
Because City Hall knows everything, as we can see from this 1892 view of one of the filing rooms in the old Pittsburgh City Hall. It came from a catalogue from the Office Specialty Mfg. Co, which supplied the filing cabinets.
Because City Hall knows everything, as we can see from this 1892 view of one of the filing rooms in the old Pittsburgh City Hall. It came from a catalogue from the Office Specialty Mfg. Co, which supplied the filing cabinets.
The Washington Road business district as seen from Mount Lebanon Cemetery. Below, the Rollier’s clock tower, a relatively recent addition that anchors the north end of the business district perfectly.
A firehouse that looks very much like a firehouse, this was built in 1910, when the neighborhood was young, at a high point from which a fireman in the tower could see for miles.
A winter view of St. Bernard’s from Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, featuring a fine silhouette of a tree. Below, more church and less tree.
This was the place where the marvelous Ruud water heaters were produced. We take hot running water for granted today, but in this 1908 catalogue, the novelty is brought out in the “instructions” at the front of the book:
COMPLETE DIRECTIONS
Note carefully the instructions
for operating the Ruud
Water Heater
“TURN THE FAUCET”
You may add hot water in your home to the list of innovations for which Pittsburgh is responsible.
“Taylor Allerdice was accustomed to meeting all kinds of situations but here was something entirely different. So far as he knew, it had never been done before, except in the making of an occasional educational film, but this man didn’t look as though he were concerned in making just the short length educational subject.
“ ‘What kind of a picture?’ he asked.
“ ‘What we call a feature presentation, Mr. Allerdice. I have brought a company of players, including the principals and important members of the cast, cameramen and the necessary crew to handle the mechanical end, across the continent to picturize in its actual locale Herschell. S. Hall’s Saturday Evening Post story Steel Preferred. The plant at the National Tube Company seems to be the one best suited to the requirements of the story.’ ”
The entire article, “On Location in a Steel Mill,” appears in The Director for July, 1925.