Pittsburgh’s Oldest Commercial Building Is a Sandstone Tavern on Greentree Road. Here’s Its Story.
Sometime around 1782 — possibly earlier — a trader named Daniel Elliott built a sandstone tavern along the road connecting Washington and Pittsburgh, and travelers heading into the frontier started stopping there for a drink, a meal, and a place to sleep. That building is still standing. It sits at 434 Greentree Road, two stories…
The Oldest House in Pittsburgh Is a Scottish Pub in Hazelwood. Here’s Its Story.
In 1792, when Pittsburgh was barely a city and the surrounding region was still very much a frontier, a man named John Woods built a stone house overlooking the Monongahela River in what is now Hazelwood. That house is still standing. It has two-foot-thick rubble-stone walls, hand-hewn beams, wide-plank floors, and fireplaces at each end.…
Park House Tavern Has Been on the North Side Since Before Prohibition. It’s Still Worth Finding.
At 403 East Ohio Street on Pittsburgh’s North Side, there is a two-story brick building that has been part of the neighborhood since the 1890s. It started as a soda fountain. It became one of the first licensed bars in Pittsburgh after Prohibition ended. It survived a pandemic closure and came back under new ownership.…
The Original Oyster House Has Been Standing in Market Square Since 1870. Here’s Its Story.
There is a building on Market Square that has been serving food and drinks since Ulysses S. Grant was president. Not a building that looks old. Not a place that leans on vintage aesthetics as a marketing strategy. An actual bar and restaurant that has been continuously operating in the same spot in downtown Pittsburgh…
The 1927 Armored Car Bombing “Dante’s Inferno”
The Day Someone Blew Up a Payroll Convoy Near Pittsburgh On a quiet South Hills road on the morning of March 11, 1927, the ground exploded. Not metaphorically. Not as a figure of speech. Someone had buried hundreds of pounds of black powder beneath the roadbed, waited for a Brink’s payroll convoy to roll over…
Kate Soffel: Pittsburgh’s Most Scandalous Prison Break
If you lived in Pittsburgh in January 1902, you couldn’t escape the story. Kate Soffel—wife of the Allegheny County Jail’s warden—helped the condemned Biddle Brothers escape and fled with them into the winter night. The scandal shocked Pittsburgh and became one of the most notorious crimes in the city’s history. Who Was Kate Soffel? Kate…