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Old 09-10-2007, 04:36 PM
 
255 posts, read 1,090,263 times
Reputation: 94

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Here is a picture of downtown Pittsburgh in the 1940s. It was taken at 10:55am. It's really disgusting to realize exactly how polluted the air here was.
Note the buildings and cars with lights on in the middle of the day. Enjoy!

Full record for Smoke Control Lantern Slides (ASC): SCLS003

For more historic Pittsburgh pictures, look here:
D-Scribe Digital Publishing, Image Collections (http://www.library.pitt.edu/articles/digpubtype/images.html - broken link)
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Old 09-10-2007, 04:53 PM
 
353 posts, read 822,165 times
Reputation: 79
I heard once that most people repainted their house once every two years. For those of you not from the area, it is nothing close to being like this anymore.
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Old 09-10-2007, 06:14 PM
 
15,631 posts, read 26,112,792 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by supersoulty View Post
I heard once that most people repainted their house once every two years. For those of you not from the area, it is nothing close to being like this anymore.
My mom says that when she would take my sisters shopping in downtown (1954-1958) she carried an extra pair of gloves. Most gloves were light colored and would be filthy in a few hours, necessitating a change...

It's SO not like that anymore.... women don't wear gloves....
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Old 09-10-2007, 06:45 PM
 
Location: Garland Texas
1,533 posts, read 7,212,289 times
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A lot of people still think its like that today. I have heard that peoples faces got sooty just from walking around downtown. Thank goodness its not like that anymore. I suspect all that pollution is why Pennsylvania as a whole has some of the highest cancer rates in the nation.
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Old 09-10-2007, 06:46 PM
 
Location: South Central PA
1,565 posts, read 4,295,224 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by supersoulty View Post
I heard once that most people repainted their house once every two years. For those of you not from the area, it is nothing close to being like this anymore.
But you can still see it on many buildings, stone buildings that havent been sandblasted. I remember my mom telling me when she went to Pitt that she honestly thought the Cathedral of Learning was a black building...

Of course acid rain has also helped clean some of it up (ironic?) too
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Old 09-10-2007, 09:15 PM
 
4,412 posts, read 3,939,753 times
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All one has to do is look at the cleaning work happening to the Episcopal Cathedral in Downtown, It's really amazing. Really makes me wonder why so many lamented the collapse of the steel industry as it once was.
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Old 09-11-2007, 01:42 PM
 
237 posts, read 857,153 times
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However, if you look at the next church over from the Episcopal Cathedral, you can see the dangers of cleaning. They sandblasted that church regularly. That sand-stone church.

They finally realized it would just have to stay dirty when the structural integrity was compromised.
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Old 09-11-2007, 02:45 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,179,658 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom View Post
My mom says that when she would take my sisters shopping in downtown (1954-1958) she carried an extra pair of gloves. Most gloves were light colored and would be filthy in a few hours, necessitating a change...

It's SO not like that anymore.... women don't wear gloves....
LOL! I have heard stories of street lights being turned on at noon, stuff like that. My mom talked of soot blowing in the house through the windows (year round) and under the door. That ended when we moved "up the hill" from Beaver Falls.
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Old 09-11-2007, 03:38 PM
 
43,011 posts, read 107,614,039 times
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Many Pittsburghers don't realize that the annual "wall washing" done here isn't necessary anymore.

They just do it because their mothers did it.

Meanwhile, the annual "wall washing" was necessary because of the heavy pollution, but it's not necessary anymore.
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Old 09-11-2007, 06:08 PM
 
15,631 posts, read 26,112,792 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopes View Post
Many Pittsburghers don't realize that the annual "wall washing" done here isn't necessary anymore.

They just do it because their mothers did it.

Meanwhile, the annual "wall washing" was necessary because of the heavy pollution, but it's not necessary anymore.
Not just pollution but also the way those houses were heated... fires are pretty and poetic but FILTHY.... lots of houses were heated with coal which is dirty.

To keep the heat in houses were closed up as much as possible, and imagine coming in dirty from outside and being dirty in a dirty house... that spring cleaning was NEEDED....

In my opinion kitchens that are cooked in STILL need a yearly washing down of walls...
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