Category Archives: History

Tour the King Estate and 11 other homes on the Highland Park House Tour

This Saturday, May 12, 2018, is the annual Highland Park House Tour. From 10 am to 3 pm visitors are invited to tour 12 houses around the Highland Park neighborhood.

One of the most popular posts on the blog is the profile of the Moltrup Steel Mansion, which was for sale in Beaver Falls. Some of the other posts about old homes around Pittsburgh regularly make the top 10 list, so I thought some of our old home loving readers might be interested in the Highland Park House Tour.

2018 Highland Park House Tour

Date: Sat, May 12, 2018
Time: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM EDT
Location: St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 5801 Hampton Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Tickets: $35 in advance and $40 the day of the event. Tickets are available online here.

Proceeds from the Highland Park House Tour benefit the Highland Park Community Council.

Visit Baywood/King Estate on the House Tour

Photo Credit: Highland Park Community Council Facebook Page

While the annual tour is known for showing off some impressive houses in Pittsburgh, this years tour features a stop at Baywood, more commonly known as the King Estate. Baywood is the large mansion at the end of Negley Avenue right where Negley turns right to go down to the zoo. Baywood was built in 1880 as a residence for Alexander King, was owned by the City of Pittsburgh for man years and was purchased by the current owners in 1994. The current owners have been restoring Baywood for the past 20 some years.

Photos and more history of Baywood/King Estate:

Take a rare tour of a 22-room Gilded Age mansion in Highland Park, Post-Gazette, May 4, 2018
King Mansion, East Liberty Valley Historical Society Newsletter, 2012 [If you are interested in East End history and architecture, be sure to follow the East Liberty Valley Historical Society on Facebook.]
King Estate’s Victorian splendor restored, TribLive, July 30, 2011
Pittsburgh’s King Estate Restored to its Second Empire Glory, Curbed, October 13, 2011

Interested in seeing more historic houses and buildings around Pittsburgh?

Join the Pittsburgh Historic Preservation MeetUp group here.

Revisiting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Visits to Pittsburgh

Martin Luther King speaks at Univ. of Pittsburgh, Nov. 1966 (photo by Ross Catanza) [via The Digs]

There have been a few articles in the last few years that offer some insight into the times that Dr. King made a visit to Pittsburgh.

The Post-Gazette’s archive blog, The Digs, posted some photos from Dr. King’s visit to speak at the University of Pittsburgh on November 1, 1966 as well as some of his previous visits to town.
Last year, Rick Sebak wrote a story for Pittsburgh Magazine, which details many of the visits Dr. King made to Pittsburgh before his death.
From the Carnegie Museum of Art blog, some photos that Charles “Teenie” Harris captured of Dr. King’s press conference during his visit to the University of Pittsburgh in 1966.

Help Kick-start the Redevelopment of the Westinghouse Castle

Built in 1890, the Westinghouse Castle was designed by Frederick J. Osterling. Osterling is well known for his work around Pittsburgh. The most prominent Osterling building is probably the Union Trust Building. The Westinghouse Castle, was never actually a castle or a residence. This building served as an office building for the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. From 2006 until 2013, the Westinghouse Castle was used as a museum and could be rented for events. John Graf, who runs the Priory Hospitality group, purchased the Westinghouse Castle last summer. The Priory Hospitality group plans to redevelop the castle as a boutique hotel.

Kickstarter for the Westinghouse Castle

To kickoff the redevelopment of the Westinghouse Castle John Graf has launched a Kickstarter to raise the first $150,000 of the project. Watch the video and check out the Kickstarter page for the Westinghouse Castle to learn more about redevelopment plans for the hotel and the economic benefits that they hotel is projected to bring to the community.

With the Graf’s experience in remodeling and running hotels and event facilities in historic buildings, this has the potential to transform Wilmerding into a destination just outside of Pittsburgh.

A brief history of the Westinghouse Castle

1890 – Westinghouse Castle was built by Frederic Osterling
1914 – George Westinghouse dies
1985 – Castle is donated to an organization that turns it into a conference center (via New York Times)
2006 – Wilmerding Renewed buys the Westinghouse Castle from APICS Educational and Research Foundation for $750,000
2013 – Tours end at Westinghouse Castle
2016 – John Graf purchases the property at sheriff’s sale for $100,000

For more on the history of the Westinghouse Castle, visit The George Westinghouse Legacy Facebook page.

A 13 Mile Drive from Downtown Pittsburgh

Wilmerding is just about 20 miles east of Downtown Pittsburgh. Without traffic, that is about a 30 minute drive.

The Just Right Tailors, Gus Miller’s Newstand and The Green Weenie

I posted a photo of this postcard on Instagram earlier this year and asked for some more information about just what “The Just Right” was back in the day. I knew this building had a long history as Gus Miller’s newsstand but I didn’t know what else was in the building. I liked the horse shoe on the top and “The Just Right” seems like a great name for a band or a podcast or the title of an essay for the New Yorker (the essay would of course be about someone who moved to Pittsburgh and found the city to be the just right place to be). For some reason I thought “The Just Right” might be a name for a brothel or other “interesting establishment.” There is a building on the Boulevard of the Allies, where the restaurant Papa J’s was located, that was a brothel, so it is not out of the realm of possibility. Before I had t-shirts printed for my future rock band “The Just Right” I wanted to make sure I knew just what “The Just Right” building housed back in the day.

