Great Fire of Pittsburgh

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.

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.

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.

Frank S. Curto (1898 or 1899 – February 23, 1971) was the chief horticulturist for the Pittsburgh Department of Parks and Recreation. Curto received his Master of Science degree in ornamental horticulture from Ohio State University. His career with the city's bureau of Parks and Recreation began in 1946 and ended in 1970 after a decade as foreman of Phipps Conservatory, where he directed the popular Fall Flower Shows for 23 years.Throughout his life, Curto was active in several gardening societies. He was a member of the American Rhododendron Society and was active within its Great Lakes Chapter. He was also served as secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania Nurserymen's Association and as president of Pittsburgh Florists and Gardeners Club. He was a Director of the Men's Garden Club of America and won the association's Johnny Appleseed Award in 1969. The Society of American Florists bestowed him with the Sylvan Award in 1970.

The Hill District is a grouping of historically African American neighborhoods in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the years leading up to World War I, "the Hill" was the cultural center of black life in the city and a major center of jazz. Despite its cultural and economic vibrancy, in the mid-1950s a substantial area was slated for redevelopment, displacing about 8,000 individuals.

Greenlee Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, was one of few black-built and black-owned major league baseball field in the United States.The field was the dream of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1931, construction started on Bedford Avenue between Chauncey and Duff in Pittsburgh's Hill District. The park opened on April 29, 1932, and reportedly cost $100,000. The first game was the next day, April 30, 1932, and had future hall of famers Satchel Paige pitching to catcher Josh Gibson as City Council members, the Allegheny County commissioners, and Mayor Kline watched from the stands. Greenlee Field held 7,500 spectators and it was the home field for the Crawfords throughout the Great Depression era. The Homestead Grays also played there for a time. Greenlee Field was located a few blocks up Bedford Avenue from Ammon Field, home to the Pittsburgh Keystones. Contemporary city directories list the ballpark's address as 2501 Bedford Avenue. Greenlee was forced to shut out blacks from ballpark jobs during the 1938 season. This angered the team's fans, and attendance lagged as a result. After the season, the Crawfords disbanded and Greenlee Field was torn down. The Bedford Dwellings housing project was later developed on the property. The Pittsburgh Steelers used the field for in-season practices during the 1930s.

The Western Female Collegiate Institute was a school of higher learning for young ladies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1833 until 1837. The institute operated from a nine-room brick house on the Erin Hill farm grounds. This was east of the city limits in the 1830s, and the Monongahela River passed the property. Today, the location borders Centre Avenue on the north and Devilliers Street on the west. Rev. William B. Lacey, DD opened the institute and was the president, and his wife, Elizabeth, was the governess. The school offered boarding, and advertisements stated 30 as the maximum number of pupils. The institute's design was to "impart an accurate and thorough knowledge of all the solid and polite branches of female education." The institute closed in 1837 after damaging reports circulated about Lacey, and enrollment declined. Notable instructors included the Rev. George Upfold, DD and William E. A. Aikin.

The Pittsburgh–Weirton–Steubenville, PA–OH–WV Combined Statistical Area is a 13-county combined statistical (CSA) in the United States. The largest and principal in the area is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but the CSA includes population centers from three states: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. The statistical area was officially defined by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013 and revised in 2023. The estimated population of the area was 2,635,228 in mid-2016.

The New Granada Theater at 2007 Centre Avenue in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was built in 1927 and 1928. This Art Deco theater was designed by architect Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger, and originally was a Pythian Temple, a meeting place for the Knights of Pythias (a fraternal order and secret society). In this case, it was a lodge for a group of African American construction workers known as the Knights of the Pythian. In the 1930s, the building was sold to Harry Hendel, who moved two blocks from his old Granada Theater to this New Granada Theater. The building was remodeled in 1937 and 1938 by Alfred M. Marks, and it became a movie theater as well as a place for live entertainment, music and dancing. Jazz legends such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Cab Calloway performed at this location.It was added to the List of City of Pittsburgh historic designations on October 8, 2004, the List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks in 2007, and the National Register of Historic Places on December 27, 2010.

The York Assembly Rooms is an 18th-century assembly rooms building in York, England, originally used as a place for high class social gatherings in the city. The building is situated on Blake Street and is a Grade I listed building.Designed by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington it is one of the earliest Palladian buildings in Northern England and possibly the earliest neoclassical building in Europe. Construction began in 1730 and was completed in 1735, but it was used beginning in 1732. After a fire in 1773, alterations were made to the Lesser Assembly Room to the designs of Sir John O'Corall. The front steps of the portico were later replaced by an internal set in 1791. Lord Burlington's original front facade was replaced in 1828 by a Greek Revival portico designed by J. P. Pritchett.In 1925, York Corporation purchased the building and made further alterations in 1939 through 1951. The York Conservation Trust purchased the Assembly Rooms in 2002 and are responsible for the building's maintenance. It currently operates as an Ask Italian but is open for public viewing.

The Mellon Jazz Festival was a festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that was sponsored by Mellon Bank. Acts who performed at the festival included Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, Sonny Rollins, and John Zorn. The event began under the name Pittsburgh Jazz Festival in 1964 and closed in 2003.

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.