{"id":279,"date":"2014-09-08T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=279"},"modified":"2015-01-09T16:35:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T21:35:34","slug":"pittsburgh-the-quiet-city-of-the-1950s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/09\/08\/pittsburgh-the-quiet-city-of-the-1950s\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh, the quiet city of the 1950s?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A <\/a>
A lone trolley passenger on Nov. 30, 1952. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Unidentified <\/a>
Unidentified street scene, circa 1950. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div>
\"West <\/a>
West Park in the early morning, 1952. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"An <\/a>
An early morning picture of Forbes Field, dated July 24, 1967. (Al Hermmann\/The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A man waits in solitude for a trolley on a city street. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Pittsburgh was home to 676,806 people in 1950, which leads us to believe the city was a crowded place. And noisy, with all those steel mills and trolleys and railroads rattling residents day and night.<\/p>\n

But as these pictures show, people here were able to find moments of quiet and solitude amidst the din.<\/p>\n

We found the images in a folder labeled \u201cPittsburgh Album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cAlbum,\u201d we discovered, was a weekly feature published in The Pittsburgh Press Roto magazine several decades ago. The feature was simple \u2014 usually a picture and a brief caption.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the photographs highlighted the city\u2019s quirky side. In one, a gardener holds a tomato that looks like it has a full set of oversized teeth \u2014 an oddity of nature. Another depicts a cabinet maker standing proudly next to his creation: a stainless steel rocket, propped up in his backyard.<\/p>\n

We chose to post these pictures because they challenge our perceptions of what life in Pittsburgh was like in the 50s and 60s, when our city was home to twice as many people as now and the Renaissance was in full swing.<\/p>\n

Most of the images are uncredited. But we\u2019re thankful for the work of the largely unknown photographers who allow us to travel briefly back in time to experience the city in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How were nearly 700,000 people able to find moments of quiet and solitude amidst the din?<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPittsburgh, the quiet city of the 1950s?<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[961,977,988,989,993,1031],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/tumblr_nbg2t0JjLI1rr5swxo5_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C893&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":110,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/11\/03\/pittsburgh-playhouse-performers\/","url_meta":{"origin":279,"position":0},"title":"Pittsburgh Playhouse performers","date":"November 3, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Point Park University took over the facility in 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