Thanks to Darren Toth aka @Yinztergram on Instagram and Twitter, who left a comment on my photow with a detailed and colorful history of this corner shop in Oakland.

The building upstairs served as the Oakland Board of Trade, i.e. the local businessman’s organization around the turn of the 20th Century. In 1904 a guy named Edwin Edwards opened up a tobacco shop on the corner, and next door at 3803 was a Tailor Shop, which changed hand a few times before it became known as, “The Just Right Tailoring and Cleaning Company” under an owner named Goldberg. Gus Miller took over the corner shop sometime between 1910 and 1911, and ran the shop pretty much as it was until he retired in 1967, passing the business on to his daughter, Myrtle Mae Miller, who retired in 1985, and died shortly thereafter in 1987. Myrtle was the woman behind the idea of “The Green Weenie“, a sort of precursor to, “The Terrible Towel”, popularized by sports commentator, Bob Prince. It was a green plastic hot dog shaped rattle that was used by Pirate fans in the 1960s at Forbes Field to jinx the other team. Not sure how waving wieners would fly today, but I imagine if you could find an original green weenie in good shape, you could make a few bucs on it…get it? “Bucs”? Eh, anyway, hope that clears it up a bit.

Gus Miller’s 1950s

From the Historic Society of Western Pennsylvania, here is a photo of the same building in the 1950s.

The caption notes that the Pitt Towers dorms were under construction. According to Wikipedia, the towers were completed in 1963, so this photo is probably early 1960s.

The Green Weenie

Photo credit: The Terrible Blogger.

You can read a whole lot more about the Green Weenie over on The Terrible Blogger. In case you were wondering, the original 1966 Green Wennies are selling for $20-25 on ebay.

Corner of Forbes and Oakland Today

Using the Google Street view history, it looks like the awnings were removed from the building in July 2014.

This post is part of our series on historic Pittsburgh buildings for preservation month. You might be interested in reading about some of the other historic buildings that are located in Oakland:

Duquesne Incline Museum: 140 Years of Engineering History for $0.50

UPDATE 8/13/2019 – Visit Very Local Pittsburgh for an updated guide to the Duquesne Incline Museum.

Photo credit: Councilwoman Kail Smith.

I have been saving this post about the Duquesne Incline for May 20. Today is the actual birthday of the Duquesne Incline, 140 years ago (May 20, 1877) the Duquesne Incline opened to the public. The Duquesne Incline as well as the Monongahela Incline are both still operate daily. Riding the incline and viewing Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington are staples on things to do when you visit Pittsburgh lists the incline image is one that is frequently featured in Pittsburgh photos.

I’d like to think I know about some of the best place to see in Pittsburgh but nothing quite compares to the view from the incline. When a friend comes to visit Pittsburgh from out of town, I take them to breakfast at Pamela’s or lunch at Primanti’s followed by a trip to the Duquesne Incline. And even though I have done this tour of Pittsburgh many, many times, riding up the incline from Station Square and looking down on the point never gets old. (Turns out the Steelers give their new players the exact same tour.)

The incline ride is worth it for the view of the city. The collection of post-cards, photos and newspaper articles on the walls of The Duquesne Incline’s visitors center is probably the best was to get a sense of 140 years of Pittsburgh in one room.

David H. Miller Working Museum at the Duquesne Incline

But there it one reason why I always take folks on the Duquesne Incline – the museum. The museum at the top of the Duquesne Incline is one of my favorite places to visit and I am surprised that there is no mention of the musuem on the Duquesne Incline website. For $0.50, and you need to have exact change, you can take a self-guided tour of the machine room below the visitors center on Mt. Washington.

The poster that describes the inner workings of the incline is one of my favorites, I never seem to visit when the gift shop is open, but it is one of the Pittsburgh things I would like to have framed for my wall.

: Photo Credit: Phenomenal Place.

: Photo Credit: Phenomenal Place.

Here is a video tour of the Duquesne Incline Museum from the blog Phenomenal Place:

The Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline

The other impressive thing about the Duquesne Incline is that it has been operated by the The Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline since 1964. After the Duquesne Incline closed in 1962, a group of neighbors formed to reopen and operate the incline. The incline is actually owned by the Port Authority of Allegheny County and leased to the The Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline for $1 per year.

Ride the Incline & Visit the Duquesne Incline Museum

The Duquesne Incline is open 365 days a year.

Monday through Saturday: 5:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.

Sundays and Holidays: 7:00 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.

Follow the Duquesne Incline on Twitter @DuquesneIncline

Do you know more about the history of the Duquesne Incline?

Given that the Duquesne Incline has been run by a nonprofit for over 50 years, I am surprised that there is not more information about the preservation efforts online. Do you know more about the incline? Are there books one should read? If you are so inclined, please share links to more info in the comments. Thanks!