There are lots of house tours in the region, but this is consistently one of the best. There are…read moregreat houses in Observatory Hill which are hidden treasures. There's lots of history here, especially with the neighborhood's connection to the former City of Allegheny. The neighborhood stretches out along beautiful Riverview Park, so that makes the tours a bit of a trek, but well worth the trouble.

We love doing house tours all over Pittsburgh and we have a special affection for the Observatory…read moreHill Tour because our daughter lives in the neighborhood. Homeowners open all or part of their homes for the afternoon to people interested in touring their homes by purchasing a ticket. Booklets of information are provided on all the open homes and neighborhood highlights. Typically the owners are present, along with several others stationed strategically throughout the home to provide information & also security for the homeowners. This year's tour was particularly easy because Molly's Trolleys provided transportation to all the streets on the tour complete with a guide that pointed out interesting tidbits on the neighborhoods. Typically we have to move the car a few times, park, and walk and the trolley was definitely easier. Most of the homes in this neighborhood were built anywhere from 1900-1930's in a variety of styles from those periods - Victorian, Tudor, craftsman, California bungalow, Gothic revival, Pittsburgh four square, etc. Many have been lovingly restored to their former glory or updated to more of today's style with walls removed to provide an open concept during the renovations and many of the homes are quite large and grand. Some homeowners even decide to show the raw almost ramshackle house they are in the process of renovating. Most homeowners proudly display their before and after photos of what they've accomplished and are anxious to share their personal stories. Once you get on Observatory Hill's mailing list, you receive a postcard and/or email notifying you of the next tour so you never have to miss out. It's a great way to get a true feel of what it's like to live in the neighborhood and discover which sections appeal to you the most.

I am kicking myself because this last weekend was my most recent visit to this place in maybe 12…read moreyears. Why did I not return more often!?!? Anyways, the visit was filled with visual wonders for the mind and soul. Each piece was truly unique and remarkable in so many ways. Most disciplines of art were represented with shining examples of each. The current exhibition features several highly skilled local Pittsburgh artists. The gallery features art, but also sometimes hosts music shows, which I was happy to be a part of in the past. You will get a plethora of information from the owner if you inquire about the works, artists, or anything and everything. If you love creative works and you are in the Pittsburgh area you have got to go to this marvelous gallery!

Wonderful community center, gallery, and event center. I attended a poetry reading here, but they…read morealso host community events, classes, summer camps, and art exhibitions. The center is named after Irma Freeman, a painter born in Germany but later emigrated to the United States due to the increasing Nazi threat. Her paintings are vibrant splashes of color and light that dazzle the viewer. Whether you attend a Yoga or art class here, it's an inviting and welcoming space that will expand your horizons and encourage your creativity.

Me and my family had an amazing experience learning about history at Ft. Pitt. A big thank you to…read moreour guide Mrs. Hutchison who an excellent tour of the museum and helped us learn a lot about Pittsburgh's unique history. Glad we stopped by, and recommend to others visiting Pittsburgh!

Found right in Point State Park this is a great museum to learn about early American history in the…read morePennsylvania area. It's two floors & the upstairs collection is pretty extensive with a lot of reading so I skimmed unless something really caught my attention. They do have student discounts! Recommend if visiting Pittsburgh.

This is a first for me, to review something just based on hanging out for a few minutes…read more The look is super cool and the foundry and has everything you need in an apartment complex, gym laundry and a bar! It's a beautiful building and the colors and set up are cool I saw the floor plans and the layout is perfect Plus the location is so close to butler street you would never have to move your car!

My family and I recently went here for something fun to do on a Friday afternoon, and I guess the…read moresaying "Time flies when you're having fun" still holds true here. The name tells all; it's a church converted into an arcade. If you grew up Catholic, the initial impression is one of "should I be doing this?" But you quickly get past that once the nostalgia of instantly recognizable arcade titles floods your vision.  This place isn't just for pinball either. While there are a ton of them, they also include all the old school shooters and multiplayer side-scrollers that made my childhood memorable.  I remember thinking "We'll be in and out of here in about an hour", but that couldn't be further from the truth. Your admission gets you unrestricted access to the games here, meaning that if you have an unresolved grudge with one of these quarter-eating machines of yesteryear, you're in luck. You literally feel like you have a Game Genie (yes, I'm really dating myself in this review) for every arcade machine when you repeatedly press the button to give you in-game credits. My daughter and I took on Krang One, Shredder, and the Foot Clan in a classic TMNT game, and ruthlessly chewed through credits to come out on top. Finally! After all of these years... VICTORY! At the altar, errr... the back of the building, there was a local brewery, which served up some tasty adult beverages. I wasn't sure if I should bow or kneel, but I pushed through my instincts and did neither. The downstairs doesn't just hold the bathrooms; it's also hides some additional games to be played. If consoles were more your thing, they have those too!  We had a chance to talk to the manager while we were there, and his passion for the place was instantly recognizable.  All-in-all, this was a great bonding experience for me and my kiddos, and we're already talking about going back and which of my childhood games we're going to conquer next. See you there.

The Church Arcade is a super cool spot! We had my husband's…read morebirthday party here. The owner was very easy to coordinate the event with. Really perfect location for a party for all ages (we had ages 6-high 70s) and everyone had a blast. The way the arcade works is everything is set on free play. There are 2 floors of games! If you come during regular business hours, it is one set cost to enter. Wye brewery is on site which is SUPER good! There is a parking lot across the street that is free. Since we rented the space, we were able to bring in food. There are tables set up on the one floor that you can eat at. This is such a fun spot and the fact that it is in an old church makes everything so nice to look at with the stained glass windows. We will 100% be back! I highly recommend you check it out!

