Editing History of Pittsburgh (section)

==Early 20th century==
By 1911, Pittsburgh had grown into an industrial and commercial powerhouse:<ref name="EB1911"/>
* Nexus of a vast railway system, with freight yards capable of handling 60K cars
* {{convert|27.2|mi|km}} of harbor
* Yearly river traffic in excess of 9M tons
* Value of factory products more than $211M (with Allegheny City)
* Allegheny county produced, as percentage of national output, about:
** 24% of the [[pig iron]]
** 34% of the Bessemer steel
** 44% of the [[Open hearth furnace|open hearth]] steel
** 53% of the [[crucible]] steel
** 24% of the [[Rail tracks|steel rails]]
** 59% of the structural shapes

===Prohibition===
During the [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition era]], 1920 to 1933, Pittsburgh was a hotbed of bootlegging and illicit alcohol consumption.<ref>{{cite web | last =McGee | first =Chris | title =Prohibition's Failure in Pittsburgh | work =The Sloping Halls Review, Volume 1, 1994 | publisher =[[Carnegie Mellon University]] | year =1994 | url =http://repository.cmu.edu/shr/5/ |access-date=December 8, 2013}}</ref><ref name=ended>{{cite news |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/life/2013/12/05/Hic-hic-hooray/stories/201312050249 |title=Prohibition ended 80 years ago today, but the dry movement never worked here |date=December 4, 2013 |access-date=February 10, 2014 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette}}</ref> Several factors fed into resistance to Prohibition, including a large immigrant population, anti-establishment animosity dating to the [[Whiskey Rebellion]], fragmented local government, and pervasive corruption.<ref name=ended /> The [[Pittsburgh crime family]] controlled significant portions of the illegal alcohol trade.

During that time, Prohibition Administrator John Pennington and his federal agents engaged in 15,000 raids, arrested over 18,000 people and closed down over 3,000 distilleries, 16 regular breweries, and 400 'wildcat' breweries.<ref name=ended /><ref>{{cite journal | last =Comte | first =Julien | title ="Let the Federal Men Raid": Bootlegging and Prohibition Enforcement in Pittsburgh | journal =Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies | publisher =[[Project MUSE]] | date =Spring 2010 | volume =77 | issue =2 | pages =166–192 | doi =10.1353/pnh.0.0021 | s2cid =143698372 | url =http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pnh/summary/v077/77.2.comte.html |access-date=December 7, 2013}}</ref> Even the term "[[Speakeasy]]", meaning an illegal drinking establishment, is said to have been coined at the Blind Pig in nearby [[McKeesport, Pennsylvania]].<ref name=ended /><ref>{{cite news | title =Munch goes to the Blind Pig | newspaper =[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]] | date =June 30, 2011  | url =http://www.post-gazette.com/munch/2011/06/30/Munch-goes-to-the-Blind-Pig/stories/201106300295 | access-date =December 7, 2013 }}</ref>

The last distillery in Pittsburgh, Joseph S. Finch's distillery, located at South Second and McKean streets, closed in the 1920s.<ref name=first>{{cite news| last =Toland | first =Bill | title =Pittsburgh gets its first distillery since before Prohibition | newspaper =[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]] | date =March 29, 2012 | url =http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sectionfront/life/pittsburgh-gets-its-first-distillery-since-before-prohibition-298761/?p=0 |access-date=June 12, 2012}}</ref> In 2012, [[Wigle Whiskey]] opened, becoming the first since the closure of Finch's distillery.<ref name=first />

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette produced a large web feature on this period in the city's history.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/prohibition/|title=Pittsburgh:The Dark Years|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette| author=Mellon, Steve|access-date=3 June 2014 }}</ref>

===Environment===
During the late 19th century, city leaders debated the responsibility and expense of creating a waterworks system and disposal of sewage. Downstream users complained about Pittsburgh's dumping of sewage into the Ohio River. Allegheny County cities did not stop discharging raw sewage into rivers until 1939. Pittsburgh's smoke pollution, seen in the 1890s as a sign of prosperity, was recognized as a problem in the [[Progressive Era]] and was cleared up in the 1930s–1940s. Steel plants deposited mountains of slag until 1972, especially in Nine Mile Run Valley.<ref>Joel Tarr, "The Metabolism of the Industrial City: The Case of Pittsburgh," ''Journal of Urban History'' 2002 28(5): 511–545</ref>

In November 1927, 28 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in an [[1927 Pittsburgh gas explosion|explosion]] of a gas tank.<ref>{{cite journal| last = Brotzman |first = W. S.  | title = Damaging Gas Explosion at Pittsburgh, PA. |journal = Monthly Weather Review  |volume=55  | issue = 11  | pages = 500  | publisher = [[National Weather Service|Weather Bureau]] |date=January 25, 1928 |url=http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/055/mwr-055-11-0500a.pdf  |access-date=January 17, 2008 |doi=10.1175/1520-0493(1927)55<500a:DGEAPP>2.0.CO;2|doi-access = free}}</ref>

To escape the soot of the city, many of the wealthy lived in the [[Shadyside, Pennsylvania|Shadyside]] and East End neighborhoods, a few miles east of downtown. [[Fifth Avenue (Pittsburgh)|Fifth Avenue]] was dubbed "Millionaire's Row" because of the many mansions lining the street.

