BOST BUILDING STRIKE HEADQUARTERS (1892)

The Bost Building, headquarters and visitor center of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, has an interesting story to tell. Completed shortly before the violent 1892 events at Homestead, its top floor was rented by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers so the union could observe activities beyond the high wooden fence topped with barbed wire that H.C. Frick ordered built around the mill. In their offices, the union leadership burned the union charter and membership cards in front of the sheriff of Allegheny County on the eve of the battle. They disavowed organizational responsibility for the consequences that might ensue if Frick introduced armed men into Homestead with the purpose of taking away their employment. 

The Bost Building also served as a temporary telegraph station for the large numbers of American and foreign press gathered in anticipation of an epic struggle between the powerful Carnegie Steel corporation and the nation’s strongest union. Backlash from the crushing of the union helped Democratic presidential candidate, Cleveland, defeat the incumbent Republican, Harrison. After the strike was broken, the property became a hotel, then a brothel, finally an eatery before preservationists and the union building trades rescued it from total collapse. The Rivers of Steel group operates a gift shop, bookstore on its ground floor, offices and archives, with a changing display on industrial and union history on the third floor.

Bost Building marker, 617-623 E. 8th Ave. near Heisel St., Homestead