The Destruction of the Ward: Eighty Years Later

In June 1941, the U.S. government announced plans to dramatically expand the Homestead Works by demolishing the largely immigrant, working-class neighborhood called the Ward, located below the train tracks that ran through Homestead. The government and the steel mill, with the support of local politicians, community leaders, and clergy, put out propaganda that it was the patriotic duty of the 8,000 residents of the Ward to vacate their "blighted slum." 1,566 families left behind 1,363 buildings, five schools, 12 churches, and innumerable small businesses. What is lost when an entire neighborhood is wiped off the map?