Allegheny Arsenal
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Designed by Benjamin H. Latrobe and constructed in 1814. The Arsenal was used as a military garrison, in the manufacture and storing of supplies during the Civil War, Indian Wars, and Spanish American War.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Rising on the banks of the Allegheny in 1814, this federal arsenal was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, one of the young republic's most important architects. For generations it garrisoned troops and manufactured and stored munitions, feeding the U.S. Army through the Civil War, the Indian Wars of the West, and the Spanish-American War. As an ordnance works it made Pittsburgh a linchpin of American military supply across the nineteenth century.
Why it matters
Few sites trace the arc of American arms-making so directly, linking a Latrobe design to the nation's wars from the 1810s through 1898.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Benjamin Henry Latrobe
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Stephen C. Foster
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 1976
Stephen Foster, born near Pittsburgh on Independence Day in 1826, became the first American to make a living writing popular songs. His melodies for the traveling minstrel stage carried tunes like his best-known ballads into parlors across the nation, helping invent an American commercial songwriting trade. Fame did not spare him; his health and fortunes faded, and he died poor in New York in 1864.
Pittsburgh Grease Plant
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 2000
Founded in Pittsburgh by Grant McCargo in 1885, this plant became a major producer of the lubricating grease that kept American industry, railroads, and machinery running. Its most storied contribution came during World War II, when it supplied five million pounds of "Eisenhower grease" deemed vital to the war effort. Absorbed into Standard Oil of New Jersey after 1929, the works kept operating until 1999 — more than a century of quiet but essential industrial labor.
Charles Martin Hall
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 1998
Here in 1888 the young inventor Charles Martin Hall's method of producing aluminum by electrolysis was first put to commercial use by the Pittsburgh Reduction Company — the firm that would grow into industrial giant Alcoa. Before Hall's breakthrough, aluminum was a rare and costly novelty; his process made the lightweight metal cheap and abundant. What began as a Pittsburgh experiment turned aluminum into a staple of the modern age.
Westinghouse Railroad Air Brake
Pittsburgh, PA · est. 2011
In 1869 a young inventor named George Westinghouse solved one of railroading's deadliest problems: how to stop a long train quickly and safely. His compressed-air brake let an engineer halt every car at once instead of relying on brakemen scrambling car to car. From this building his company grew into an industrial giant, and the technology he pioneered still slows trains around the world today.