Basic Information for Bost Building
Address: 623 E. Eighth Ave, Homestead, PA 15120
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10 AM – 2PM
All other times by appointment
Website: https://riversofsteel.com/attractions/bost-building/
Admission: $
Adults $3
Children (under 14) $1
Transportation: Car (parking available)
About the Bost Building
The Bost Building is a standing relic of the Steel City’s rich history, one of the only buildings associated with the 1892 Homestead Strike that remains intact. Built the same year as the famous Strike, the building was first used to house steel mill workers who had moved to Pittsburgh from Europe and were saving up to afford a house that could accommodate their families. Today, the Bost Building is home to the visitor center for the Rivers of Steel Heritage Group.
The steel mill, owned by Andrew Carnegie and operated by Henry Clay Frick, offered jobs the required "limited skill". Europeans moving to Pittsburgh made the voyage alone to get settled before uprooting their families. The Bost Building was designed as a hostel to house these workers; however, the workers soon went on strike because Carnegie and Frick wanted to get rid of their union, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers.
Because the leaders of the strike needed a vantage point to keep watch over the mills, the leaders chose the Bost Building, the highest point in Homestead in 1892, as their headquarters to meet and discuss decisions about the strike.
Today, the Bost Building has a lot to offer the surrounding community. Rivers of Steel hosts events and sponsors activities in the Heritage area, including an annual 1892 Battle of Homestead Commemoration at the Pump House, another surviving building of the original mill, that includes a movie, creative writing readings, and musical performances by local high school students.
The Rivers of Steel headquarters and a museum occupy all three floors of the Bost Building. The museum features rotating exhibits that focus on the personal and cultural history of the mills using artifacts, photographs, videos, and scale models. Two restored rooms that are from the original hostel design are also on display. One room features the story of the building’s restoration and how the Rivers of Steel Visitors Center saved it dilapidation and eventual destruction while the other is dedicated to the Homestead Steel Works.
Industrial Pittsburgh and the Heartbeat of Homestead
In another lifetime, almost in another world, the mighty Carnegie Steel Corporation labored endlessly at the internationally famous mills of Homestead Steel Works in Pittsburgh, PA. In this other lifetime, the city’s steel built a growing America, gave the Union Army the upper hand in the Civil War, and greatly aided the Allies in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II.