The Pittsburgh Renaissance Historic District

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on The Pittsburgh Renaissance Historic District Throughout much of its industrial history, Pittsburgh had an image problem. In 1868 James Parton wrote in The Atlantic Monthly that it was “Hell with the lid taken off.” Later, it became known as “The Smoky City.” Pollution was a big issue, but there were other problems, such as traffic congestion, flooding and blight that made Pittsburgh a less-than-desirable place to...
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Forts at the Forks: Frontier History Comes to Life at the Fort Pitt Museum

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Forts at the Forks: Frontier History Comes to Life at the Fort Pitt Museum As the French moved south from Canada in the mid-eighteenth century, seeking new settlements in the vast Ohio Valley, Great Britain began to resist encroachment into regions its leaders long claimed. Taking action in 1753, Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie placed a letter into the hands of his young surveyor, George Washington, telling him to deliver it to the commander of Fort LeBoeuf (in...
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Presence from the Past: A Gift to the Future Through Historic Preservation

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Presence from the Past: A Gift to the Future Through Historic Preservation The United States is a nation and a people on the move. It is in an era of mobility and change … The result is a feeling of rootlessness combined with a longing for those land­marks of the past which give us a sense of stability and belonging … If the preservation movement is to be successful, it must go beyond saving bricks and mortar. It must go beyond saving occasional historic...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message Pennsylvania’s archaeological and architectural heritage offer an extraordinary meld of buildings, sites, structures, districts, neighborhoods, villages, and landscapes representing every period of our prehistory and history. Public and private efforts to protect this legacy date to the nineteenth century at places such as Independence Hall, the Gettysburg Battlefield, Valley Forge, and...
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The Value of Pennsylvania History

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Value of Pennsylvania History George W. Bush won the presidential election of 2000 because the fifty states cast more electoral votes for him, even though more people actually voted for his opponent, Albert A. Gore Jr. The election reminded Americans about a curious institution called the Electoral College, and an equally peculiar system known as federalism in which each state conducts elections according to distinct laws...
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Letters

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters Energized! Your most recent issue [Spring 2009] has left me “energized”! The articles and the interviews are all top notch – stunningly written and beautifully laid out. This one is a keeper. Thank you for making history so relevant to what we are experiencing today. We need to understand history in order to make critical decisions that will affect not only us but our...
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