Braddock, Pennsylvania, was a big steel town in the late 1800s, early 1900s. The city is also the location of the first of Andrew Carnegie’s 1,679 public libraries in the US. The Braddock Library included a tunnel so Carnegie’s millworkers could enter a bathhouse in the basement to clean up before entering the library (which originally included billiard tables). A later addition even included a swimming pool, indoor basketball court, and 964-seat music hall with a pipe organ. The library building was saved from demolition in 1978 by the Braddock’s Field Historical Society, and is still in use as a public library.
Sadly, many other buildings in Braddock and North Braddock did not fare as well. With the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s and 1980s, coupled with the crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s, Braddock was designated a financially distressed municipality. From its peak in the 1920s, Braddock has since lost 90% of its population. Now Braddock and North Braddock contends with the issue of many abandoned buildings. Here are a few.
