Unsuspecting Worker Foils Plan to Remember Pittsburgh’s Soot

When the University of Pittsburgh began planning to clean decades’ worth of industrial soot off the limestone exterior of its landmark skyscraper, the Cathedral of Learning (left), a history-minded staff member had an idea.

Leave a few blocks of stone dirty, said the longtime director of the Cathedral’s Nationality Rooms, E. Maxine Bruhns, and put up a plaque beside them explaining how filthy the city’s air was during the era of steel mills and coal-fired locomotives. Ms. Bruhns picked out blocks near the building’s busy Fifth Avenue entrance and a cover was built to protect them from the cleaning materials.

But not everyone was briefed, it seems. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that as the $4.8-million cleaning project was coming to an end and the protective cover was removed, a worker noticed the grime and, without asking, cleaned it off. (U. of Pittsburgh image)