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trust is something we earn. And we couldn't do it without you, the members of WQED. Next on Q, one of Pittsburgh's hidden neighborhoods, a community rich in history and heritage. People didn't even know this time was here. Nobody knew that Panther Haller little little he was here to later on in years. How long has it been here? It's just a hundred years. So what is it about this Oakland Hollow that makes people want to stay here, raise their families here? We weren't rich, but we had abundance. We had family, friends, and relatives that cared about one another. We're exploring the pride field neighborhood of Panther Hollow. On Q starts now. Welcome to On Q. I'm Michael Bartley.

As you know, we take pride here at On Q and bringing you the stories of special people and places throughout the region. Tonight, we take you to a unique neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh, one that you may not even know exists. Panther Hollow has been around for more than a century, nestled below the hospitals and universities of Oakland. Chances are you've passed through it, but never paid attention to the homes or the people there, but as on Q's Tonia Caruso reports, Panther Hollow is a community rich in history and heritage. Panther Hollow especially is a unique neighborhood, maybe one of the most unique neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh. It's quiet. There's no problem. It's a beautiful place. People didn't even know this time was here. Nobody knew the Panther Hollow or literally was here to later on in years or now. How long has been here? I said 100 years. Even today, it's a neighborhood many may not know exists. Panther

Hollow is nestled at the bottom of John Care Street beneath the busy streets of Oakland. The name of the neighborhood was derived from the Panthers at that once roamed this area. The entire neighborhood had basically one street, boundary street. It's in the shape of an fertile 200 yards long by 100 yards. Passing through at first, you may only notice this parking lot, but the homes and the people here tell a story that's an important part of Pittsburgh's immigrant past. How many people would you say lived here at the height of the hollow? At the height of the hollow? A couple hundred, close to 200. Close to 200 people from two small towns in Italy.

Pizziferato and Gombriali, about 75 miles east of Rome. No one's quite sure how or why the first people from those towns settled in Panther Hollow, but they soon made it their home. Most of them all knew each other and did they right, and they used to send for one another to help one another come across. My dad came here in 1910. He knew how to say it just and no. It was very difficult for them. I mean, but thank God it was a community here that they understood and worked together and socialized together. That was the big thing. Robert Keshato has lived in Panther Hollow his entire life. Before we put the 27, the seven foot sword in here. And at 93, Carl Giam Polo is the neighborhood's oldest resident. Both men fondly remember what it was like to grow up here. They talked Italian. It wasn't English. They talked Italian because they didn't know how to speak very good English. They were wonderful people. They all looked after one another.

They're all friendly. They help one another. This was what made it special. It was ours. It was our own community. A community that started with a few homes and farmland and quickly grew as more and more people arrived. It wasn't long before Panther Hollow was a bustling neighborhood in and of itself with several stores, a hotel, and two banks. That big house right under corner. There was a bank that's Torrelli. He lived in the same house as the bank was in the front. The seven stores and that was a big, that was a, that was a main store there at the credit. Next to the bank was a main store. She gave credit to everybody. Wonderful person. This 1934 article from the Pittsburgh Press describes Panther Hollow as a rural village hiding from the busy city and while parts of it was like the country. My grandfather had cows

and we had helped milk the cows. Then we got the milk and we were delivered. Panther Hollow became more and more important to the growth of Pittsburgh. Two sets of railroad tracks made it an essential place. I said one track coming down here, they haul equipment down. Like I said, for contractors or JNL or, or, or, or, they're isolation. They had, then up above, they had transports that were trains going maybe every hour almost. This is a picture of Bob Keshado in the late 1920s at the age of five, sitting with his uncle on some pretty important cargo. We were sitting on the stones. I was at the cathedral learning. They were all numbered. Every one of them were all numbered. I guess when they put it in like a jigsaw puzzle. So when they would come off the train here. They unloaded them here and from here, they'd take them up to the university of the cathedral learning where they were being built. The trains and an air bi -co yard made for some messy conditions. All mud, all strictly mud we had planks for sidewalk, ten inch planks you had a

