Heinz History Center visit
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If you ever wondered what H.J. Heinz, founder of the Heinz Company and popularizer of Ketchup, Baked Beans, and 57 variants of pickle, looked like – your problem is solved, and you’re welcome.
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself visited the Heinz History Center Museum here in Pittsburgh recently, and I waved the camera around a bit while inside the institution.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Name for and initially endowed by the living Heinz family, in addition to working with the Smithsonian, the Heinz center has been voted America’s best history museum two years running. There’s an entire floor devoted to kids, and one whose main occupation is telling the story of the Heinz company which was founded in and operated out of Pittsburgh.
The Heinz operation has been consolidated since, into larger corporate structures, and these days it’s a portfolio brand operated in partnership with Kraft and the modern conglomerate styles itself as Kraft Heinz. They don’t make ketchup in Pittsburgh anymore, as a note.
There’s displays on the various floors of the Heinz Center detailing some interesting facet of Pittsburgh or Pennsylvania history. There’s displays about the Native American civilizations, the arrival of the Europeans, all that stuff. They also have a few rotating exhibitions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Preserved neon signs are always a treat for me. They’re quite difficult to photograph, which is just ‘extra’ for one such as myself. I don’t know anything about where this particular sign came from, but the allure of ‘fine liquors’ is undeniable.
We moved through the building, floor by floor. Unfortunately we decided on using the stairs while moving downwards from the fifth floor rather than using the elevators. This angered my busted but recovering ankle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
According to the signage, this stained glass composition originally resided inside a private home, which is amazing when you think about it. I’ve visited this facility before, but oddly enough didn’t do a post about the place. The Heinz family have other leave behinds scattered around the City – here’s the Heinz Chapel in Oakland, and the campus of the former Heinz Factory which is now styled as the “Heinz Lofts” after a residential conversion.
Another refining industry based on the high heat levels offered by coke and coal, glass works were a big deal in Pittsburgh, and still are. The PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) company remains a major force here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the bottom floor/entrance area to the Heinz museum, they have a few of their larger displays – the Heinz delivery wagon pictured above, and a streetcar. There’s other vehicles scattered about the room – an old timey fire engine and a 1940’s looking sedan clad in stainless steel. This is also where a cafe/gift shop style operation can be found.
We had other locations that were on the ‘to do’ list for the day, so the bathrooms were visited and we agreed on a spot to meet up before heading outside and retrieving the car from its parking lot.
$6 for parking, if you’re curious, downtown on a Saturday afternoon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While waiting for Our Lady to return from powdering her nose (or whatever the hell she does when disappearing into the toilet), I took notice of this enormous artillery piece. It’s a recreation of an 1864 vintage 20” Rodman Gun. I couldn’t be bothered transcribing its signage so I took a picture of the detailed description of the thing for your inspection and elucidation.
Back tomorrow with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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White whale
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Note: I screwed the pooch yesterday when talking about the Mexican War Streets here in Pittsburgh, as longtime reader ‘Liman’ pointed out. Please see comments section on yesterday’s post for suggested corrections. Appreciate the scrutiny, me. Now, on with the folderol:
While hanging around and waiting behind the driver’s wheel for something on Pittsburgh’s North Side, a humble narrator couldn’t help but record the scene. That overhang is part of a corporate campus for an aluminum company, the tall buildings are across the river in Pittsburgh’s Downtown section, and the yellow steel thing at bottom right is part of the Andy Warhol Bridge over the Allegheny River.
As a note, if you encounter somebody driving a pickup truck here in Western Pennsylvania, prepare yourself for a lot of random provocation. These people don’t know what the horizontal peddle in front of the drivers seat does, as they only recognize the accelerator and not the brake. I was sitting there with my hazard blinkers on and a pickup moved in behind me in tailgating position, which then started honking his horn for me to move, rather than just go around. They also don’t like turning the wheel. Menaces.
Just last night, for instance, I was heading home from a historic lecture at a nearby library when a pickup driver decided to play with his phone mid intersection, and was just drifting/rolling towards me. ‘My bad,’ he said.
My next stop wasn’t too far away, across the river and about a mile east in the direction of Pittsburgh’s Strip District.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After parking the Mobile Oppression Platform, a Toyota, in a paid parking lot’s spot, Our Lady and I began moving towards our destination on foot. Luckily, for me at least, the Allegheny Valley Railroad appeared as it executed a crossing of the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge.
I refer to AVRR as the ‘white whale’ as I so seldom see them, as opposed to the more frequent Norfolk Southern and CSX rail traffic which has become familiar photo fodder here. The latter two are giants, it should be mentioned, and AVRR is a short line sort of local operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I have got to figure out how to connive a way to convince the convention center people into allowing me access to that roof of theirs. Dag.
I’m told there’s a green roof build out up there, which I’d like to see for its own sake, but man – the views of trains coming off that bridge must be absolutely wicked from up there. Me want.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Tyranny of the now
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Welcome back to fresh content, here at your Newtown Pentacle.
