The town of Wilmerding in the Turtle Creek valley outside Pittsburgh was designed as an ideal industrial town for the employees of Westinghouse. Here is a note on its progress from the Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide, April 17, 1889.
At Wilmerding, near Wall’s station on the Pennsylvania Railroad, work is being pushed rapidly on the Westinghouse air brake shops, previously reported; and plans are ready for the new hotel and club house; also for a number of dwellings. Plot 21, in the plan, is reserved for a park, which will be laid out in drives and a pavilion, band-stand, etc., etc., erected. Plot 22 will be the site for the club-house and hotel, before reported. On plot, No, 5, near the works, Mr. T. W. Welsh, superintendent of the Air Brake Works, will erect a magnificent residence. Plot 26 will be covered with a handsome school house, supplied with every modern convenience and improvement. On plot 4 the Pennsylvania Railroad will erect a large depot and waiting-rooms. Of the 1200 workmen, now employed, fully one-fourth have bought lots from the Improvement Company, and will erect dwellings in the near future, and as many of the employees, are unable to secure lots, the original limit will probably be extended to include the Turtle Creek side. Six hundred and twenty-five feet of frontage on the Monongahela river, near Port Perry, have been bought by the company, in order to supply the new city with water, to be pumped into a reservoir 260 feet above the river, and then piped to Wilmerding. Every dwelling in the city will be furnished with the Westinghouse incandescent light, natural gas, and water. About $4,000,000 will be expended within the limits of 600 acres. It is also stated that a syndicate has been formed to erect a large glass works on the opposite side of Turtle Creek, and that two of the largest glass works in Pittsburg are negotiating for sites on which to erect buildings for their works. This deal has not progressed sufficiently to give names. Mr. Charles Payne is President of the Wilmerding Improvement Company.