Pittsburgh’s Early Start in the Iron Industry

 Pennsylvania and especially Pittsburgh has been known as a major part of the iron and steel industry. When the steel mills lining the rivers gave the town the reputation of “The Smokey City”, the trade was decades if not a century old.

    Alleghany County had two early iron furnaces. The areas around both sites have been developed and no sign of these early manufacturing plants remain.

    The first one, called The Shadyside Furnace was built in 1792, two hundred and thirty-one years ago. It only operated for a year due to the lack of near-by iron ore.

  Stefan Lorant’s book, Pittsburgh, The Story of an American City, has a painting of the furnace done by Walter A. Gasowski. The area where it was, once forestland, is now filled with buildings and roads. Shadyside Furnace was located near Shadyside, a place not really associated with dirt, smoke and noise. The furnace was built somewhere near the end of Amberson Avenue, where the busway and railroad tracks are now. The Pennsylvania Railroad effectively erased any sign of the furnace when they put their tracks in around 1860.

    The second furnace was called The Clinton Furnace. Built in 1859, it was fueled with coke instead of charcoal. This practice provides a much higher heat and a much more efficient process. The furnace continued operating until 1927!

The location of this furnace is shown in a painting by Pittsburgh painter, John Kane, done in 1920. Looking at the painting you can see the St. Mary of the Mount Church (1897) on top of Mount Washington above the furnace. You can also see the Wabash Railroad Tunnel and bridge. The bridge has been demolished but the tunnel remains, now used by cars. The furnace sat close to where Carson Street is now. The edge of one of the RR bridge piers can be seen in the left side of the picture below.

    In 1905, things had modernized a lot at the Clinton Furnace, Pittsburgh was well on its way into the steel legend it would become.

    These two furnaces weren’t the first ones in the state, just the first in Alleghany County and as we all know, the iron and steel industry BOOMED here in The Steel City.