Many people thought that the life blood of the community was gone. Homestead hit a rough patch when the mills started to disappear after World War II. That friendly, close-knit feeling still exists today. Eighth Avenue and the surrounding blocks were where people came to shop, eat, socialize, and keep up with local events. During this boom, Homestead Borough became the meeting and gathering place for the Steel Valley. By the 1920’s over 20,000 people lived and worked in the area. As the mills expanded, spanning from Homestead into the surrounding towns of Munhall and West Homestead, so did the population. The Homestead Works eventually grew to be one of the largest steel plants in the world. The mills and factories were a huge draw for immigrant workers, especially those from Western Europe, and by the early 1900’s Homestead was populated by over 12,000 residents from various countries and cultures. Though Historic, the strike did not stem the growth of industry in Homestead. Homestead’s place in the industrial revolution and later labor movements are so important that most of our downtown buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been studied and written about for over 120 years, and the effects of the strike and ensuing gun battle were felt in Homestead for decades thereafter. A watershed moment in labor history, this strike culminated in one of the most violent clashes between workers and private security officials in history. The unprecedented growth of Andrew Carnegie’s mills and the desire for ever-increasing output and profits led to the famous Homestead Strike of 1892. By the turn of the Century, Homestead was a bustling community, home to one of the most important plants of The Carnegie Steel Company.īecause of its location, Homestead proved an ideal place for the steel industry to take root – the Monongahela river not only provided easy access to ample coal and ore deposits, but it made shipping the final product easy and convenient. Shortly thereafter, Phipps Company took over a local steel mill, and the Borough began to boom. It’s hard to imagine today, but from the time the first settlers arrived in Homestead until the late 1800’s, our Borough was known for its rolling farmland.Ĭarnegie Phipps Company began the industrial transformation of Homestead with a Glass Works Factory in 1879.
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