The ice, as it were, has broken and Pittsburgh is now in a warming cycle for a few days. Bad news is that there’s likely going to be some flooding at some point soon as vast sheets of river ice, currently bound up in rural counties hundreds of miles away, will be flowing towards the confluence of the three rivers hereabouts. The Army Corps seems pretty concerned about the arrival of ‘ice dams.’
That’s tomorrow’s problem, although the level of the water in the Port of Pittsburgh continues to ominously rise.
These shots were gathered in a section of Pittsburgh’s North Side called the ‘Mexican War Streets.’ As the name of the place might suggest, the streets are named for American Generals who distinguished themselves during the Spanish American War (as it’s now known).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It has been profoundly cold and snowy/wet here for what seems like an eternity. It felt great to be outside, although I was tied to the car. I love the convenience of just being able to drive up to something and get a shot, but it ain’t the same as the ‘serendipity’ of finding something unexpected and I’m also anchored to a certain geography because of where I parked.
I know, first world problems. An hour or two of time was available to me on this particular day, which I decided to throw away by hanging around a train yard at which absolutely zero locomotives appeared.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While cooling my heels and kicking the dirt, one of Pittsburgh’s ‘PRT’ buses appeared. I’d point out the bike rack on the front of the thing, and mention that this is another one of the things which NYC’s MTA says absolutely cannot be done, but then again I’m done arguing with the MTA.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Archives #052
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On February 21 of 2013, Newtown Pentacle subscribers saw ‘somehow impelled’ arrive in their inboxes, which described part of a walk down Northern Boulevard, and explored my fascination with photographing car washes. Before I left Queens, the gas station which this car wash was a part of had been shuttered, the buildings were awaiting demolition and environmental remediation for the tanks, and is likely ‘affordable housing’ by now. Corner of 39th and Northern… can it still be there?
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September, and I’m not screwing around with ice and snow if I don’t absolutely have to. Pittsburgh has been regularly coated with the white stuff for the last few weeks, which has really crimped into my ability to be out and about. #1 priority is the ankle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This 2019 post, dubbed ‘radical profundity’ visited Flashing Creek. I used to really get around, huh?
‘What does it have to do with Newtown Creek’ is a question I often asked myself, in pursuit of avoiding ‘mission drift’ and not getting sucked into the hot passions and political seasons of the day. Focus is difficult in a feature rich environment, and especially so when negotiating the endless sea of political frenzy. It often annoyed people, me refusing to pick up their flag and run with whatever madness they happened to be pushing that day, week, or month. Everybody forgets their movement a year later, as they’ve usually moved on to new ecstasies, scandals, and outrages.
People who identify as ‘leftists’ have a real hard time staying on one topic for long, in my experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2022, ‘rumour ran’ brought y’all to the Sunnyside Yards at night. That is the Harold Interlocking pictured above, which is one of the most important bits of infrastructure in the entire country. There are surveyors holes in the fences of the yards, and I had all of them inventoried. My walks to Newtown Creek from Astoria always crossed some section of the Sunnyside Yards, and I never missed an opportunity to get in a few shots of the place.
Back next week, hopefully with fresh photos and views of the Paris of Appalachia, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Archives post #051
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As threatened, today brings you an ‘archives’ post, as a continuing spate of winter weather has absolutely grounded all of my ambitions and I’ve got nothing new to present today.
On February 20th in 2014, a similar climatological situation saw me offering a post on a few of my favorite NYC bridges. Check out ‘approaching triumph’ if you’re interested in such matters.
As established during the hermitage which saw me recovering from the busted ankle, the conceit underlying exactly which posts I’m pulling out of backup for a second look is entirely calendrical in nature. Everything presented as a part of these archives posts were published on this date, in their respective years, sometime between 2009 and 2025.
Yes, I’ve been doing this blog for a pretty long time now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On this date in 2018, ‘scarcely be’ described the scene, as observed in the dead of night, at the fabulous Newtown Creek’s Grand Street Bridge where the currently undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens can be both experienced and surmounted. Miss those nights, wandering around the concrete devastations all by myself. This was when I still was using headphones when scuttling about, a habit I had to drop during COVID when things starting getting weird out there.
There were just a few times that I thought I was in trouble during that interval, and I either got lucky or the other guy decided that it wasn’t worth the trouble to jump me. There was one interaction with a creature of the streets that was extremely disturbing, one I’ve mentioned only to a few close friends and my old bartender in Astoria. Weird shit, yo.
Don’t ask, won’t talk about it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2020, ‘those miniscules’ was published here, which confessed to a bout of trespassing around Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary. The focus for these shots was the DB Cabin rail bridge. What you don’t see in these shots is who I was trespassing with, an elected official who represented this section of LIC whom I was attempting to ‘sell’ the concept of converting the Montauk Cutoff into public space. Didn’t happen, and now the cutoff is basically a homeless camp. Good show, NYC.
Back tomorrow, likely with another archives post. Good news is that the weather is meant to cure up around Pittsburgh over the next week, meaning I get to resume my happiness.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 