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Crawford Grill

African-American history in PittsburghJazz clubs in the United StatesMusic venues in PittsburghRestaurants in Pittsburgh
CrawG013 Fix
CrawG013 Fix

The Crawford Grill was a renowned jazz club that operated in two locations in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, the second Crawford Grill venue hosted local and nationally-recognized acts, including jazz legends Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and Kenny Burrell. The club, an important social gathering spot for Pittsburgh's African-American communities, drew devoted listeners from the region's ethnically and racially diverse population making it a rare site of interracial socializing during the civil rights period. The Crawford Grill was one of many black-owned neighborhood clubs in the Eastern United States that supported a tour circuit for small jazz ensembles during the genre's "golden age." Despite the riots of 1968, which severely damaged the neighborhood's economic infrastructure, the club continued to operate until 2003, when it was shuttered. In 2010, a group of local investors purchased the property with the goal of restoring and reopening the location as a venue and restaurant.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Crawford Grill (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Crawford Grill
Elmore Street, Pittsburgh

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N 40.44567 ° E -79.97804 °
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Elmore Street 95
15219 Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania, United States
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Josh Gibson Field

Josh Gibson Field is a baseball venue located in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The field was known as Ammon Field or sometimes Ammons Field until 2008, when it was renamed for Baseball Hall of Fame player Josh Gibson. Gibson began his career at Ammon Field in 1929 while playing with the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and continued playing there, as the Crawfords and Homestead Grays regularly played at Ammon. Known as the "black Babe Ruth," Gibson was a leading home run hitter until his death from a stroke in 1947 at age 35. In 1972, he became the second Negro leagues player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Originally a youth semi-pro team, the Crawfords eventually played at Ammon Field, earned a strong reputation and attracted games with many white teams. W.O.W., the defending champions of the white Greater Pittsburgh Semipro Tournament, played the Crawfords at Ammon on June 15, 1930. Although usually covering on the fully professional Homestead Grays, the Pittsburgh Courier reported the 9–8 Crawfords victory. Grays owner and manager Cum Posey recognized the Crawfords competition with his own team and sought to undermine their appeal. In 1929, he persuaded Crawfords manager Hooks Tinker to take on his older brother Seward "See" Posey as a part-time assistant and booker. While admission to the Crawfords amateur games were free by law, at one tournament in 1930, See Posey closed all but one gate to the park and required fans to make contribution, with two police officers stationed at the gate. After the game, he brought Tinker a burlap bag with $2000 in small bills. The Posey brothers were also able to lure Gibson to play with the Grays. Displaced by a low-cost housing project, Ammon Field was moved in the 1940s a block west from its original location. It was ultimately configured as two smaller fields suitable for youth leagues. In 1996, a historical marker commemorating Josh Gibson's career was erected at the newer park site, 2217 Bedford Avenue. It reads: "Hailed as Negro Leagues' greatest slugger, he hit some 800 home runs in a baseball career that began here at Ammons [sic] Field in 1929. Played for Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, 1930-46. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, '72." The original name of the park honored Edith Darlington Ammon, a pioneer in establishing playgrounds in the city.

Irene Kaufmann Settlement
Irene Kaufmann Settlement

Irene Kaufmann Settlement (IKS), known as the Columbian School and Settlement from 1895 to 1910, was a settlement house located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, at 1835 Center Avenue. It was the idea of Pauline Hanauer Rosenberg and established by the Columbian Council (now known as the National Council of Jewish Women - Pittsburgh Section) for moral, educational, and religious training. "The special purposes of the Settlement is the advancement of the civic, intellectual and social welfare of the surrounding community. It aims to do this (1) by guiding the foreign-born to American conditions, (2) encouraging self-improvement, (3) stimulating healthy pleasures, (4) broadening civic interests, (5) creating ideals of conduct. The place is a home in the life of its residents, an institution in the service of its friends, a school in the work of its teachers, a club house in the social uses of its neighbors, a civic organization in the interests of the community, a Settlement in the choice of its location". At the geographical center of the Lower Hill District (Pittsburgh's most populous district at that time), the IKS made its service available to anyone who needed its aid. It coordinated services with the Jewish Federated Philanthropies, the Municipal Safety and Health Departments, the Labor Bureau of the Council of Jewish Women, the public schools, the Associated Charities, the Juvenile Court, the Housing Commission, and the Emma Farm. The IKS housed under its roof 17 outside organizations, including various trade unions and socialist groups. It maintained a public bath and public laundry, and a summer camp. It had a resident staff of seven; additionally, 170 volunteers gave one or more hours each week to some form of social service in the district. The property of the Irene Kaufmann Settlement covered an area of 200 by 60 feet (61 m × 18 m). The settlement building was erected in 1910. It was of steel frame construction with yellow brick, and five stories high. There were 67 rooms in the main building, and a gymnasium and public bath in the rear, that building being known as the Peacock Public Bath. The settlement building was dedicated March 29, 1911. It was a monument to the memory of Irene Kaufmann, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kaufmann, owners of Kaufmann's Department Store, one of the largest stores in Pittsburgh. Miss Kaufmann died in 1907.

