Looking west along McClurg Street from South 32nd Street

1950

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Looking west along McClurg Street from South 32nd Street
  • Title
  • Looking west along McClurg Street from South 32nd Street
  • Creator
  • unknown
  • Identifier
  • MSP285.B030.F10.I02
  • Description
  • This photograph looking west along McClurg Street from South 32nd Street illustrates how Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood looked prior to the revitalization programs of the 1950s and 1960s. This area was also home to the expansion of the Jones & Laughlin (J&L) Steel Corporation. Following World War II, Admiral Ben Moreell served as president (1947-1952), and then chief executive officer (1952-1958) of J&L, overseeing a post war modernization program to rehabilitate J&L plants and equipment after wartime overuse. In his “Plant Improvement Program,” which he introduced in December 1950, Moreell introduced a plan to create new power sources, improve upon raw material handling, and increase speed of production. The depressed steel market of the 1970s led to a rapid decline in steel production in the Pittsburgh area. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation soon began demolishing older factories with no intention of rebuilding. By 1989 most of the South Side Works and the Eliza Furnaces across the Monongahela River were leveled. In the 1990s the few remaining buildings serve as a distant memory of the thriving community these factories surrounded.
  • Subject
  • McClurg Street (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    South Side (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
  • Contributor
  • Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
  • Collection
  • Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs
  • Rights Information
  • The copyright and related rights status of this Item has been reviewed by the organization that has made the Item available, but the organization was unable to make a conclusive determination as to the copyright status of the Item. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
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