On March 17 and 18, 1936, Pittsburgh suffered the worst flood in its history, with flood levels peaking at 46 feet. This catastrophe killed 69 victims, destroyed thousands of buildings, caused $3B (2006 dollars) in damages, and put more than 60,000 steelworkers out of work.<ref>Mildred Flaherty, ''The Great Saint Patrick's Day Flood,'' (The Local History Company, Pittsburgh, PA, 2004)</ref>

===High culture===
[[Oakland (Pittsburgh)|Oakland]] became the city's predominant cultural and educational center, including three universities, multiple museums, a library, a music hall, and a botanical conservatory. Oakland's [[University of Pittsburgh]] erected what today is still the world's fourth-tallest educational building, the 42-story [[Cathedral of Learning]].<ref>[[List of tallest educational buildings]] Accessed 13 August 2017{{circular reference|date=September 2021}}</ref> It towered over [[Forbes Field]], where the [[Pittsburgh Pirates]] played from 1909 to 1970.<ref name="Galloway"/>
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[[File:Pittsburgh1920.jpg|thumb|right|700px|{{center|Downtown Pittsburgh panorama, from 1920.}}]]

===New immigrants and migrants===
Between 1870 and 1920, the population of Pittsburgh grew almost sevenfold, with a large number of European immigrants arriving to the city. New arrivals continue to come from Britain, Ireland, and Germany, but the most popular sources after 1870 were poor rural areas in southern and eastern Europe, including Italy, the Balkans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russian Empire. Unskilled immigrants found jobs in construction, mining, steel mills and factories. They introduced new traditions, languages, and cultures to the city, creating a diversified society as a result. Ethnic neighborhoods developed in working-class areas and were built on densely populated hillsides and valleys, such as [[South Side (Pittsburgh)|South Side]], [[Polish Hill]], [[Bloomfield (Pittsburgh)|Bloomfield]], and [[Squirrel Hill]], home to 28% of the city's almost 21,000 Jewish households.<ref>{{cite web |title=The 2002 Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study |url=http://www.ujfpittsburgh.org/page.aspx?ID=46650 |publisher=United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh |date=December 2002 |access-date=November 6, 2008 |archive-date=March 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310045941/http://ujfpittsburgh.org/page.aspx?id=46650 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Strip District (Pittsburgh)|Strip District]], the city's produce distribution center, still boasts many restaurants and clubs that showcase these multicultural traditions of Pittsburghers.<ref name="Galloway"/>

===African Americans===
{{Further|Great Migration (African American)}}
The years 1916–1940 marked the largest migration of African Americans to Pittsburgh during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] from the rural South to industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest. These migrants came for industrial jobs, education, political and social freedom, and to escape racial oppression and violence in the South. Migrants going to Pittsburgh and surrounding mill towns faced racial discrimination and restricted housing and job opportunities. The black population in Pittsburgh jumped from 6,000 in 1880 to 27,000 in 1910.  Many took highly paid, skilled jobs in the steel mills. Pittsburgh's black population increased to 37,700 in 1920 (6.4% of the total) while the black element in Homestead, Rankin, Braddock, and others nearly doubled. They succeeded in building effective community responses that enabled the survival of new communities.<ref>Joe W. Trotter, "Reflections on the Great Migration to Western Pennsylvania." ''Western Pennsylvania History'' (1995) 78#4: 153–158 [https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/download/4502/4319 online].</ref><ref>Joe W. Trotter, and Eric Ledell Smith, eds. ''African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting Historical Perspectives'' (Penn State Press, 2010).</ref>
Historian Joe Trotter explains the decision process:
:Although African-Americans often expressed their views of the Great Migration in biblical terms and received encouragement from northern black newspapers, railroad companies, and industrial labor agents, they also drew upon family and friendship networks to help in the move to Western Pennsylvania. They formed migration clubs, pooled their money, bought tickets at reduced rates, and often moved ingroups. Before they made the decision to move, they gathered information and debated the pros and cons of the process....In barbershops, poolrooms, and grocery stores, in churches, lodge halls, and clubhouses, and in private homes, southern blacks discussed, debated, and decided what was good and what was bad about moving to the urban North.<ref>Trotter, "Reflections on the Great Migration to Western Pennsylvania," p 154.</ref>

