Levinson Steel Company Records, 1926-1985
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Levinson Steel Company Records
- source
- Phyllis M. Goldberg
- source
- Harley, Nadine
- Creator
- Levinson Steel Company (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Collection Number
- MSS 1042
- Extent
- 2.25 linear feet linear feet (2 boxes and one oversize folder)
- Date
- 1926-1985
- Abstract
- Levinson Steel Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was incorporated in 1926. The company was founded by Lithuanian immigrant Israel Levinson as a scrap business in the Hill District and was later run by four of his five sons. After diversifying into steel fabrication during the 1920s, the company relocated to a plant on the South Side and produced steel parts for construction projects across Pennsylvania and the eastern United States. Levinson Steel eventually became one of the largest steel fabrication and distribution companies in the country. The Levinson Steel Company Records include photographs, print advertisements, correspondence and company publications, including a partial run of the company's employee newsletter, The Fabricator, as well as the company's 1926 certificate for incorporation.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
Levinson Steel Company, a steel distribution company based in Pittsburgh, Pa., was incorporated in 1926 and was managed by three generations of the Levinson family. The family's earliest enterprises in the city date to 1902, when Israel "Jim" Levinson began operating a horse-drawn scrap wagon in the Hill District. Levinson maintained a scrap yard and shop near the family's home on the corner of Pride and Locust Streets in the Uptown neighborhood. Following his death in 1917, his sons Samuel and Abraham assumed operation of the business and were later joined by their brothers Jacob and Emanuel.
In the early 1920s, with the United States leading international steel production, Samuel Levinson began to focus the scrap business on the buying and selling of steel. In the following years, the brothers also began fabricating steel parts. After its incorporation in 1926, the Levinson Steel Company (LSC) shifted its operations more fully to steel fabrication and opened a fabrication plant at 23rd and Josephine Streets in the South Side. The company's diversification gave way to steady growth, and in 1939 the company was asked to create the "Unity Bridge," part of the Pennsylvania exhibit at the New York World's Fair.
Levinson Steel eventually ranked as the nation's eleventh largest structural steel fabricator, manufacturing structural steel for bridges, apartments, office buildings, garages, foundries, schools, hospitals and other construction projects across Pennsylvania, the Midwest and eastern United States, including notable commissions from the World Trade Center and Park Avenue Plaza. At its peak, LSC employed about 3,000 workers and operated service centers in the South, Midwest and Western Pennsylvania. During the Vietnam War, the company also operated the Hays Army Ammunition Plant, a federally owned naval ammunition producer in Pittsburgh. The company maintained its original headquarters at 33 Pride Street until the 1950s.
Samuel's son Aaron P. Levinson joined the company in 1934 and became its second president in 1950. At his suggestion, the company added steel warehousing and distribution to its fabrication interests in 1938. During the 1940s, LSC gained national attention from building companies and secured a loyal customer base by maintaining regular prices during the wartime steel shortage, a time when many suppliers sold steel at a premium. Under the direction of Aaron Levinson, the company continued to emphasize customer and employee relations, and frequently referred to its reputation for integrity within the steel community in its advertisements.
LSC also gained a reputation for its philanthropic interests in the local community. In the 1950s, the brothers began laying aside funds from company profits to create the James and Rachel Levinson Foundation. The Foundation opened the James and Rachel Levinson Day Camp in Monroeville in 1969, which continues to operate as the J&R Day Camp of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh (JCC). Before its dissolution in 1986, the Foundation also made significant financial contributions to the JCC and United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. In addition to serving on the Foundation's board, Aaron Levinson served as board chairman of the Pittsburgh Housing Authority and board member of the Pittsburgh Public Theater. He also worked in various capacities with Duquesne University and South Side Hospital. The Levinsons maintained a focus on community giving and encouraged the same among company employees. The wartime and community activities of LSC employees were often spotlighted in the company newsletter, The Fabricator.
Following the decline of steel consumption and increased competition from international steel suppliers during the 1970s, the company closed its South Side fabrication plants in 1980 and continued solely in warehousing and distribution. Levinson Steel was sold in 1983 but attempts by the new ownership to revive the company were unsuccessful. The company was sold to Metals USA in 1998.
Scope and Content Notes
The Levinson Steel Company Records contain four series of materials, including four company scrapbooks, internal publications, photographs, a letter of incorporation, and one oversize poster. Series I contains the scrapbooks, which were created by LSC staff and contain print advertisements, photographs, and testimonial letters from clients. Photographs included in the scrapbooks depict LSC projects, equipment and the company's Side plant. Series II contains company publications, including an employee manual, miscellaneous newsletters and a partial run of the company's employee newsletter, The Fabricator. Series III contains photographs of LSC employees and company events, and interior and aerial views of the company's expanded plant on Wharton Street in the South Side. One oversize poster of LSC managers and executives and the company's 1926 letter of incorporation are included as Series IV.
Conditions Governing Access
None
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh on march 25, 2003. Archives accession 2003.0076
Gift from Phyllis Goldberg on June 23, 2004. Archives accession 2004.0208
Gift from Nadine Harley in 2020. Archives accession 2020.0062
Preferred Citation
Levinson Steel Company Records, 1926-1985, MSS 1042, Rauh Jewish Archives, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Carly Lough in August 2014.
Additions were added by Catelyn Cocuzzi on February 11, 2021.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Related Materials
Ralph Atlas Family Papers, 1908-2002, MSS 397
Subjects
- Levinson Steel Company (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- James and Rachel Levinson Foundation (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Phyllis M. Goldberg
- Harley, Nadine
- Levinson, Aaron P., 1914-2002
- Levinson, Abraham
- Levinson, Emanuel
- Levinson, Hyman, Dr.
- Levinson, Jacob
- Levinson, James, c1869-1917
- Levinson, Rachel Caplan, c1871-1964
- South Side (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Hill District (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Building -- iron and steel.
- Jews -- Lithuania.
- Jews -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Jews -- Politics
- Jews -- Philanthropy
- Jews -- Work
- Steel industry and trade -- Employees.
- Structural steel industry.
- Scrapbooks
- World War, 1939-1945