The Banana Split
Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In 1904 in Latrobe, the first documented Banana Split was created by apprentice pharmacist David Strickler - sold here at the former Tassell Pharmacy. Bananas became widely available to Americans in the late 1800s. Strickler capitalized on this by cutting them lengthwise and serving with ice cream. He is also credited with designing a boat-shaped glass dish for his treat. Served worldwide, the banana split has become a prevalent American dessert.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
By the turn of the twentieth century, steamships and railroads had made the once-exotic banana a cheap, everyday fruit in American cities and towns. In 1904, a young apprentice pharmacist named David Strickler put that abundance to delicious use at the Tassell Pharmacy soda fountain here in Latrobe, splitting a banana lengthwise and dressing it with ice cream. He is even credited with designing the boat-shaped dish that still holds the treat today.
Why it matters
A small-town soda fountain gave the world one of America's most enduring desserts, a tasty reminder of how new trade routes and the golden age of the drugstore soda fountain reshaped everyday American life.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · David Strickler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Murrysville Gas Well
Murrysville, PA · est. 1960
Drilled in 1878, the Murrysville gas well became one of the most productive in the world and a wonder of the early natural-gas age. When it caught fire in 1881 it burned for years, its roaring, brilliant flame drawing sightseers before engineers finally brought it under control and piped the gas to Pittsburgh's hungry mills and homes. The site helped prove that natural gas could be captured and moved as an industrial fuel.
Edwin S. Porter
Connellsville, PA · est. 1992
Born in Connellsville, Edwin S. Porter became one of the pioneering figures of American cinema at the dawn of the twentieth century. Working in the earliest days of the medium, he helped develop the grammar of film itself—editing, the screenplay, and narrative technique. His 1903 landmark "The Great Train Robbery" thrilled audiences and pointed the way toward modern storytelling on screen.
Radio Station KDKA
Turtle Creek, PA · est. 1990
On the night of November 2, 1920, from a rough studio at Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh Works, KDKA went on the air with returns from the Harding-Cox presidential race — widely recognized as the world's first commercial radio broadcast. Within months the station was regularly airing music, sports, talks, and special events, giving listeners a reason to buy receivers and inventing the daily rhythm of broadcast programming. A makeshift experiment quickly became an industry.
The Siberian Iron Works
Leechburg, PA
Founded in 1872 by William Rogers and T.J. Burchfield, the Siberian Iron Works was among the first American mills to make black plate and tin plate, breaking into a market long dominated by imports from England and Wales—and drawing skilled British workers to Leechburg in the process. Its tin went into cookware, cans, and roofing across the country and abroad. In 1874 it became the first mill in the nation to run on natural gas rather than coal, and it operated here until 1931.