Central Park (Pittsburgh)

Central Park was a baseball venue located in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1921–1925. The stadium was the first black-owned, controlled and managed baseball park in the city. The ballpark served as the home of the Pittsburgh Keystones of the Negro National League. Officially named Central Amusement Park, the field's construction was commissioned in 1920 by Keystones' owner Alexander M. Williams and was designed by the prominent African-American architect Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger, who would later design Greenlee Field for the Pittsburgh Crawfords.The ballpark was on a block bounded by Humber Way (north/northwest, third base); buildings and Junilla Street (northeast/east, left field); Hallett Street (southeast/south, right field); and Chauncey Street (southwest/west, first base). Across Humber were buildings and then Wylie Avenue. Well south of Hallett was a larger thoroughfare named Centre Avenue. Newspapers often gave the location as Wylie, Chauncey and Centre. After the Keystones folded after their 1922 season, Williams lost his savings, and by 1924 he had sold the park to Sell Hall. Central Park was sold again and turned into a “summer dancing pavilion.”In 2012, Central Park was denied an historical marker by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. According to the Commission, the venue was seen as a local or regional interest rather than a national and the state already had several other markers commemorating the Negro leagues.The ballpark site is now occupied by a public park.

Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh ( PITS-burg) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania, behind Philadelphia, and 68th-largest city proper in the U.S. with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 census. The city anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania; its population of 2.37 million is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 27th-largest in the U.S. Furthermore, it is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–New Castle–Weirton combined statistical area that extends into Ohio and West Virginia. Pittsburgh is located in southwest Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River, which combine to form the Ohio River. Pittsburgh is known both as "the Steel City" for its more than 300 steel-related businesses and as the "City of Bridges" for its 446 bridges. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclined railways, a pre-revolutionary fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. The city developed as a vital link of the Atlantic coast and Midwest, as the mineral-rich Allegheny Mountains led to the region being contested by the French and British empires, Virginians, Whiskey Rebels, and Civil War raiders.Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in the manufacturing of other important materials—aluminum and glass—and in the petroleum industry. Additionally, it is a leader in computing, electronics, and the automotive industry. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York City and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment; it had the most U.S. stockholders per capita. Deindustrialization in the 1970s and 1980s laid off area blue-collar workers as steel and other heavy industries declined, and thousands of downtown white-collar workers also lost jobs when several Pittsburgh-based companies moved out. The population dropped from a peak of 675,000 in 1950 to 370,000 in 1990. However, this rich industrial history left the area with renowned museums, medical centers, parks, research centers, and a diverse cultural district.After 1990, Pittsburgh transformed into a hub for the health care, education, and technology industries. Pittsburgh is home to large medical providers, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Google, Apple Inc., Bosch, Facebook, Nokia, Autodesk, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are among 1,600 technology firms generating $20.7 billion in annual Pittsburgh payrolls. Federal money has supported the research agenda. The area has served as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research and the nuclear navy. The nation's fifth-largest bank, eight Fortune 500 companies, and six of the top 300 U.S. law firms make their global headquarters in the area, while RAND Corporation (RAND), BNY Mellon, Nova, FedEx, Bayer, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have regional bases that helped Pittsburgh become the sixth-best area for U.S. job growth.In 2015, Pittsburgh was listed among the "eleven most livable cities in the world". The Economist's Global Liveability Ranking placed Pittsburgh as the most or second-most livable city in the United States in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2018. The region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and energy extraction.