You can find all of those things right here in Pittsburgh.
Maybe it’s the influx of different cultures, or the long history of the city, but either way, there are tons of spectacles to see in this town. Things you won’t find anywhere else, things that are uniquely Pittsburgh.
It would be impossible to assemble a complete list of Pittsburgh’s oddities, intrigues and spectacles. So, here’s an incomplete one.
A whole lotta relics
Saint Anthony’s Chapel was built in 1880 in Troy Hill by Fr. Suitbert Mollinger, a Belgian physician-turned-priest famous for healing sick people as he blessed them.
Nearly 140 years later, the chapel, which Fr. Mollinger built with his own money, houses over 5,000 Catholic relics, the largest collection of such relics outside the Vatican.
Chapel chairperson Carole Brueckner said Fr. Mollinger collected many of the pieces himself in Europe, as the political unrest of the time resulted in the sale of relics on the open market. Most of the pieces have original certificates of authenticity, the oldest of which dates back over 200 years.
According to Ms. Brueckner, the collection includes a thorn from the Crown of Thorns, a tooth from the chapel’s patron Saint Anthony of Padua, 22 splinters from the cross, and the complete skeletal remains of a saint named Demetrius, which are kept under the altar.
Saint Anthony’s is registered as a historic landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation and frequently offers tours.
Competitive pierogies
Formally called “The Great Pierogi Race N’At,” the Pierogi Race is a beloved tradition stemming back to 1999, when it was created by Eric Wolff, director of in-game entertainment for the Pirates.
It began with just three pierogies: Potato Pete, Sauerkraut Saul and Cheese Chester. The roster has gone through some changes in the years since, including last year’s addition of the second female racer, Pizza Penny. Now, there are six contestants vying for the win at each home game.
The pierogies travel with the team to take on the Milwaukee Brewers’ racing sausages, as well as the Washington Nationals’ racing U.S. presidents. In addition, both the racing sausages and presidents travel to Pittsburgh when the teams play at PNC Park.
A very steep road
Canton Avenue in Beechview is the steepest officially recorded street in the United States. The street boasts a 37 percent grade with stairs instead of a sidewalk, and in the winter the cobblestones aren’t plowed because of how treacherous it is.
Still, people try to drive up Canton Ave. Not many make it. Even more ambitious are the bicyclists who attempt to conquer Canton, including those who participate in the Dirty Dozen Bike Race, an annual event in which competitors bike a 50-mile course and attempt to climb about a dozen of the steepest hills around Pittsburgh.
Canton has been featured in national commercials, like an Audi spot filmed in November 2015, which aimed to show the impressive capabilities of the Audi Quattro A4.
A huge, well-dressed dinosaur
Dippy the dinosaur stands tall along Forbes Street in Oakland, conveniently located next to the Carnegie Music Hall and Schenley Park. The fiberglass statue depicts a dinosaur called the Diplodocus carnegii, named after Andrew Carnegie, who financed a 1899 fossil-digging expedition that discovered a nearly-intact diplodocus specimen in Wyoming.
Standing 22 feet tall, Dippy has overlooked the streets of Oakland since 1999, when it was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the expedition. In winter, Dippy is given a huge red scarf to warm its long neck, and it has frequently been spotted with a Terrible Towel or sporting Pitt’s team colors.
Dippy was even the inspiration for a new ice cream flavor last year, produced by Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor.
A very organic road
Another unique street in the city is Roslyn Place in Shadyside, which is paved with creosote-soaked wood. Yes, wood.
It’s one of only a handful of wooden streets left in the country. The technique of paving with wood originated in 1859 and was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because of the country’s abundance of wood. But since wood is a porous organic material, it doesn’t tend to last very long.
That makes Roslyn Place even more incredible of a destination. This 250-foot long street was designed in 1914 by architect-engineer Thomas Rodd. It’s too narrow with parked cars to be plowed or salted in the winter, but the residents don’t mind — they help each other out with snow shovels when the driving gets rough.
