The same day (Wednesday July 28, 1999) that the National Trust for Historic
Preservation issued a letter to Pittsburgh City Council uring the
preservation of the Pittsburgh Wool Company, council members voted to give
Pittsburgh mayor Tom Murphy "the power to use eminent domain if he has to in
order to acquire the wool company property and then sell it to Heinz for a
major warehouse and distribution center," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
reported today (Thursday July 29, 1999). Condemnation proceedings may begin
at any time. Reports on yesterday's Pittsburgh City Council Action were
reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
<http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990729kumer5.asp> and Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review <http://triblive.com/news/pwool0729.html>

Upset by efforts by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the
Society for Industrial Archaeology, the Institute for Justice and concerned
historians and the general public from across the globe who have appealed to
preserve the Pittsburgh Wool Company, Pittsburgh mayor Tom Murphy urged
these outsiders to mind their own business.  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
reported:

[ Murphy was upset that some out-of-state people, including University of
South Carolina historian David Rotenstein, plus lawyers from two nonprofit
groups in Washington, D.C., had intervened in the dispute. The lawyers, from
the Institute for Justice and the National Trust for Historic Preservation,
have volunteered to do a legal defense for Kumer if the matter lands in
court.
"The worst thing would be for outsiders to define the future for
Pittsburgh," Murphy said. "The danger is from outsiders who want to stick
their noses in and jeopardize our largest manufacturing facility."

Rotenstein, who has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, said he was
opposed to "destroying much of Pittsburgh's past to satisfy a greedy
neighbor" such as Heinz.

He said Kumer's wool-pulling factory was built in 1883 and is "the last wool
pullery in the U.S."
"Pittsburgh is about to destroy something that isn't available anywhere
else. If you destroy all ties to Pittsburgh's past, it loses its uniqueness.
It becomes homogenized and is just another name on the map," Rotenstein
said. ]

[brackets block the quotation]

If you have not already read the background information on the Pittsburgh
Wool issue, please visit my website <http://davidsr01.home.mindspring.com>
for additional information and for e-mail addresses, fax numbers and mailing
addresses of Pittsburgh City officials and the Heinz Company.

Sorry, again, for the long post.

David S. Rotenstein, Ph.D., RPA

[disclaimer: the comment in this post are my own and do not reflect the
opinions of the University of South Carolina or the State of South
Carolina.]
__________________________________________________________
David S. Rotenstein, Ph.D., RPA
Curator of Research and Folklife
McKissick Museum
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
E-mail: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Business Website: http://www.cla.sc.edu/MCKS/
Personal Website: http://davidsr01.home.mindspring.com
Phone: (803) 777-7251
Fax: (803) 777-2829
__________________________________________________________