If you’re looking for something unique to do with your kids on a weekend, whether it’s a rainy day or day off, here are some suggestions. Best of all, these places are free!
Civil War Room (Grand Army of the Republic – Espy Post)
Andrew Carnegie Free Library, 300 Beechwood Ave., Carnegie, PA 15106
Hours: 11 a.m .to 3 p.m. Saturday
When I wandered into the Andrew Carnegie Free Library on a recent Saturday afternoon looking for the Civil War Room, I was not expecting to crash author Robert Hilliard’s PowerPoint presentation on Civil War spies. But there I was, in a room surrounded by literally one hundred photographs of Abraham Lincoln (appropriately named the “Lincoln Gallery”), so I sat down and listened in rapt attention to his lecture called “Spies, Slaves and Secrets of the Civil War” and learned about hot air balloons, telegraph messages, and famous Confederate and federal spies, including a mysterious former slave named John Scobell.
After the presentation, I found the Civil War Room, otherwise known as the Espy Room, which, according to curator Jon-Erik Gilot, “is considered to be perhaps the most intact surviving example of a Grand Army of the Republic post room.”
After the Civil War, veterans of the Union Army, Navy and Marines who served formed a fraternal organization called the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), which has half a million members nationwide. There were 30 G.A.R. posts in Allegheny County and Espy Post 153 was named in honor of Captain Thomas Espy, a prominent Upper St. Clair resident who was wounded in 1861 and did not survive the war. The Espy Post, which started having its regular meetings at the Carnegie Library in 1906, was locked up after the last member of the Post died in 1938, and the room remained closed for 50 years until it was reopened for the first time during the 1980s and then meticulously restored in 2010.
The room today looks like a time capsule, with dark furniture from the era, flags, uniforms, framed prints and a heavy, ancient-looking Bible that a Pennsylvania volunteer carried through numerous Civil War battles until he was wounded in Virginia in 1864. Glass cases contain a variety of period artifacts like cannon balls, bayonets, guns, a canteen and various personal effects.
Docent Chuck Edeburn showed me around the room and memorably pointed to a 1903 black and white photograph of the members to highlight the fact that Espy Post 153 was integrated, which was unusual at that time.
The Espy Post room is open every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and weekday visits can be arranged by contacting Jon-Erik Gilot at [email protected]. In addition, check out carnegiecarnegie.org/civil-war-room to see the schedule for the Second Saturday Civil War series that hosts visiting historians, scholars and authors who talk about different topics related to the Civil War, like the fascinating presentation that I inadvertently crashed.
Biblical Botanical Garden at Rodef Shalom
4905 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Garden is located on Devonshire Street at the corner of 5th Avenue in Shadyside
Hours – approximately the beginning of June through mid-September
I barely made it to the Biblical Botanical Garden at Rodef Shalom before Director Dasya Petranova (who describes herself as “an obsessive plant person”) cleared it out for the winter. Fortunately, I arrived in time to see this one-of-a-kind garden plot with more than 100 plants that represent various regions of Israel, like the Jordan River, Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. A small waterfall and stream bisect this pastoral setting, where the plants are not only labeled with names, but also the Biblical verses where the specimens are mentioned.
“There are 150 plants mentioned in the Hebrew Bible,” Petranova explains, “but that list expands to over 400 when you consider the variations.”
For example, the hearty boxwood mentioned in the Bible still remains a popular shrub used in modern landscaping (possibly in your own yard). According to Petranova, the boxwood is also called box thorn or box tree, and certain varieties grow Goji berries, which some cultures believe have powerful health and medicinal properties.
As she escorted me through the Garden, I recognized fig, olive, date and cedar trees, and grape vines. But when I pointed to some tall grasses growing in the pond, she told me those were common weeds she was trying to get rid of.
“They are a very aggressive species,” she says.
Oh. I also recognized the big, green lush Jerusalem artichoke plant. I correctly suspected the fruit was not really an artichoke, but Petranova also revealed that the plant isn’t even from Jerusalem and may not be “invited” back to the Garden in the future.
My favorite part of the Garden was the small waterfall where I imagined the goldfish flip-flopping their way down the rocks to get to the little pond at the bottom.
“The goldfish are adventurous,” she says, smiling.
During the growing season, the Garden offers docent-led tours on the first Wednesday of every month, but Petranova welcomes visitors to sit, read, do homework or wander through this peaceful welcoming space anytime the gate is unlocked.
Elemental video art installation
Downtown, located on Smithfield Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues (behind One Oxford Centre)
Open 24 hours a day until August 2025
If you plan on attending any of the First Night activities, or if you and your family are downtown any evening, be sure to stop by to see “Elemental,” the video art installation on display in a vacant storefront between 3rd and 4th avenues on Smithfield Street.
Behind the windows, I counted seven identical video screens, each 3 feet tall, displaying a constantly changing tableau of nature videos that reflect the elements of water, fire, air and earth, which are visible 24 hours a day but are best viewed when it’s dark at dusk, evening or night.