walk on, around the side of the house. It would be walking in metal out of times. But no one seemed to mind. For the focus here has always been on people. This used to be our kitchen. My father. Rose Diola Serrani grew up in Panther Hollow too. Well, everybody knew everybody. It wasn't like you said hello to your neighbors. You knew your neighbors and they looked out for you and you looked out for each other. That was the nice part about growing up in the Halla. There was no bitterness. Everybody was poor. So nobody felt, nobody knew that they were poor. Let's put it that way. Instead, Panther Hollow was rich with family, friends and good times. We'd sit on the porch. That was our fun. And

we'd have conversation. We'd have coffee and conversation. But on any given day, you'd also find lots of activity. Men played games like Bocchi and Dice as children ran around. Kids often skated at Panther Hollow Lake. Sports were also a big part of life in the Halla. After all, it was the home of Pittsburgh Boxing Great Mose Butch. And in true Panther Hollow generosity, he gave back to his community, supporting the sports teams. Store owner Sid Diolis did the same. But the real sports gem? Well, it was right up the street from Panther Hollow. It was a beautiful place. Oh, forks, it was wonderful. That was built in 1909. I started a work there in 40, 45, I think, 45. I became a nusher. And it was very good, because we lived here. It was only five minutes away. The ballpark, we weren't going to

work. Working second jobs as ushers, the guys from the Halla often became friends with the pirates and their families. You guys often befriended the ballpark. Well, you're all friends, yeah. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, Sid, come outside. I didn't have a beer with you, burning the law. You used to come down here to eat. I tell you. Everyone in Panther Hollow has a story about Forbes Field, and some are a big part of baseball history. The guy behind Bill Maserowski in this famous photo, that's Panther Hollow's Dominic Verratti. The last game Bay Brewth ever played was at Forbes Field. Brewth hit three home runs that day. By a stroke of luck, the late Henry Diorio got one of the balls. He hit the ball over right -fill wall. It wound up John Care by Dan DeNardis Garage. And by buddy Henry walking up

the street and the ball hit there. Hit Dan, he got the ball and he kept it. No, boy. He says, oh, wound up giving it the Cooperstown. He got a lifetime pass. And so, you're crazy. You hold this, it's where the sweat and gold. More valuable than that, the ties that continued to be strong among the families in Panther Hollow. Many of the people in the younger generations fell in love and got married. And many of them stayed in Panther Hollow to raise their own families. How many names are on here? Perlino GM Hollow is Carl Son, growing up here with special for him too. There was no fast food in Panther Hollow. Everything's homemade. The smell of tomato sauce with permeate the neighborhood.

And the women, they wouldn't just bake one loaf of bread or one pie. They bake half a dozen or more. And we 10 year olds were the couriers. We bring this to a relative. We bring this to Mrs. So and so. That kind of neighborhood kept people coming back, even when they moved away. Joanne Algeo Diolis didn't grow up here, but our late husband Tony did. They moved back to Panther Hollow in his retirement. It's a wonderful place to live. I really enjoy it. All of they say done in the hollow, you know, Oakland. Why would you want to go? I says it's very peaceful. Catherine Degan or Diolis did not grow up in Panther Hollow either. But when she became engaged to her late husband Nick, she knew it would be her home. So Nick says to you, we're moving to the hollow. Oh, yeah, he said we're moving with my mother. And I said, oh, can't we just get an apartment somewhere? He said, no, either you marry me and come down

my mother's or that's it. So I figured, hey, I waited long enough to get a mom going down. Catherine's now lived in Panther Hollow for more than 50 years, raising six children, including her son Vince, who still lives here. People think of Oakland a lot different than what we are down here. You know, they think of the university, they think of the hospitals. This community is almost like it's not part of Oakland. It's it's a side part of Oakland. But over the years as the universities have grown and members of the hollows older generations have passed, some things have changed. Nearly 100 families used to live here. Today, only 15 of those original families remain. Still, the community is making sure that no one who lived here will be forgotten. The monument over there is a monument that I refer to as a monument of remembrance and respect. Carly Nogium Polo created a memorial with the names of the 95

