Crawford Grill No. 2

Posted by on Mar 19, 2021 in | Comments Off on Crawford Grill No. 2 The Sochatoff Building sits at the corner of Wylie Avenue and Elmore Street in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood. This three-story building was constructed in 1917 and would later hold the nationally renowned jazz club Crawford Grill No. 2 between 1945 and 2003. The club, which occupied the entire first floor of the building, was established by African American businessman William Augustus...
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Smoketown by Mark Whitaker

Posted by on Dec 11, 2019 in | Comments Off on Smoketown by Mark Whitaker Smoketown The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark Whitaker Simon & Schuster, 432 pp., cloth $30 Smoketown tells a story at once inspiring and tragic: the tale of how Pittsburgh became home to one of the nation’s most dynamic black communities before urban redevelopment and civil unrest gutted its vibrant cultural center, the Hill District. The Hill, once dubbed the...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents Feathered Friends An exhibition entitled “Fine Feathered Friends: Rare Ornithological Books from the Francis R. Cope, Jr., Collec­tion” will open at the Library Company of Philadelphia on Monday, April 25 [1994]. The collection contains major works by the most important ornithologists of the nine­teenth century, including John James Audubon, John Gould, Daniel Giraud Elliot, and R....
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The Soulful and Sultry Miss Ethel Waters

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Soulful and Sultry Miss Ethel Waters Much of Ethel Waters’ success as a popular twentieth-century entertainer has been credited to the rather simple fact she, in her own words, never forgot who she was and where she came from. She achieved renown as blues singer, theater and film actress, and best selling author. She also emerged as a role model, if not icon, for several decades of African American women. And she accomplished...
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Fred Waring (1900-1984)

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Fred Waring (1900-1984) In her 1997 book, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, Virginia Waring declared her late husband “The Man Who Taught America How to Sing.” In his foreword to the book, Robert Shaw (1916-1999), world-famous choral conductor known for his classical and secular repertoire, wrote, “It is certain to me that tours of the Bach B Minor Mass and the Mozart Requiem would not have been...
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William Strayhorn

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on William Strayhorn Although jazz composer and arranger William “Billy” Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1915, his family moved to the Homewood section of Pittsburgh when he was five years old. His parents, Lillian and James Strayhorn, were bright and ambitious, but were never able to break out of their modest means. Young Strayhorn played his grandmother’s piano from the moment he was able...
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Remembering Place: Black National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Remembering Place: Black National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania The National Historic Landmarks (NHL) program was established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and refined by amendments to it in 1980. The federal law requires the U.S. Department of the Interior to certify the historic authenticity of NHLs based on strident criteria, including association with events, people, and great ideas; distinguishing characteristics in architectural or...
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From the Editor

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on From the Editor “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” DuBose Heyward’s lyrics for George Gerswhin’s aria Summertime – now a time-honored jazz standard – for the 1935 opera Porgie and Bess are as timeless as they are popular. Summer in Pennsylvania is an ideal time to visit the historic sites and museums administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission...
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