First time to the LeMoyne House. It has a lot of rich history in Washington County. They were…read moreperforming a walk through of the Whiskey Rebellion here for the Whiskey Rebellion Festival in 2021. I didn't have a chance to do a walk through of the house and not sure if it's available, but so much history in downtown washington, pa.

This being my first time to Pittsburgh, I wasn't expecting the traffic so I showed up at 3:06. The…read morelast tour began at 3 p.m. so unfortunately I wasn't able to participate in the tour. However, I don't know if it was my puppy dog face or not but the elderly volunteer grabbed up some papers and gave me a tour in about 5 minutes. Enough to see what I needed to see! In fact, I went to check out the courthouse afterward and ran into another couple who had taken the tour and they said I probably had a better one because the other is very lengthy and I really just wanted to know about the Underground Railroad history. She said there wasn't much to it, only that slaves hid under the woman's bed and when soldiers approached, she said she was alone and asked them to leave. The LeMoyne House stands as one of the best preserved Underground Railroad sites in the United States. The LeMoyne House is also home to artifacts from nearly every war I can thing of. The items aren't really relevant to the story of the home but it was neat to see them. Some history: The LeMoyne House, a National Historic Landmark, was built in 1812, and was a center of antislavery activity in southwestern Pennsylvania from the 1830s through the end of slavery. Dr. F. Julius LeMoyne (1798-1879), the son of a Parisian doctor who immigrated to the United States, was born in Washington and studied medicine at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. In 1834, LeMoyne joined the Washington Anti-Slavery Society and was the organization's president from 1835 to 1837, after which he was commissioned by the American Anti-Slavery Society to be its regional agent. LeMoyne, along with his children and wife Madelaine, were active in the Underground Railroad. The tightly knit free black communities in southwest Pennsylvania helped slaves escape and developed an operational network that white antislavery activists, such as LeMoyne, joined. LeMoyne's correspondence from the 1840s includes letters from individuals asking for aid and thanking him for his assistance in getting them and their friends and relatives out of the South. In his activism and philosophy, LeMoyne represents the mainstream of antislavery activity in the United States before 1850 and is typical of the middle-class Americans of the antebellum period who became caught up in the antislavery debate. In addition to building the first crematory in the United States, Dr. Francis LeMoyne was an active abolitionist who founded the Washington County Antislavery Society in 1835. Because of his leadership efforts, he was nominated by other abolitionists (under the banner of the Liberty Party) for vice president of the United States in 1840 and for governor of Pennsylvania on three different occasions. He declined each nomination, but his name appeared on the ballots anyway. Local tradition maintains that the LeMoynes worked together as a family to hide runaways in their Washington County home. Recollections from their eight children suggest that as many as 25 fugitives stayed in the residence at one time. After the Civil War, Dr. LeMoyne remained active in social causes, including support for equal rights for women and the advancement of newly freed slaves. In 1870, his donation of $20,000 established a school for freedmen, the LeMoyne Normal and Commercial School in Memphis, Tennessee. Francis Julius LeMoyne died in 1879 at the age of 81.

I loved visiting Wintergarden at PPG Place when I was there in December! There was ice-skating,…read moredecorations, and Santa Claus's from all over the world. There was even a place to buy hot chocolate and soft pretzels after you're done ice-skating. The ice-skating is monitored so you don't have to worry about a bunch of crazy fools out there! An absolutely wonderful experience in the heart of Pittsburgh. Forgot to mention all the wonderful gingerbread houses on display from local schools. They are so unique and have many different themes. This year they had a big Ben clock house, a Heinz Field house, and my favorite, the West Coast Christmas gingerbread house. A great place for everyone for a fun night out in the city!

If you've never been to the Wintergarden at PPG Place during December, you're missing out on a…read morePittsburgh staple. It's a free area that features a beautiful tree - surrounded by the seasonal arts and crafts of local school groups - and an array of "Santa" mannequins from cultures all around the world, carefully dressed and decorated to best reflect how that culture views Santa and celebrates the season. I admittedly use the word "Santa" loosely because some cultures don't have a Santa figure remotely resembling the one we know and love; the purpose of the display is to highlight different holiday traditions from around the globe - not just to talk about Santa himself. Because this is a glass building, the colors from the displays and holiday lights on the tree reflect and glow all around you; it adds to the festive atmosphere considerably. A Crazy Mocha ensures that you can warm up with a hot beverage and snack, perhaps if you stop in after ice skating at PPG. The decorations as a whole change a little bit year to year - this year there were no model trains, for example, which made me sad - but overall the place becomes a warm and beautiful escape from the Pittsburgh weather and holiday stress we all deal with. And the Santa mannequins always make an appearance no matter what. I admittedly don't know what this building is like sans Santa displays, but I do know that come the Christmas season I always visit this place at least once. It's a wonderful tribute to the many different ways people celebrate the season, and I appreciate seeing it every year - it's truly one of the best ways to get into the holiday spirit.

I'm an avid subscriber! This organization brings the best early music groups to the Pittsburgh…read morearea. This is chamber music interpreted by amazing virtuoso musicians. They not only inspire and entertain, but reveal a world of culture that would otherwise be remote to us. Most times the groups perform at Synod Hall, but there are other venues around the city. Synod Hall is a very live space that closely approximates the kind of places this music was originally performed. The groups are always engaging and the performances lively and fun.