Abstract

"“To Kill the Bill”: Pittsburgh’s Business Community During the Pittsburgh-Allegheny Annexation Fight, 1894-1907"

Christopher Weis, Independent Scholar (cmiltonweis@gmail.com)

This study is an examination of the central role of the business community during the annexation debates in Pittsburgh, with a specific focus on businessmen during clashes between the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historian Joel Tarr noted in one of his works the importance of annexation to Pittsburgh and that few scholars have pursued the topic. Fewer scholars still have examined the crucial role that the business community played in those fights and how the shifting mindset of many business elites led to Pittsburgh’s successful annexation of Allegheny. The business community and elite booster groups such as the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce played pivotal roles in the events surrounding annexation, often driving the support for (and opposition to) annexation. However, divisions existed within the elite business communities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny concerning annexation, and feelings also differed between elite businessmen and smaller businessmen of both communities. Annexation had a substantial impact on the region and the country. The contest over annexation between Pittsburgh and Allegheny produced a consequential United States Supreme Court case, Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, which still impacts the country today. Thus, this examination of a seemingly regional story shows how the business community of Pittsburgh had a long-term nationwide impact.