Location: City Clerk’s Office in the City-County Building downtown
Guests: Charles Succop (City Archivist in Charge), Brianna Facciani (City of Pittsburgh Processing Archivist in Charge)
Three things surprised me:
1. Charles led me into the vault, a room lined with small pull-out shelves that he says holds every bill passed in Pittsburgh from 1816 through this week. The vault was built in 1917 and has remained largely unchanged since then. A few years ago, the vault’s city records were digitized, making them more than 200,000 pages, all searchable online.
2. Brianna showed me a 1925 report from the Transportation Commission proposing to build a subway line in Pittsburgh. Citing successful subway systems in New York and Paris, the report suggested a route from downtown through Oakland to East Liberty.
3. Charles and Brianna took me into the ornate and detailed Council Chambers, where artisans had painted the names of the various boroughs that had been incorporated into Pittsburgh before 1917 on the ceiling.
One thing that ultimately wasn’t adopted: Brianna brought along Allegheny City’s first collection of ordinances, which mentions Mayor Robert Cassatt, father of famous impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Charles showed us an 1846 letter Mayor Cassatt sent to the City Council expressing concerns about people loitering near the city’s bridges.
Additional Information: If you would like to research your home or other Pittsburgh history, please visit the Pittsburgh City Archives website. Records and information are being added all the time.
Want more Yinzer backstage passes? Check out our visit to the historic Cathedral at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe.
