- Westinghouse Park
Westinghouse Park is a small municipal park in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania .The park's lands are the site of the former mansion, "Solitude", which was home to
George Westinghouse (October 6 1846 –March 12 1914 ), the Americanentrepreneur andengineer .The site also housed his private laboratory, and
natural gas derricks towered above the estate's Victorian gardens. Here, Westinghouse invented methods to control and transmit natural gas for both industrial and residential consumers.The park's history began when Westinghouse, upon his death in 1914, bequeathed the Point Breeze mansion to his son, who in turn sold the property in 1918 to the Engineers Society of
Western Pennsylvania . The Society's intent was to establish both a city park and a memorial to Westinghouse there. The house was razed and the park was developed; the George Westinghouse Memorial, however, was erected a few miles away inSchenley Park .Westinghouse Park's claim to literary fame is due to writer
John Edgar Wideman , who frequently makes reference to it in his books. Both of his memoirs, "Brothers and Keepers" and "Hoop Roots", use the park as a setting, as well as in his fictional "Homewood Trilogy".References
*cite book | author=Kidney, Walter C. | title=Pittsburgh's Landmark Architecture: The Historic Buildings of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County | location=Pittsburgh | publisher=Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation | year=1997 | id=ISBN 0-916670-18-X
*cite book | author=Toker, Franklin | title=Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait | publisher=Pittsburgh:University of Pittsburgh Press | year=1986, 1994 | id=ISBN 0-8229-5434-6
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