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3 unusual facts about State Correctional Institution – Pittsburgh


Lucy Dorsey Iams

The same year she was appointed as a Trustee of the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania by Governor Gifford Pinchot.

Pittsburgh Stealers

The Pittsburgh Stealers were a semi-professional American football team based at Western State Penitentiary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist is Alexander Berkman's account of his experience in prison in Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh, from 1892 to 1906.


Cultural District, Pittsburgh

The Byham family of Pittsburgh made a major naming gift for a 1995 renovation, and it has been the Byham Theater since.

Brendan Lemon of The New York Times wrote, “To describe Pittsburgh’s unconventional, un-Disneyfied remodeling of its Cultural District... is to explore how theater can help transform urban identity”.

Frick Fine Arts Building

She responded by creating a new venture, The Frick Art Museum, on the property of her ancestral home, Clayton, a few miles east in Pittsburgh's Point Breeze neighborhood.

Live Forever: The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, September 23, 1980

The live album was recorded at Pittsburgh's Stanley Theatre during the Uprising Tour to support their then latest album of the same name.

Luna Park, Arlington

The Arlington Luna Park was one of several that Ingersoll built and ran in 1905 and 1906 (including Indianola Park in Columbus, Ohio, Rocky Glen Park near Moosic, Pennsylvania, and Luna Parks in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Scranton, and Mexico City).

Luna Park, Pittsburgh

Remnants of the entertainment empire remain, from Mexico City (the park is now called Luna Loca) to Melbourne to Athens (now called Ta Aidonakia).

Point Breeze, Pittsburgh

It is also the home to a popular Pittsburgh Public Schools elementary school, Linden Academy, the Sterrett Middle School, Westinghouse Park, Mellon Park, and the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Both of John Edgar Wideman's memoirs, Brothers and Keepers and Hoop Roots, use North Point Breeze's Westinghouse Park as a setting, as well as in his fictional Homewood Trilogy.

State Correctional Institution – Graterford

SCI-Graterford has an 18-bed Mental Health Unit contracted to MHM Services to facilitate a mental health program.

The Gardens at Market Square

The $104 million, LEED Silver tower is planned to be 18 floors between the Market Square and Point Park University sections of Downtown Pittsburgh and include a 198 room Hilton Garden Inn hotel and a 340-car parking complex.


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