Homestead Steel Works, steel works in Pennsylvania, United States
Homestead Steel Works is a former steel production facility on the banks of the Monongahela River in Homestead, Pennsylvania. The site had direct access to both rail lines and river transport, which made it well suited for moving raw materials in and finished steel out.
The works opened in 1881 and were bought by Andrew Carnegie in 1883, who turned the site into one of the largest steel operations in the world. After more than a century of production, the facility shut down in 1986.
The name Homestead goes back to the original land claims of early settlers in the area. The pump house that still stands on the site gives visitors a concrete sense of the physical scale at which workers once operated machinery day and night.
The site now holds a shopping center where twelve tall brick smokestacks have been kept in place and are visible from most of the parking area. A small park next to it preserves a pump house and a gantry crane, and both are worth a short stop to look around.
In 1892 a violent clash broke out on this site between striking workers and armed Pinkerton agents, and the event became a turning point in US labor history. Carnegie later funded the Carnegie Library of Homestead, built in 1898, which still stands and serves the community today.
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