What's online?
The Trimble Company online collection contains images from 1924 through 1951 showing various building construction projects the company undertook, including the Bell Telephone building, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad building, and various department store warehouses. Images were selected that depict the construction of notable Pittsburgh buildings and landmarks that contributed to Pittsburgh's cultural, social, and industrial heritage.
What’s in the entire collection?
The collection, held by the Library & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center, comprises approximately 2,640 images taken between 1924 and 1956 depicting various Trimble Company structures in different stages of completion.
About the Trimble Company
The Trimble Company was founded in 1858 by William F. Trimble as a construction company in Allegheny City, now Pittsburgh’s North Side. Trimble and his wife, Margaret Ann, had nine children, of which four, Charles, William, Samuel, and Alexander, eventually joined the firm.
The company changed names four times over one hundred years. The first name change was in 1903 when it was incorporated under the name W. F. Trimble and Sons Company. William F. Trimble Jr, son of Anthony Trimble, joined the firm in 1910,and was named president of the company upon his uncle William L Trimble’s death in 1937. In 1942, the company reorganized and the name was changed to The Trimble Company. In the early 1960s, the company again reorganized and changed its name to A. H. Trimble Construction and Engineering.
The Trimble family also started the Locust Land Company in the late 1800s. Located in Allegheny City at the same address, it and concentrated their land holdings in this area of the city.