In what seemed like a random progression, I watched lava flowing like a river of red-hot molasses, stalks of wheat blowing in the wind, seaweed sweeping back and forth with ocean waves and gentle snow falling and coating the branches of a pine tree.
The effect is strangely hypnotic.
Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and created by artist Carolyn Loyola-Garcia, the installation premiered in August 2024 and will run for a year.
As Carolyn Loyola-Garcia explains in her Artist’s Statement: “Moments in nature are full of peace and discovery. When I find myself documenting one of these moments, there’s no sense of time or definitive purpose.”
Parents don’t always have a lot of moments of “peace and discovery,” but taking the time to show your kids these mesmerizing nature videos may very well provide at least a few minutes of tranquility.
The Museum of Material Failures
Matergenics, 100 Business Center Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205
Call during business hours for information and tours: 412-788-1263
When you walk past the reception area of Matergenics, an engineering firm in Robinson that specializes in failure analysis, the first thing you notice is that there are broken things scattered everywhere— exploded gas pipes, rotted utility poles, an Olympics diving board, bits and pieces of metal, concrete and other unidentifiable scraps. Throughout the office, engineers sit at their desks working, studying computer screens, bags of soil or pieces of things that have failed either under the ground, above the ground or in space. But if you’re lucky, Matergenics’ founder, Dr. Mehrooz Zamanzadeh (call him Dr. Zee), will be there to show you the treasures in the room they call the Museum of Material Failures. In glass display cases, framed wall pictures and on table tops, things that did not live up to their expected useful life are crammed into every inch of the room. Each failed item has a story, including a piece of metal roofing from Thomas Jefferson’s famous house, Monticello.
However, the eternally effervescent Dr. Zee speaks of failure in the most glowing terms.
“With each failure comes an opportunity,” he says, suggesting that the room should really be called The Museum of Material Opportunities.
Although clients all over the world send their broken things to Matergenics to figure out why they broke, Dr. Zee’s philosophy expands beyond just business.
“For everything in your life, failures come for three reasons,” he explains. “Lack of knowledge, negligence or greed.”
His enthusiasm was so catchy, I couldn’t help but take his lessons to heart. After examining a 2-year-old utility pole that looked perfectly fine except the unseen part below ground had nasty rust and corrosion, I vowed to always heed his advice to “never park your car near a utility pole.”
“Materials fail because of human error. Materials follow the laws of physics and chemistry perfectly, so it’s ALWAYS human error.”
But when Dr. Zee started talking about his latest project, which is studying lead, copper and lithium contaminants in drinking water, the tenor of his voice grew impassioned and urgent. Flint, Michigan, may be the most well-known example of a city with drinking water problems, he reminds me, but many cities, including Pittsburgh, have had similar problems.
Something important that Dr. Zee emphasizes is that the risk of contaminated water does not usually come from the city water that is piped into your home, but from the plumbing pipes and fixtures in your house that contain lead or are soldered with lead, particularly in homes built before 1986. And if there is lead in your water, heating or boiling the water increases the lead level, creating what he calls “hangry water.”
The Museum of Material Failures is the only museum of its kind in the United States. The only other comparable museum is located in Switzerland.
Take advantage of this opportunity, and visit the Museum of Material Failures. And please get your water tested.
The Old Allegheny County Jail Museum
440 Ross St. (Family Court Division Courthouse), Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Enter through the main entrance and go through security. Turn left and go down the hallway. The Museum entrance is on the left.
Open 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. the first and third Monday, year round (except holidays)
If you ever walk into the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Family Division on Ross Street in downtown Pittsburgh, you would not necessarily know that this 19th century building used to be the county jail. Nor would you know that today, a small section of the main floor is a museum that displays artifacts, information and even some of the cells that were used during the 100+ years that the building was used as a jail.
The jail closed in 1995 and sat empty for a few years until it was renovated between 1999 and 2001 to house the current Court of Common Please Family Division. The Old Allegheny County Jail Museum, which opened in 2005, was created through a grant from the Drue Heinz Trust to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF).
During open hours, PHLF docents lead free tours of the “cell block” where visitors can enter original cells that are quite small and do not look big enough to house multiple people. When I visited the museum, a knowledgeable docent named Pat pointed out that the oldest cells did not have toilets.
“Just a bucket with creosote to put out any fires and to use as a honey bucket,” she says.
The fortress-like building also had no heat, air conditioning or lights in the cells, although gas jets provided light in the hallways.
The “newer” cell I peeked into did not look any bigger, but at least it had the modern convenience of a metal toilet and a tiny sink in the corner.
If you’re wondering what movies were filmed at the Allegheny Jail, there is a list displayed on the wall, which includes the 1984 movie, “Mrs. Soffel,” starring Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson, and possibly the first scene of “Silence of the Lambs,” where Clarice meets Hannibal Lecter.
“At least that’s what people say,” Pat says.
The Allegheny County Jail Museum is a fascinating, educational, fun and slightly creepy experience that is unique to Pittsburgh and well worth visiting.
Local writer Ann K. Howley is proud to announce that her award-winning young adult novel, “The Memory of Cotton,” is now available as an audiobook.