The World's Richest Neighborhood

Book excerpt: The residents of Pittsburgh's East End controlled as much a 40% of America's assets at the turn of the last century. Mail was delivered seven times a day to keep America's greatest capitalists in touch with their factories, banks, and markets. The neighborhood had its own private station of the Pennsylvania Railroad with a daily non-stop express to New York's financial district. Many of the world's most powerful men — princes, artists, politicians, scientists, and American Presidents such as William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, came to visit the hard-working and high-flying captains of industry. Two major corporations, Standard Oil and ALCOA Aluminum were formed in East End homes. It was the first neighborhood to adopt the telephone with direct lines from the homes to the biggest banks in Pittsburgh, which at the time was America's fifth largest city. The story of this neighborhood is a story of America at its greatest point of wealth and includes rags-to-riches stories, political corruption, scandals, and greed. The history of this unique piece of American geography makes for enjoyable reading that will satisfy a large cross section of readers.