Historic Pittsburgh factory being levelled after wall collapse
Demolition of a historic North Side factory began Tuesday morning after a wall partially collapsed onto an occupied apartment building the night before, a city director said. The John A. Brashear Factory located at 2016 Perrysville Ave., Perry Hilltop, was built in the 1880s for the self-made Pittsburgh astronomer who was the worlds leading manufacturer of precision optical and scientific instruments. Read more
Reacquainting Pittsburgh's youngsters with "Uncle John" Brashear will begin in the same North Side factory where the renowned optics expert toiled over precision mirrors and lenses for Gilded Age telescopes. Historian and musician Lisa A. Miles wants to transform Brashear's vacant Perrysville Avenue factory into a temporary classroom to teach about the scientific achievements of Brashear, who died in 1920, and contemporaries such as astrophysicist Samuel Pierpont Langley.