The Newtown Pentacle

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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“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.