Category: History, News || By

Radio host Garrison Keillor has noted that it's depressing to be considered an expert on a topic when there's so much you don't know. I know the feeling well.

Not a week goes by someone doesn't ask me for help with some McKeesport-related issue (ironic, since I don't live within the city limits, and never have). I especially get a lot of requests for information about local history.

(A quick aside: The producers of a TV documentary about the late Nick Perry contacted me recently, asking me to serve as a consultant. When I told them I don't work for free, and that I would need some sort of a modest payment, they suddenly lost interest and stopped emailing me. That's showbiz!)

And yet, I'm hardly an expert, and there's so much I don't know. It's all too obvious when I get something like Michelle Tryon Wardle-Eggers and John Barna's new book "McKeesport," the latest installment in the popular "Postcard History Series" produced by South Carolina-based Arcadia Publishing.

. . .

Not to be confused with Arcadia's previous book about McKeesport --- written by volunteers from McKeesport Heritage Center --- this is an entirely new paperback. crammed with more than 200 images, mainly from the late 1890s through the 1950s.

Many of these postcards are from the center's own collection, but others have been loaned by collectors. While all of the images are rare, it's safe to say that many are one-of-a-kinds and would never be seen by the public without this book.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I am hardly an impartial reviewer. John is a regular contributor to Tube City Almanac, and Michelle is executive director of the Heritage Center, where I serve as a member of the board of directors. Ah, but it's a small town.)

. . .

What are some of the gaps in my McKeesport knowledge? I didn't know that the old R.E. Kaplan Furniture Store on Fifth Avenue started out as a hotel. I didn't know that St. Stephen's Magyar Church (now sadly abandoned and decaying) on Beacon Street was the first Hungarian Catholic church in the United States.

I also didn't know that McKeesport's first library was established in 1875 (long before our present Carnegie Library, which itself dates to 1902) or that McKeesport National Bank (the present City Hall) was built on the site of a fruit orchard.

I didn't realize just how beautiful the city's East Park neighborhood --- now in disarray --- once was, or that the area near the water treatment plant was once home to a distillery for "Old Possum Hollow Whiskey."

Virtually every one of this book's 126 pages are filled with little nuggets like this, usually going far beyond a simple description of the postcard scene to add context and explanations.

. . .

Arcadia's local history series has been around for more than a decade, and they're sold not just in bookstores but also in discount and drug stores such as Walgreen's. The books follow a rigid formula --- they're pocket-sized paperbacks that contain mostly photos and not much text --- that doesn't allow for much serendipity; if you've seen one Arcadia history book, you've seen 'em all.

And because each book is narrowly focused on a single topic ("Ligonier" or "Pittsburgh's Streamlined Streetcars" or "The Early Days of Professional Football in Western Pennsylvania") there isn't much to suck someone into an Arcadia book if they don't already have an emotional connection to the topic. Few people from Skokie, Ill., are going to find anything of interest in a McKeesport book.

The historical content of Arcadia's books can be scant, because it's confined mainly to photo captions, and what history remains can sometimes be uneven because the quality of the authors varies. I've found some whopping errors in a few Arcadia paperbacks. (Of course, I also made some, ahem, bad mistakes in my own book.)

. . .

Happily, this book is undoubtedly among the most fact-packed of Arcadia's titles. John is a historian of no small ability, having produced some amazingly informative and well-researched local history pieces (collaborating in many cases with Dave Sallinger) while at the Daily News. Michelle holds a master's degree in history from Kent State University and is previously published as well. These are two authors who know their topic and know how to dig for details.

If there's a fault to be found, it's that a book of postcards necessarily leaves out some subjects. Postcards tend to depict places and buildings, so we get a lot of views of scenery, and postcards are designed to promote the positive aspects of life. Rarely (if ever!) has a postcard ever shown scenery from the seedy side of town.

In other words, no one made postcards of McKeesport's biggest tourist attraction during the early 20th century --- its notorious prostitution district, Brick Alley!

When people are depicted, they generally look like upper-middle-class Anglo-Saxon Protestants --- despite the fact that McKeesport was increasingly a city of immigrants after 1900, and had a growing African-American population by 1930.

But even those omissions tell us something about American values and life before 1950. Furthermore, this book is hardly intended to be a detailed history of McKeesport; instead, it's a very well-organized and thoroughly researched overview of McKeesport's boom years that just happens to be told using a very accessible (if limited) means --- old postcards.

. . .

Though its books may follow a cookie-cutter format, Arcadia has done Americans a great service by popularizing local history and making it affordable and accessible to everyone. Michelle and John have likewise done a great service to McKeesporters --- past and present --- by reminding us all of the city's glorious past.

And while I enjoy looking at photos from the past, my fondest hope is that books like this will inspire people to imagine what McKeesport could look like in the future.

. . .

"McKeesport" by Michelle Tryon Wardle-Eggers and John W. Barna retails for $21.99. It may be purchased at McKeesport Heritage Center (1832 Arboretum Drive), Pittsburgh-area Barnes & Noble stores, or via Amazon.com.

You are previewing your comment. Be sure to click on 'Post Comment' to store it.