Suburb of the week: Glassport (Pittsburgh, McKeesport: houses, job market, bankruptcy)

[eschaton]

Glassport is a borough located on the Monongahela River, just south of McKeesport. It first incorporated from part of Port Vue borough in 1902. The borough was built around a mill called the United States Glass Company, first built in 1894. It experienced rapid population growth up through 1930, finally peaking in 1940 at 8,748. Like many of the mill town boroughs, it began a decline after that, which picked up pace considerably starting in the 1960s. Today its population is roughly half of its all time high - around 4,400.

Glassport today is around 1.7 square miles, but much of the interior of the borough was never heavily developed. The borough's local vernacular is classic early 20th century Pittsburgh mill town - wood framed detached houses on small lots. The blocks are long and laid out perfectly north to south, which gives access to some cool longer views of the sort which are rare in Pittsburgh.

Glassport has a business district along Monongahela Avenue, which has been chopped up by mid-century actions, but it still has a fair amount of activity, including a few local bars, an icre cream place, post office, tattoo shop, dollar store, tanning salon, coffee shop, diner, bank, Chinese restaurant, pizza place, neer distributor, etc. Certainly nothing which would cause people to visit the area as a retail destination, but plenty for local functionality. I'd go so far as to say Glassport is one of the more functional of the boroughs in the Mon Valley, though of course with the local job market in that area not particularly great, there's not really any significant hope of a resurgence.

[Copanut]

It's where the rich people from McKeesport end up.

[guy2073]

The glassport diner was one of my favorite restaurants to visit. Something changed a few years ago and the food wasn't the same to me. That is all i know about glassport.

[Geeo]

Glassport was the site of a devastating tornado in 1963 that destroyed the United States Glass Company factory (they never re-opened) and caused a lot of damage to the town. The trolley service also took a hit and was never restored.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by Geeo

Glassport was the site of a devastating tornado in 1963 that destroyed the United States Glass Company factory (they never re-opened) and caused a lot of damage to the town. The trolley service also took a hit and was never restored.

Interesting. Last damaging tornado in the area I can recall was the mid/late 1990s.

[Geeo]

I'm trying to find an old Post-Gazette or Press story that had pictures of the devastation. If I remember correctly, the glass factory was destroyed and all the molten glass they were working on solidified in the machinery and ruined the whole manufacturing process to the point that it could never be fixed. And the storm took out all the trolley poles and wires. Pittsburgh Railways (the precursor to Port Authority) was already in bankruptcy and abandoned the line. Not sure if there were any deaths.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by Geeo

I'm trying to find an old Post-Gazette or Press story that had pictures of the devastation. If I remember correctly, the glass factory was destroyed and all the molten glass they were working on solidified in the machinery and ruined the whole manufacturing process to the point that it could never be fixed. And the storm took out all the trolley poles and wires. Pittsburgh Railways (the precursor to Port Authority) was already in bankruptcy and abandoned the line. Not sure if there were any deaths.

You may be able to locate it by searching on newspapers.com. It is a fee based service but you can have a free one week trial in which you can search and print to your heart's content. If you find anything please post it here.

[xdv8]

I maintain a subscription, here's something:

Glassport, PA Tornado 1963 https://imgur.com/gallery/ytG51

[Faer]

They lost commuter rail service, offered by PL&E, at almost the same time (1964.) Really rough couple years they had.

[Geeo]

Thanks for finding that article. Fascinating.