Stairway to Hell
The Smokey City, Pittsburgh, PA.
Due to the foul conditions that plagued Pittsburgh for over a century it was once known as the “Smoky City” or “Hell With the Lid Off”. Its geographic location and natural resources made it an ideal home for the industries that inevitably created the pollution problem. The city’s dark past has been described as a cautionary tale for cities lacking environmental control. Pittsburgh has an extremely long history of pollution and the struggle to alleviate it.
In 1762 a coal mining seam was discovered along the south bank of the Monongahela River. This resulted in some of the biggest and longest lasting impacts on our environment. Coal was an important energy source that fueled the industrialization of the country. However, Pittsburgh’s environment certainly paid the price. Smoke pollution was the most noticeable effect of coal consumption and gave the city its identity as the “City of Smoke.”
Pittsburgh was dark at all hours of the day by the 1940s. Photographs from the past show dark downtown streets lined with bright streetlamps at ten in the morning. The city was reaching a breaking point. David L. Lawrence became mayor in 1946 and vowed to clean up the city. During his first inaugural speech, Lawrence said, “I am convinced that our people want clean air. There is no other single thing which will so dramatically improve the appearance, the health, the pride, and the spirit of the city.”
He had grown up in a tough working-class Irish neighborhood in the Point by Fort Pitt. The neighborhood consisted of many industrial buildings which included run-down and abandoned steel mills. He had lived among some of the worst impurities in the city and saw the need to improve conditions. This gave him a deep passion to clean up the city. After becoming mayor he began to clean up the city. The 20-year redevelopment effort included sandblasting the smoky grime off the city’s iconic skyscrapers. The city began enforcing smoke ordinance and making transportation improvements. Additionally, the war effort exhausted many of the industries that were the source of the pollution problem. The city began to improve dramatically as it found new sources of energy and other ways to provide jobs.
By 1954 smoke pollution had seen a 90 percent decrease. Pittsburgh has changed drastically over the past century. No longer are there any steel mills within city limits. It has moved toward a future of health care, education, technology, and financial services. The industries of the past have been replaced with technology and research companies like Google and RAND as well as global financial institutions like PNC and Highmark Insurance.
Modern day Pittsburgh continues to make environmental improvements. It reshaped its identity from “The City of Smoke” to one on the cutting edge of technology and business. These changes in the economy have certainly aided in our environmental transformation. The vision and promises of David L. Lawrence will continue to have positive and lasting effects on the city for years to come.
The Photographer: Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov, August 1, 1914 – August 12, 1997.
Delano, along with his parents and younger brother, emigrated to the United States in 1923. The family arrived in New York on July 5, 1923, and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after.
Between 1924 and 1932 Delano studied graphic arts/photography and music (viola and composition) as a scholarship student at the Settlement Music School. After graduating high school he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) where he studied illustration and continued his musical training. While there, Delano was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship, on which he chose to travel to Europe, where he bought a camera that got him interested in photography.
After graduating from the PAFA, Delano found it difficult to secure a career in painting, illustrating, or music, so he decided to look into a photography program he had heard about through the Federal Art Project (FAP). He had moved to New York and had been freelancing as a photographer at the time, and decided to propose a photographic project to the FAP: a study of mining conditions in the Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, anthracite coal area. Delano sent sample pictures to Roy Stryker and applied for a job at the Farm Security Administration Photography Program.
Delano's photography was highly regarded, not only for his unconventional subjects and locations, but because of his unconventional use of scale and proportion. This dramatically differentiated him from other FSA photographers. He used these techniques to dramatize the subject's presence and better underline the strength and character of the individual. He often took photos of the unsafe or poor conditions many individuals were living and working in. He used his photography to highlight the importance of the "average" person as well as expose the conditions many of them were working in, in both the coal mines and Puerto Rico.
Stairway to Hell
The Smokey City, Pittsburgh, PA.
Due to the foul conditions that plagued Pittsburgh for over a century it was once known as the “Smoky City” or “Hell With the Lid Off”. Its geographic location and natural resources made it an ideal home for the industries that inevitably created the pollution problem. The city’s dark past has been described as a cautionary tale for cities lacking environmental control. Pittsburgh has an extremely long history of pollution and the struggle to alleviate it.
In 1762 a coal mining seam was discovered along the south bank of the Monongahela River. This resulted in some of the biggest and longest lasting impacts on our environment. Coal was an important energy source that fueled the industrialization of the country. However, Pittsburgh’s environment certainly paid the price. Smoke pollution was the most noticeable effect of coal consumption and gave the city its identity as the “City of Smoke.”
Pittsburgh was dark at all hours of the day by the 1940s. Photographs from the past show dark downtown streets lined with bright streetlamps at ten in the morning. The city was reaching a breaking point. David L. Lawrence became mayor in 1946 and vowed to clean up the city. During his first inaugural speech, Lawrence said, “I am convinced that our people want clean air. There is no other single thing which will so dramatically improve the appearance, the health, the pride, and the spirit of the city.”
He had grown up in a tough working-class Irish neighborhood in the Point by Fort Pitt. The neighborhood consisted of many industrial buildings which included run-down and abandoned steel mills. He had lived among some of the worst impurities in the city and saw the need to improve conditions. This gave him a deep passion to clean up the city. After becoming mayor he began to clean up the city. The 20-year redevelopment effort included sandblasting the smoky grime off the city’s iconic skyscrapers. The city began enforcing smoke ordinance and making transportation improvements. Additionally, the war effort exhausted many of the industries that were the source of the pollution problem. The city began to improve dramatically as it found new sources of energy and other ways to provide jobs.
By 1954 smoke pollution had seen a 90 percent decrease. Pittsburgh has changed drastically over the past century. No longer are there any steel mills within city limits. It has moved toward a future of health care, education, technology, and financial services. The industries of the past have been replaced with technology and research companies like Google and RAND as well as global financial institutions like PNC and Highmark Insurance.
Modern day Pittsburgh continues to make environmental improvements. It reshaped its identity from “The City of Smoke” to one on the cutting edge of technology and business. These changes in the economy have certainly aided in our environmental transformation. The vision and promises of David L. Lawrence will continue to have positive and lasting effects on the city for years to come.
The Photographer: Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov, August 1, 1914 – August 12, 1997.
Delano, along with his parents and younger brother, emigrated to the United States in 1923. The family arrived in New York on July 5, 1923, and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after.
Between 1924 and 1932 Delano studied graphic arts/photography and music (viola and composition) as a scholarship student at the Settlement Music School. After graduating high school he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) where he studied illustration and continued his musical training. While there, Delano was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship, on which he chose to travel to Europe, where he bought a camera that got him interested in photography.
After graduating from the PAFA, Delano found it difficult to secure a career in painting, illustrating, or music, so he decided to look into a photography program he had heard about through the Federal Art Project (FAP). He had moved to New York and had been freelancing as a photographer at the time, and decided to propose a photographic project to the FAP: a study of mining conditions in the Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, anthracite coal area. Delano sent sample pictures to Roy Stryker and applied for a job at the Farm Security Administration Photography Program.
Delano's photography was highly regarded, not only for his unconventional subjects and locations, but because of his unconventional use of scale and proportion. This dramatically differentiated him from other FSA photographers. He used these techniques to dramatize the subject's presence and better underline the strength and character of the individual. He often took photos of the unsafe or poor conditions many individuals were living and working in. He used his photography to highlight the importance of the "average" person as well as expose the conditions many of them were working in, in both the coal mines and Puerto Rico.