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In the East End is the Pennsylvania College for Women (Presbyterian; chartered in 1869), which has one hundred and two students. On the North Side (Allegheny) are the Allegheny Theological Seminary (United Presbyterian; founded in 1825), which has six instructors and sixty-one students; the Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian; opened in 1827), with sixty-four students and twelve instructors, and a library of 34,000 volumes; and the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (founded in 1856). There are five high schools and a normal academy and also the following private academies: Pittsburgh Academy, for both boys and girls; East Liberty Academy, for boys; Lady of Mercy Academy, for girls and for boys in the lower grades; the Stuart-Mitchell School, for girls; the Gleim School, for girls; the Thurston School, for girls; and the Ursuline Young Ladies' Academy.
The Phipps Conservatory (horticulture), the largest in America, and the Hall of Botany are in Schenley Park and were built by Mr. Henry Phipps. There is an interesting zoölogical garden in Highland Park which was founded by Mr. Christopher L. Magee.
The Pittsburgh "Gazette," founded July 29, 1786, and consolidated with the Pittsburgh "Times" (1879) in 1906 as the "Gazette Times," is one of the oldest newspapers west of the Alleghany Mountains. Other prominent newspapers of the city are the "Chronicle Telegraph" (1841); "Post" (1842); "Dispatch" (1846); "Leader" (1870; Sunday, 1864); "Press" (1883); and the "Sun" (1906). There are also two German dailies, the "Volksblatt und Freiheits-Freund" and the "Pittsburgher Beobachter," one Slavonic daily, one Slavonic weekly, two Italian weeklies, besides journals devoted to society and the iron, building, and glass trades. The publishing house of the United Presbyterian Church is located here, and there are several periodical journals published by the various religious bodies.
The city has some very attractive public buildings and office buildings and an unusual number of beautiful churches. The Allegheny County Court-House, in the Romanesque style, erected in 1884-88 at a cost of $2,500,000, is one of Henry H. Richardson's masterpieces. The Nixon Theater is a notable piece of architecture. The Post-Office and the Customs Office are housed in a large Government building of polished granite.
Court-house
The city has twenty or more hospitals for the care of its sick, injured, or insane, ten of which have schools for the training of nurses. There is the Western Pennsylvania Institute for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in Pittsburgh, which is in part maintained by the State, where trades are taught as a part of the educational system. The State also helps to maintain the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind, the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Women, and the Home for Colored Children. Among other charitable institutions maintained by the city are the Home for Orphans, Home for the Aged, Home for Released Convicts, an extensive system of public baths, the Curtis Home for Destitute Women and Girls, the Pittsburgh Newsboys' Home, the Children's Aid Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Protestant Home for Incurables, the Pittsburgh Association for the Improvement of the Poor, and the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Children, and Aged Persons. Under the management of Women's Clubs several playgrounds are open to children during the summer, where competent teachers give instruction to children over ten years of age in music, manual training, sewing, cooking, nature study, and color work.
The water supply of Pittsburgh is taken from the Allegheny River and pumped into reservoirs, the highest of which is Herron Hill, five hundred and thirty feet above the river. A slow sand filtration plant for the filtration of the entire supply is under construction and a part of it is in operation. In this last year the Legislature has passed an act prohibiting the deposit of sewage material in the rivers of the State, and this tardy action in the interest of decency and health will stop the ravages of death through epidemic fevers caught from poisoned streams.