Pittsburgh150

This page contains rare images of Pittsburgh's "Sesqui-centennial" -- its 150th birthday -- in the year 1908. Cousin Corwin D. Tilbury sat on Pittsburgh City Council that year, making a very personal link between our family and this historic event.

Postcard caption: "Flag boats leading sesqui-centennial marine parade, Pittsburgh, 1908"

Postcard caption: "This is the crowd that greeted me at Pittsburgh Centennial" -- note the city's official sesqui-centennial seal

The official program book -- with cousin Corwin D. Tilbury named inside as one of Pittsburgh's Select Council -- forerunner to today's City Council

Popular postcard widely sold and circulated during the city's anniversary

West View Park in the city's North Hills suburb -- long ago demolished

The city's north side -- then known as "Allegheny" -- with the Pirates' old baseball park in the lower right hand corner, known as Exposition Park

The Pittsburgh Pirates' new Forbes Field, which was under construction in 1908 but opened in 1909 -- the first concrete and steel ballpark in the Major Leagues

Pittsburgh's old city hall -- no doubt where City Select Council member Corwin D. Tilbury would have attended important meetings where he advocated for a pollution ordinance to reduce smoke emissions in the city

Carnegie Steel mills at 33rd Street -- part of the newly created empire of United States Steel -- the world's first billion-dollar company

Pedstrians dodge streetcars at the bustling intersection of Fifth Avenue and Wood Streets in the core of the city's shopping district

"The Coal Industry - Pittsburg, PA." postcard printed by the Publishers Circulation Promotion Association in Pittsburgh circa 1908-1909

McClure's Magazine of May 1903 -- published five years before the sesqui- centennial -- containing Lincoln Steffens' harsh expose of Pittsburgh's political corruption -- later republished in Steffens' bestseller, Shame of the Cities.