The newly established Black communities nearly all endured, apart from Johnstown where blacks were expelled in 1923. Joe Trotter explains how the Blacks built new institutions for their new communities in the Pittsburgh area:
:Black churches, fraternal orders, and newspapers (especially the ''[[Pittsburgh Courier]]''); organizations such as the NAACP, Urban League, and Garvey Movement; social clubs, restaurants, and baseball teams; hotels, beauty shops, barber shops, and taverns, all proliferated.<ref>Trotter, "Reflections on the Great Migration to Western Pennsylvania," pp 156-57.</ref>

The cultural nucleus of Black Pittsburgh was Wylie Avenue in the [[Hill District]]. It became  an important jazz mecca because jazz greats such as [[Duke Ellington]] and Pittsburgh natives [[Billy Strayhorn]] and [[Earl Hines]] played there. Two of the Negro League's greatest baseball rivals, the [[Pittsburgh Crawfords]] and the [[Homestead Grays]], often competed in the Hill District. The teams dominated the [[Negro National League (1933–1948)|Negro National League]] in the 1930s and 1940s.<ref name="Galloway"/>

===1930s===
Pittsburgh was a Republican stronghold starting in the 1880s,<ref>Between 1884 and 1933, only two Democrats served as mayors of Pittsburgh, Bernard McKenna from 1893 through 1896 and George Guthrie between 1906 and 1909.</ref> and the Republican governments provided jobs and assistance for the new immigrants in return for their votes. But the Great Depression starting in 1929 ruined the GOP in the city. The Democratic victory of 1932 meant an end to Republican patronage jobs and assistance. As the Depression worsened, Pittsburgh ethnics voted heavily for the Democrats, especially in 1934, making the city a stronghold of the [[New Deal Coalition]]. By 1936, Democratic programs for relief and jobs, especially the [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]], were so popular with the ethnics that a large majority voted for the Democrats.<ref>Stefano Luconi, "The Roosevelt Majority: The Case of Italian Americans in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 1996 15(2): 32–59</ref><ref>Richard C. Keller, ''Pennsylvania's Little New Deal'' (1960)</ref>

[[Joseph Guffey]], statewide leader of the Democrats, and his local lieutenant [[David L. Lawrence|David Lawrence]] gained control of all federal patronage in Pittsburgh after Roosevelt's landslide victory in 1932 and the election of a Democratic mayor in 1933. Guffey and Lawrence used the [[New Deal]] programs to increase their political power and build up a Democratic machine that superseded the decaying Republican machine. Guffey acknowledged that a high rate of people on relief was not only "a challenge" but also "an opportunity". He regarded each relief job as Democratic patronage.<ref>Bruce M. Stave, ''The New Deal and the Last Hurrah: Pittsburgh Machine Politics'' (1970)</ref>

===1940s===
Pittsburgh was at the center of the "[[Arsenal of Democracy]]" that provided steel, aluminum, munitions and machinery for the U.S. during [[World War II]]. Pittsburgh's mills contributed 95 million tons of steel to the war effort. The increased production output created a workforce shortage, which resulted in African Americans moving en masse during the [[Second Great Migration (African American)|Second Great Migration]] from the South to the city in order to find work.<ref name="Lorant"/>

===Postwar===
[[David L. Lawrence|David Lawrence]], a Democrat, served as mayor of Pittsburgh from 1946 to 1959 and as Pennsylvania's governor from 1959 to 1963.<ref>Michael P. Weber, ''Don't Call Me Boss: David L. Lawrence, Pittsburgh's  Renaissance Mayor,'' (1988)</ref> Lawrence used his political power to transform Pittsburgh's  political machine into a modern governmental unit that could run the city well and honestly.<ref>Richard Robbins, "David L. Lawrence: The Deft Hand Behind Pittsburgh's – and Pennsylvania's – Politics," ''Pennsylvania Heritage'' 2001 27(4): 22–29</ref>  In 1946  Lawrence decided to enforce the Smoke Control Ordinance of 1941 because he believed smoke abatement was crucial for the city's future economic development. However, enforcement placed a substantial burden on the city's working-class because smoky bituminous coal was much less expensive than smokeless fuels. One round of protests came from Italian-American organizations, which called for delay in enforcing it. Enforcement raised their cost of living and threatened the jobs of their relatives in nearby bituminous coal mines. Despite dislike of the smoke abatement program, Italian Americans strongly supported the reelection of Lawrence in 1949, in part because many of them were on the city payroll.<ref>Stefano Luconi, "The Enforcement of the 1941 Smoke-Control Ordinance and Italian Americans in Pittsburgh," ''Pennsylvania History'' 1999 66(4): 580–594</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
|-
!Year
!City Population
!City Rank<ref name="census"/>
|-
|1860
|49,221
|17
|-
|1870
|86,076
|16
|-
|1880
|156,389
|12
|-
|1890
|238,617
|13
|-
|1900
|321,616
|11
|-
|1910
|533,905
|8
|-
|1920
|588,343
|9
|-
|1930
|669,817
|10
|-
|1940
|671,659
|10
|-
|1950
|676,806
|12
|}

{{anchor|Renaissance I}}