Oldies & Goodies
At 250 years, Pittsburgh itself is one of the oldest things around here. In celebration of that milestone, we went in search of some of the other venerable places and people in Allegheny County.
By Alan W. Petrucelli
Left: Oldest Building! Image courtesy of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Funny, but for a city that's 250 years old, Pittsburgh looks darn good. (Maybe 250 is the new 240?) OK, there are a few wrinkles and age spots, but there's also a vibrancy and verve that make the Steel City and this region formidable and fashionable. If you look closely, you'll find the new mixed with the old; look more closely, and you'll find some really old things. We decided to focus on Allegheny County to come up with a list of "Oldests" (to the best of our knowledge and research). As you travel back into time with us, you'll have to agree that Peter Allen was right: Everything old is new again. Enjoy!
OLDEST NEWSPAPER: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
What's black and white and read all over? OK. So it's an old joke. But today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is a really old newspaper - the oldest in this region. In fact, its banner used to proclaim, "First Newspaper West of the Alleghenies."
Founded by John Scull and Joseph Hall, the first issue of the Pittsburgh Gazette (as it was then called) appeared on July 29, 1786. The paper came out weekly and was printed on a hand press in the rear of Scull's log house - Scull was also the first postmaster of Pittsburgh, and his home the first post office. It took the two men 10 hours to crank out 700 copies of the four-page paper; yearly subscriptions cost 17 shillings and sixpence. If you find a copy of Issue No. 1 on eBay, you'll be able to read an article by eminent lawyer and civic leader Hugh Henry Brackenridge, whose prose praised city living of the day. In 1828, the paper was sold to Morgan Neville, and its name changed to Pittsburgh Gazette and Manufacturing and Mercantile Advertiser. A year later, Neville sold the paper to David McClean, who reverted to the former title. Through the years, the paper has absorbed other local periodicals. The name today resulted from the merger of the Pittsburgh Post and Gazette-Times in 1927.
OLDEST BUILDING: The Block house
New kid on the block? Try oldest. The fact that this block house, built by Col. Henry Bouquet in 1764 to guard Fort Pitt, still stands is amazing. The building - not only the last surviving building of the original fort and Pittsburgh's earliest building, but also the oldest authenticated structure west of the Allegheny Mountains - stood outside the walls of the fort between the Monongahela and Ohio bastions.
This landmark has served many uses: In 1772, for example, Indian agent Alexander McKee used the structure for meetings with Native American dignitaries. When George Washington became president, he commanded Col. Josiah Harmer and Col. Arthur St. Clair to keep a keen eye out for the enemy. After 1785 Isaac Craig bought the remains of the fort along with the block house. He built some additions and the hybrid structure became his residence (he used the block house as his kitchen). In doing so, Craig became the first person to actually reside in the block house. The structure remained a dwelling until April 1, 1894, when it was given to the Daughters of the American Revolution, who still own it.
The block house has been restored to its original glory, and is open to the public as part of the Fort Pitt Museum complex.
Above: Oldest Hospital! Photo courtesy of UPMC Mercy
OLDEST HOSPITAL: UPMC Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy, a religious congregation founded in Ireland in 1831 by Catherine McAuley, was quite the operation. The nuns brought their compassion to town in 1843, when Mother Frances Warde and six other sisters founded the first congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. These pioneering women opened the first, and thus oldest, hospital in Pittsburgh and the world's first Mercy Hospital on Jan. 1, 1847. They were way ahead of the time - everyone was welcomed regardless of race, nationality, age, gender or religion. Mercy also established the region's first teaching hospital with resident physicians in training in 1848. The hospital was a major player in the region's response to the epidemic of Spanish influenza in 1918. In 1931, it donated more than $600,000 worth of health care services when one day in the hospital cost under $4. Since its founding, the hospital has expanded and added several wings. On Jan. 1, 2008, Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh - Allegheny County's only remaining Catholic hospital - merged with UPMC and became UPMC Mercy.
OLDEST MARKED GRAVE: Trinity Burial Ground
Here lies Samuel Dawson, a captain in the Eighth Pennsylvania Foot Regiment, who died Sept. 6, 1779. His is the oldest visible marked grave in the county. You can see it at Trinity Burial Ground at downtown's Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, which was completed in 1872. The cemetery had been a Native American burial ground, and starting in the 1760s, the remains of French and British soldiers and early Americans were also buried there. So, although Dawson's is the oldest marked grave, the site holds the remains of many earlier Americans.
Also interred here is Nathaniel Irish Sr., who was born about 1680 in Montserrat, British West Indies, and immigrated to the Colonies. He was originally buried in 1747 on property in Union Furnace near Highbridge, N.J. When that burying ground was vacated, his remains were brought to Pittsburgh in 1961. Since Trinity's Burial Ground had been closed to burials since about 1868, special permission was granted, and Irish was interred adjacent to his son, Nathaniel Irish Jr., a member of the first vestry of Trinity Church, who died in 1816.
Above, right: Oldest Marked Grave! Photo courtesy of Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh