History in Our Everyday Lives

A Public History Project: Reflecting on Eliza: A Pittsburgh Steel Mill

The question of public memory as well as urban and labor history can best be approached through the methods of public history. The background knowledge section is to serve as what content should be taught while the following two sections serve as public history examples. The use of oral history is presented which captures people’s experiences of working in the mills, as well as presents how some were affected by deindustrialization.

Reflecting on Eliza: A Pittsburgh Steel Mill, published in 1990, is an example of a public history project that uses photographs and oral history to make the history of the mills accessible to broad audiences. The interviews help to express the impact of deindustrialization as experienced by Pittsburgh steelworkers and photographs show the abandoned mill, providing a look at the demise of the industry.

In 1979, the Eliza furnaces of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation closed. In its place, a campus for high technology firms which encompassed 48 acres. During its demolition process, photographer Mark Perrott used the power of photography to capture the images which told the history of Eliza and its workers. In ELIZA: REMEMBERING A PITTSBURGH STEEL MILL, Perrott’s photographs, among interviews of workers and others who had a relationship with Eliza in one way or another, present a memorialization of the mill. In some interviews presented, workers celebrated their experience in the mills and while others reflected on the cause of the collapse of the industry. Moreover, the book provides a look at the people who were impacted by the steel industry as well as its demise.

Lee Sokol, a former hot blastman, recalled his first day of work. He had taken a job in the mill due to his father losing his eye sight. Sokol quit his senior year of school in order to help his family. He recalled the decaying of the machinery within Eliza and stated it was unavoidable that Eliza would close. His account provides just one of several instances in which men had left school to care for their family. Furthermore, he discussed how the workers knew the end was in site because of the condition of the machinery.

Bob “Ike” Eisengart, former hot mill electrical department foreman and galvanizing department master mechanic recalled his 35 years at Eliza.¹⁷ The excerpt below conveys the pride the workers had in their jobs as well as the emotions they felt on their last day at Eliza.

As the coils were processed through the cold mill, I watched each succeeding unit   go down. Boy, when that big, old hot mill shut down and the last red-hot bar went   through, we all knew it was the end. The up-river crane man started his siren, until   all of the sirens were blowing throughout the whole mill. It was a roaring   madhouse. It was heartbreaking—big husky steelworkers had tears in their eyes. It   was the end of an era.”¹⁸

Harry Peters, former machine shop foreman explained his role in Eliza throughout the more than 30 years he worked there.¹⁹ He remarked that the people who worked in the Eliza machine shop had a great pride in their job as well as the J&L Steel Corporation. In the excerpt below, Peters described a party his department had to commemorate their time at Eliza. Peters’s words described how the workers felt about the closing of Eliza as well as their feelings regarding working at Eliza.

The party was a huge success, but for many of us it was like a wake after a funeral.   We were losing a very dear friend that had been a part of our lives for years. There   were a few tears, but there were also many hugs and handshakes. You have to   experience something like this to understand the conflicting emotions we all felt.    My memories of Eliza machine shop will be with me for as long as I live.²⁰

Others interviewed included a former furnace cooling attendant and USWA Local 1843 zone grievance committeeman, a former sludge filter operator, a former laborer and larry car operator, a former Pittsburgh works controller, a former industrial engineer, a former senior vice president of Mellon Bank.

Throughout the pages of this book, you can see images of Eliza mixed in with the interviews memorializing the workers times there. Eliza adds to the historical record on deindustrialization by providing accounts from the workers’ prospective that describe how they were directly impacted by deindustrialization and why the demise of the steel industry occurred.