Notes from 1910-1915

Background:

Population for Pittsburgh in 1910 was 553,905 and population for Allegheny County was 1,018,463.

Local and National Politics:

Through 1907-1911 the Governor of Pennsylvania was Edwin Stuart and in the years 1911-1915 John Tener was Governor.  Pittsburgh had two mayors during the years of 1910-1915.  William Magee was mayor from 1909 to1914 and Joseph Armstrong was mayor from1914-1918.  On a national level, during the presidential election in 1912 Woodrow Wilson beat Theodore Roosevelt, although Roosevelt won 8300 votes in Pittsburgh.

Construction and Industry:

In 1910, the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial was dedicated and the Henry W. Oliver building was built 25 floors high and ready for occupation.  In 1911, The Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital was founded by Christopher Magee and St. Joseph Hospital opened.  The Pittsburgh Catholic College of Holy Ghost became Duquesne in 1911 as well.  The First National Bank, which stands 26 stories tall, was built in 1912 on Wood Street and is the city's tallest building to date.  The Syria Mosque in Oakland was dedicated and the Carnegie Technical Schools were renamed Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912. A city-county building plan was approved by city and county officials and it was to be built at Grant Street.

In 1911, Pittsburgh was responsible for producing 1/3 to 1/2 of the entire nation's steel. In 1915 the Carnegie Steel Company increased employment by 8,000 in order to meet the war time demands;  the steel mills operated day and night.

In 1914, 10,000 Westinghouse workers went on strike and the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange suspended operations because of the economic effects of the war.

Miscellaneous Facts:

Between 1910 and 1915 there were two floods that wrecked Pittsburgh.  One flood reached 28 feet in 1912 and another flood in 1913 reached 31feet. 

The Pittsburgh Courier was published in 1910.

The first flight of an airplane in Pittsburgh was recorded by John Kowalski when he took off in a four-cylinder plane.

The Pittsburgh Orchestra disbanded because of lack of funds.

Andrew Carnegie:

In 1912, as Andrew Carnegie turned 77, he turned over all of his fortune except for 25,000,000 to charitable functions. He also started the first old age retirement plan for U.S. Steel employees using 4,000,000 of his own money.

Information found at http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/chronology/chronology_driver.pl?searchtype=dbrowse&year=1910&year2=1919 for Pittsburgh facts and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Pennsylvania for Governors of Pennsylvania and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Pittsburgh for Mayors of Pittsburgh.