families who first settled here. Every name on the plaque brings back countless memories for those still living here. It's a way to respect them for establishing the character of this neighborhood. It's important to respect the tradition of where you could come from. So it's creating that kind of a space for people to keep alive and good memories of this place. It's been more than 100 years since the first folks arrived in Panther Hollow. But signs of their heritage are still evident everywhere. A post marks their towns in Italy. Picnic benches are painted Italian red, white, and green. People still gather for coffee and conversation. Folks still hang their laundry out to dry. And above all, one thing has stayed the same. The affection people

from Panther Hollow have for each other and for the place that will always be their home. We weren't rich, but we had abundance. You know, we had family, friends, and relatives that cared about one another. I'd say one of the best places in the country to live in. Wonderful, wonderful people, wonderful atmosphere. If I had to put it all together to me, it was togetherness, honesty, and our children where they grew up. That's the legacy. I think it's such a quaint place to live. It's like living in a country. I wouldn't have changed it for nothing, nothing. Now most

of the homes in Panther Hollow are still owned by relatives of the original families there. They've been passed down from generation to generation. Panther Hollow is actually becoming a popular place for cyclists these days. That's because it's now part of the Eliza Furnace Trail connecting Shenley Park with Saline Street in Lower Greenfield. And for more information on that, you can log on to our website at wqed .org slash on q. And our special thanks to Bob Cushatto, Joe Sarelli, and Moe's Butch Jr. for many of the photographs we used in our story. Michael, what an amazing neighborhood, such a great history, and really some of the finest people you will ever know. What a phenomenal story. One of the best we've done in the past 10 years. I went to high school with some guys from the Hollow, and nothing ever compared to the Hollow for those guys. Thank you. Great story, phenomenal. Wow. All right, now from Oakland to the strip district where the Heinz History Center is the site of a unique exhibit. The focus is slavery in Pittsburgh. You heard me right. Slavery in Pittsburgh. Most people

believe it never existed here, but it did up until the mid 19th century, and there are papers to prove it. The exhibit created by the University of Pittsburgh is an eye -opening exploration of the controversy surrounding slavery in this region. Oncuse Chris Moore reports on an exhibition that is that questions what it really meant to be free at last. It's a fact that surprises many people in the region. Slavery did exist in Pittsburgh's early history. The other thing that I found interesting was how long slavery lasted in western Pennsylvania. It's well known, of course, that slavery was a widespread institution in the south. But in this part of the

country, people are now starting to take a new look at slaves who were kept north of the Mason -Dixon line. As people were not educated, they were taught the history of Pittsburgh, but not the complete history of Pittsburgh. The common belief is that since Pittsburgh is in the north and northern cities are not associated with slavery, that there couldn't have been slavery here. But that's a notion now contradicted by recently discovered documents at the Allegheny County Record of Deeds office. The documents confirmed Slavery in Pittsburgh up until the mid 1850s. These papers are now the focus of an exhibit at the Heinz History Center called Free at Last Slavery in Pittsburgh. So the exhibit grew beyond what you originally imagined. That's right. The more I learned, the more I wanted to include in the exhibition. Robert Hill is the vice chancellor for public affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He organized the exhibit after reading a newspaper article. How did this exhibit come about?

The Post Gazette article described a gift to the Heinz History Center by then Allegheny County recorder of Deeds, Valerie McDonald Roberts, who staff uncovered several documents related to slavery in Pittsburgh. And I just found that remarkable because I didn't know like many people that there was slavery in Pittsburgh. But the issue of slavery, not just in Pittsburgh, but in Pennsylvania, was a controversial one. A struggle existed here between forces that wanted to preserve slavery and those who wanted to abolish it. Legislation was taking place around 1780. That would have ended it. But just like today, there was lobbying. So the slave lobby argued these slave kids are nuisance. We got to feed them, close them, blow their noses, mop their brows, babysit them.