A free art haven
Ah, Randyland, a rainbow-colored art utopia nestled into the North Side’s Mexican War Streets. The owner and artist, Randy Gilson, bought the place in 1995 and began making art while waiting tables during the day.
Mr. Gilson lives in the house and displays his work in the yard, and still waits tables at the Westin Hotel Downtown when he’s not creating unique art out of everyday materials. Everywhere you look there is something interesting and different -- a wall covered in mirrors, a map of the North Side painted on a wall, mannequin heads wearing sunglasses, a staircase covered in colorful tiles and much, much more.
Foo Conner, the co-director of Randyland and friend of Mr. Gilson, said the artwork changes almost constantly as Mr. Gilson creates new pieces. Mr. Conner has worked with Mr. Gilson for the last three years, helping coordinate media requests and organize Mr. Gilson’s schedule.
Mr. Conner said Randyland hosts 300 to 500 people on weekdays and up to 1,200 people a day over the weekend. Admission is free, because Mr. Gilson doesn’t want the cost to prevent people from enjoying the art.
“Randy said this a few days ago: ‘It’s not the penny in your pocket, it’s the dollar in your soul,’” Mr. Conner said.
A tasty neon sign
The iconic neon Heinz ketchup sign has been a symbol of the city since 1995, shining proudly alongside the Veterans Bridge, originally atop a Heinz factory.
Its red neon lights imitate ketchup, pouring out of the bottle to fill the letters below before resetting and doing it all over again. In 2002, Heinz sold its operations on that side of the Allegheny River to Del Monte Foods Co., but placed a line in the fine print that the sign be left up and running for four years on its former factory.
After that extension was up, the sign was taken down and its future was uncertain. Finally, it found a home atop the Heinz History Center in November 2007, according to Kimberly Roberts, the History Center’s communications coordinator.
It’s been there ever since, providing a hint about the contents of the building, which houses an exhibit about the history of the Heinz condiment empire among other tidbits of Pittsburgh’s past.
A mansion on a hill
The Bayernhof Museum sits atop a hill in O’Hara overlooking the Allegheny River. Once the home of Charles Brown III, founder of the Gas-Lite Manufacturing Co., the 19,000-square-foot home now holds 150 antique automated musical instruments and a number of rare collectables, all from Mr. Brown’s personal collection.
Not to be outdone by the objects inside, the house itself is also a point of intrigue. There are secret passages, levers that reveal swiveling bookcases and secret compartments in furniture, some of which weren’t found until years after Mr. Brown’s death. The entire south side of the museum is made of glass, highlighting the views of the river.
All of the machines and devices in the collection are still operational and some are appraised at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Bayernhof offers seven guided tours a week, but guests must be over 12 years old.
A house of delightful horrors
In Swissvale, there is a house full of dead things floating in jars, skulls, stuffed wildlife and macabre art. But this isn’t some condemned house. It’s Trundle Manor, where the cool ghouls hang out.
Married couple Anton Raphael Miriello and Rachel Rech live in the house on Juniata Street, opening it up to visitors by appointment. Inside you’ll find antique medical equipment, jarred animals, coffins and incredible pieces of vintage taxidermy.
Mr. Miriello, who goes by Mr. Arm, has been collecting these objects his whole life, and jarred his first specimen — baby frogs from his parents’ pond — when he was seven. Neither he nor his wife kill the animals that go into their collection, only preserve the remains.
His drive to collect and preserve dead things stems from “an innate need to house things that had a previous life,” Mr. Arm said.
In addition to doing eight to 10 tours a week, the couple has also hosted movie nights and art shows. Currently, Mr. Arm is working on converting a food truck into a mobile version of Trundle Manor, installing hardwood floors and hanging art on the walls to mimic a Victorian parlor.
First Published: August 10, 2018, 2:00 p.m.
