Souvenir of Pittsburgh, Penna

While perhaps not as exciting as my other Pittsburgh postcard collection, this is still a pretty cool set. It's not as exciting because 1.) It's newer (from 1941, vs. the other one, from 1914) and 2.) Mark bought it on Etsy for my birthday.

However, it does include photos featuring some of the city's world-class charm, including a few of the city's many bridges, my college alma mater, Duquesne University. That's also where Mark and I met. :)

It is sorta like the other set, in that it's according style, with all the postcards connecting to one another, and postcard photos are printed on both sides.

That first postcard threw me off a bit, because there totally aren't any traffic circles here now. And I'm so thankful for that, because I think I have a heart attack every time I drive through one of those.

Pittsburgh: 100 Years Past

I'm still stunned I found this at Rogers Community Auction over the weekend. It's a postcard booklet, with locations printed on the front and back. The postmark is dated September 1914. I paid $5 for it.

Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown Pittsburgh

St. Paul Cathedral, Oakland

Mercy Hospital, Uptown

Allegheny General Hospital, North Side

Heinz Residence, East Liberty

Highland Park Zoo, Highland Park (Now just the Pittsburgh Zoo)

Baseball Park, aka Forbes Field, Oakland

"New" University of Pittsburgh, Oakland

Forbes Field, Oakland

Carnegie Technical School, Squirrel Hill (Now Carnegie Mellon University)

Pennsylvania Railroad Union Station, Downtown Pittsburgh

Hotel Schenley, Oakland (Now the William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh)

There were a few other ways to confirm this is from 1914.

First, Pittsburgh is spelled with an H on these. From the 1890s until 1911, the city was spelled Pittsburg. Also, there are pictured of Forbes Field and Exposition Park in this collection. There was only a small time frame when both existed at the same time: Forbes Field was built in 1909; Exposition Park (pictured in the "Smoky City" photo) was used until 1915.

It's kind of cool that most of the buildings, with the exception of Forbes Field and the Exposition buildings, are still in existence. Not sure about the fate of the Fort Wayne Depot and Pittsburgh Post Office buildings pictured. Other buildings, while still standing, have changed significantly or have been repurposed. For instance, as I mentioned above, the Schenley Hotel is now the student union building at Pitt. Also, the Allegheny Post Office, in North Side, now houses the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.

One other thing I did: I searched the name Helen Duncan, of Saltsburg, since this booklet was addressed to her. She was born in September 1904, so she received this booklet right around her 10th birthday. And I'm guessing she held onto it for a long time, or collected them. The seller at Rogers had a few other booklets featuring other cities, so she could've collected them. I didn't see whether they were all addressed to her or not.

Lastly, the booklet had postcard photos on the front and back, instead of the traditional open space to write a note. And they were all attached accordion style. That's something I've never seen before.

Have you ever been curious as to what your hometown looked like 100 years ago? How much have things changed over the last century?