And you can't get much value out of them until they're about 14 years old. So we won our 14 years back. When the law was finalized, it became the 1780 gradual abolition of slavery act. That act declared that no one born after March 1st, 1780 would be a slave in Pennsylvania. And it didn't matter if the child's father was a slave or a white slave owner. But if you were born March 1st, 1780 or later, of a slave mother did matter what daddy was. The mother, if she was a slave, then her children could not be enslaved for life. But they could serve indentureships until they were age 28. So gradual abolition. And then the children's children of the slave mothers could not be enslaved at all.

But no one was ever set free by the act. In fact, those born before March 1st, 1780 were condemned to a lifetime of slavery. The law was also full of loopholes. People still managed to take pregnant slaves south in order that they wouldn't be born in Pennsylvania because that was part of the law. This was a Pennsylvania law, right? Yes. And they attempted to close up all the loopholes and pretty much did with the 82 amendment and the 1788 amendment. But there were all kind of shenanigans before then and after then. By 1850 though, the number of slaves in Pennsylvania had all but disappeared, dropping from 6 ,017 to almost zero by the 1850s. These are actual copies of the slave registries. There is Isaac, who's only one year old, and there's Samuel

and Ishmael who are only one day old. And this is the part that gets really emotional. It's very emotional. It puts a human face up. Yeah, because you see these kids very young ages, in some cases, right at birth. And you know what their fate is going to be. When we talk about those landowners, let's talk about Mr. Neville. Is he the one that Neville Island is nameful and he was a slaveholder? Yes, and Neville Street in Oakland. In fact, you see a number of slaveholders' names show up. You have streets, towns, villages named for them. And among the biggest slaveholders were the Nebels. They came up from the south and they wanted to live the southern lifestyle. They brought their slaves with them in between the two of them. At one point, they held about 27 slaves, which for a non -plantation economy was a lot of slaves. But not all prominent Pittsburghers were slaveholders. So there was this weird

side -by -side living arrangement among slaveholders here. And non -slaveholders. And non -slaveholders. So they all lived there in peaceful coexistence. Nobody was mad in those early days at other hell slaves. None were jealous. He's got a slave. I don't. It was just life in Pittsburgh. Still, the north was a haven for slaves trying to escape southern bondage. The exhibit also includes life -like representations of African -Americans who risked their lives to get into Pennsylvania, like abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who escaped by train and steamboat from Berlin to Philadelphia. Allen and William Kraft, a married couple who used clever disguises to get from Georgia to Philadelphia. And Henry Box Brown, who had himself packed into a crate, then shipped from Virginia to Philadelphia. There are even photographs of famous Pittsburghers who led the fight for abolition like Martin Delaney, a wealthy black doctor. And George Vashon, a Pennsylvania who became the first black attorney in

New York. Sam Black is curator of African -American collections at the History Center. You're the historian. What did you learn from all of this? I learned a lot. I think the importance is that Pittsburgh had a very strong abolitionist community here. And that Pittsburgh was also a player in the enslavement of people of African descent. That's very important to know because it gives us a foundation of how this city and this nation was built. That it was not necessarily built from the way that we were probably educated as great noble people who moved from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, building this great civilization that along the way, they enslave people who did primarily most of the labor in developing this civilization. And as visitors leave the exhibit, they encounter some familiar faces in America today. The last thing you see when you walk out, Oprah Winfrey, the president, Obama, Valerie McDonald Roberts, are we past this stuff now? Why is this important? We're probably

past it as far as those same conditions being impacting people's lives. But we're not past it because it's still a part of American history. If we can talk about how great George Washington is, we can also talk about George Washington being a slaveholder because that's part of his story. It's American history. If it's important for people to know where they came from. It should be told, it should be read, it should be understood by everybody who considers himself and herself reasonably educated about the history of the United States and about the region. That's why it's important for people to know it. Slaves were once considered pieces of property. That's why these papers were so important. They were legal documents leading to, in some cases, freedom and in other cases,

indentured servitude. Blacks, even though lived in the north, were in constant fear of being kidnapped or sold into slavery. The exhibit continues through Sunday, April 5th. For more information, log on to our website, wqed .org slash on cue. It's worth seeing. That'll do it for us tonight for Tony Crusoe, all of us here at on cue. I'm Michael Bartley. Thanks for watching. Good night. You