Before the Civic Arena’s roof opened to the skyline in 1961, about 95 acres of the Lower Hill District were cleared. Here is what stood there, who left, and what the records can and can’t prove.

Squirrel Hill Pittsburgh sits on the eastern edge of the city where the land rises above Schenley Park and the great university campuses of Oakland, a neighborhood of tree-lined streets, brick rowhouses, and a commercial district on Murray and Forbes avenues that locals call “upstreet.” It is the traditional center of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, and…

Mary Lou Williams Pittsburgh origins begin with a child sitting at a piano in East Liberty who could play anything she heard before she was old enough to read music. She was born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1910, but her family moved to Pittsburgh when she was young, and it…

Billy Strayhorn Pittsburgh origins are the beginning of one of the most remarkable stories in the history of American music, and almost nobody outside of jazz circles knows it. The song “Take the A Train” is one of the most recognizable pieces of music the twentieth century produced. It served for decades as the signature…

Martin Delany Pittsburgh history begins with a remarkable fact that most people, including most Pittsburghers, have never heard. In February 1865, President Abraham Lincoln personally commissioned Martin Delany as a Major in the Union Army, making him the first Black field officer in the history of the United States. The two men met in early…

The Pittsburgh Crawfords of the early 1930s were, by most informed assessments, one of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled. Their roster in the mid-1930s included five players who would eventually be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Their pitcher was Satchel Paige, among the most dominant and theatrical hurlers of his era. Their…