp; Thus, his foundation donated $357,782 for the library's construction and he was there when it was dedicated in 1889.After the library was abandoned and fell into disrepair in the mid-20th century, David Solomon, the last librarian, founded the Braddock's Field Historical Society to save the venerable building.&nbsp; To that end, they were able to purchase the building for $1 and began the long restoration process.&nbsp; The managed to re-open a single-room children's library in 1983 and the gym was restored during the 1990s.&nbsp; The original terracotta roof was restored in 1998 as were the interior walls of the music hall.Work on the buildings is an ongoing process as work on the music hall continues, a new children's museum opened on the second floor in 2012, and most of the adult library now occupies the first floor.

The Braddock Carnegie Library is the first Carnegie Library built in the country. Completed in 1889, it was designed by William Halsey Wood in an eclectic medieval style. Andrew Carnegie attended the dedication ceremony. A large addition was built in 1893, featuring a music hall, pool, gym and a duckpin bowling alley. The library operated until 1974 when lack of funds and the building's poor condition, particularly the roof, forced it to close. A group of concerned citizens, led by the last head librarian, saved the building from demolition. The library opened in 1983 as a small children's library and began to make repairs. Renovations have continued ever since. The basement was converted from a bathhouse to ceramics studio in recent years. As the first Carnegie Library in the country, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Braddock Carnegie Library

From September 21, 1919, to January 8, 1920, steelworkers in Pittsburgh went on strike against U.S. Steel as a result of post-war downsizing. In total, more than 350,000 workers went on strike during the event. The first movement towards unionization had begun in 1918 and by the summer of 1919, most major steel mill towns had unions. Worker discontent was on the rise and layoffs were frequent in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Illinois, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York. The newly organized unions attempted to negotiate with U.S. Steel, but the company refused to make a deal with union leaders. Workers wanted better pay and job security as prices across the country skyrocketed between 1915 and 1920. Unions also fought for an 8-hour workday, an improvement on the 48-hour shifts that many mills required. Though some workers saw improvements after the strike, those in the Ohio Valley area were not among them.  Fear of communism was rampant at the time and unions were painted as radicals. Since many mill workers were immigrants, companies and politicians were able to paint striking workers as dangerous communists and prey on the public's xenophobia. In some cities, this was used as a justification to bring in the National Guard and other federal officers to halt strikes. These actions brought violence to the strikes and resulted in several deaths in different cities. Politicians used the strike as an opportunity to promote their agendas and many criticized the strikers for risking the economic development of their cities.  The Great Steel Strike of 1919 collapsed in January 1920, as the final steelworkers went back into the mills in Chicago. The union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers (AA), had been weakened throughout the war years, even as production increased. Technological advances led to a decrease in the need for skilled craftsmen after WWI. The AA fought against the consolidation of steel companies into the U.S. Steel Corporation and ultimately failed to reconcile with the conglomerate. Pittsburgh, the heart of the U.S. steel industry, erupted with discontent.  Though the union collapsed, the New Deal saw a new increase in production and organizing. In 1942, the United Steelworkers organization was established and is currently the largest labor union in North America.  The marker commemorates Reverend Adalbert Kazincy, a priest from St. Michael Parish in Braddock who had assisted European immigrants and helped the workers during the strike.  "A Slovak Strike"Historian M. Mark Stolarik quoted a superintendent as saying that the strike was a "Slovak strike." Slovak immigrants are largely overlooked in historical scholarship, however. In fact, the Slovak experience in the strike is discussed not in scholarship written by historians but in a novel called Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell, which follows three generations of one Slovak family living in Western Pennsylvania.

This historical marker is located near the local chapter of the United Steelworkers union and the current Steel Mon Valley Works. The marker commemorates one of the largest strikes in American history in which 350,000 workers stopped work at steel mills across the country. From September 21, 1919, to January 8, 1920, steelworkers in Pittsburgh went on strike against U.S. Steel as a result of post-war downsizing. Worker discontent was made apparent not only in Pennsylvania, but also in Colorado, Illinois, West Virginia, Ohio, and New York. The marker also credits Reverend Adalbert Kazincy, a priest from St. Michael Parish in Braddock, who had long assisted the European immigrants for helping the workers during the strike. 

Homestead to Braddock Driving Tour

Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information