logo
  • News
    • Northside Community Meetings
    • Community Calendar
    • Elected Officials
    • Features
    • Local Business
    • Public Safety
    • Sports
  • Arts + Culture
  • Real Estate
  • Classifieds
  • Marketplace
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • News
      • Northside Community Meetings
      • Community Calendar
      • Elected Officials
      • Features
      • Local Business
      • Public Safety
      • Sports
    • Arts + Culture
    • Real Estate
    • Classifieds
    • Marketplace
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
Features
admin, on
October 4, 2011
New histories of the Northside

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-style-parent:””;
font-size:11.0pt;”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-fareast-“Times New Roman”;}

A forthcoming book from Arcadia Publishing that focuses on the history of several Northside neighborhoods hits the markets in early November.

Ed and Jim Yanosko, working with the familiar Arcadia template, have researched and authored this new perspective of ordinary Northside folks who lived, worked, played ball, worshiped and grew up in the communities of City View, Spring Hill, Troy Hill and Reserve Township.

These two local historians, working with old photos, along with computers, scanners and cell phones, represent a new generation of historians, a far cry from the “ancient” craft of doing history the way many of us were taught.

There was a time, not long ago, when history was literally written from massive collections of sources – hand written collections of notebooks and 4×6 note cards.

I vividly remember tossing out several shoe boxes filled with 4x6s (all with proper bibliographical notations) from which I wrote a piece of history, long forgotten, and, I might say, rather meaningless.

It was Studs Terkel who opened the eyes of many of us interested in local history and the history of ordinary folks, of neighborhoods, and of workplaces. My first go round at this was in the mid ’70s. I sent out a group of high school juniors with cassette recorders to gather recollections of life in Woods Run and the role of the Woods Runs settlement house gathered from folks who had lived there in the first half of the 20th century.

Then came the wonderful work of Andrew Syka, a resident of Sunnyvale California, who wrote his own remembrances of growing up in Woods Run. Syka wanted to tell his story to his grandchildren. Copies of his work are in the Allegheny and Woods Run libraries.
More recently Larry Berger and Jeff Barron of the Saturday Light Brigade coordinated teams of students in 2009-10 to interview folks who were “born and raised on the Northside.”

With the aid of wonderful new technologies excerpts of these “Allegheny Voices” are in printed form at our libraries, and they can be can found in audio format on the following websites: http://neighborhoodvoices.org/alleghenyvoices and http://neighborhoodvoices.org/allegheny-voices-2.

Dennis Henderson’s eighth grade students at the Manchester Academic Charter School, working with Ann Canning from the Waynesburg University’s Teaching with Primary Sources program, became young historians in 2008. These students interviewed a number of folks who lived in the Manchester community from the 1920 to the present. The final YouTube versions of their project “Growing Up in Manchester” can be found online here.

Just writing these websites is evidence of a whole new language and technology. Gone are the 4x6s! This is an exciting new way of continuing to tell the story of the Northside.

On Wednesday, November 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. there will be a book signing event at the Penn Brewery hosted by the Allegheny City Society.

Come on down! Have dinner, a pretzel or a beer. Meet the Yanoskos and get your own copy of this new piece of Northside history – “Around Troy Hill, Spring Hill, and Reserve Township.”

Donate today to help support the Northside community newspaper's mission to provide hyperlocal coverage for our neighborhoods, neighbors, and their future.

Related Posts
e-Edition
Northside Neighborhoods
Northside Guides
FORMS + SUBMISSIONS
Events Letters to the Editor News Tips
POLL
MOST READ
Real Estate Transfers Feb. 26 to March 4
Features, News...
Real Estate Transfers Feb. 26 to March 4
March 20, 2023
Allegheny City Central Coast Properties LLC to Thomas Weinlandt and Kendall Post at 1219 Veto St. for $368,600. Brighton Heights FOF Properties LLC to...
this is a test
Real Estate Transfers Feb. 19 to Feb. 25
News, Real Estate...
Real Estate Transfers Feb. 19 to Feb. 25
March 20, 2023
Allegheny City Central Mark Fleischer to James and Amie Sparks Ball at 1202 Sherman Ave. for $400,000. Edward Villella to Louis Kroeck and Sarah Chath...
this is a test
Town Talk: Pizza! Pizza! Not your typical pizza chains
Allegheny City Central, Business...
Town Talk: Pizza! Pizza! Not your typical pizza chains
March 20, 2023
Most Northsiders are likely familiar with the phrase “Pizza! Pizza!” from the TV commercial promoting a national pizza chain. Yet (and to our benefit)...
this is a test
February poll results
Editor Picks, Features...
February poll results
March 18, 2023
February saw the launch of an exciting new feature on The Northside Chronicle’s website: polls! We asked our visitors to cast their votes on a variety...
this is a test
PREVIEW: Northside company launches program to promote robotics startups
Allegheny City Central, Business...
PREVIEW: Northside company launches program to promote robotics startups
March 17, 2023
Robots are perhaps one of the most common ideas people think about when they envision the future. And one Northside company is seeking to bring the fu...
this is a test
Neighborhood Community Development Fund
Northside Leadership Conference
Donate

The Northside Chronicle

thenorthsidechronicle.com
Phone: (412) 321-3919
Email: [email protected]

About Us

Stay tuned with us

Copyright ©2022 Northside Chronicle. All rights reserved.