Choose a topic to learn more!

​Images courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

History of The O

​Essie's Original Hot Dog Shop (commonly known as “The O”) was a beloved hot dog restaurant on Forbes Avenue. It was opened by brothers Sydney “Syd” and Morris “Moe” Simon, sons of an immigrant mother from Lithuania and a blue-collar father from East Liberty in June 1960, near Forbes Field. According to Rick Sebak, the brothers rushed to open in time for the opening of the World Series at Forbes Field. They originally intended to feature burgers in the shop’s name but couldn’t acquire burgers in time for the series, so they decided to sell hotdogs instead. Syd and Moe were known for using an old cigar box as a register to hold the cash and make change, often staying open until 2 or 3 AM to serve patrons. The restaurant was originally named “The Original Franks & Burgers”; “Essie’s” was added in 2000 in memory of Syd's wife, Esther, after her death. 
​
The restaurant became nationally known for its hot dogs and large portions of French fries: In 2001, Gourmet Magazine ranked the hot dogs fourth-best in America, The New York Times named it one of the "high spots in a nation of hot-dog heavens" in 2002, and The O was featured on Rick Sebak's nationally-distributed PBS program A Hot Dog Program, as well as Food Network's Unwrapped. The University of Pittsburgh's student newspaper named The O "Best French Fries" every year 2002-2008.

Through it all, owner Syd Simon became known locally as a generous and warm-hearted man. He helped close friend and employee Nate Keys receive a liver transplant in the late 1980s by petitioning the George H.W. Bush administration. He also held several patents, including a clothing line to help the visually impaired. Syd's children Terry Campasano and Bruce Simon owned and managed the restaurant starting in the mid-2000s. He passed away in 2009. 
The O closed on March 14, 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, donating 7 tons of potatoes to charity

Gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. As average household income changes, so does the price of housing, driving away lower-income residents. According to a 2019 NCRC study, Pittsburgh is the eighth most gentrifying city in the United States.

In Oakland, new luxury apartment complexes and student living patterns are partially responsible for increasing rent. But building permits issued by the city, zoning changes, policies, opportunity zones, tax incentives and other such factors also play a role in these changes. 
​
The influx of young, educated professionals into urban areas is a major trend that has transformed Pittsburgh and many other American cities over the last two decades. “At the same time,” says Alan Mallach, an expert on community development, “that our cities are drawing thousands of jobs and billions in new investment, more people live in these cities who lack jobs and opportunities.”
​
Movie Theatre/Noodle & Co.
In 1965 George and Ernest Stern of Associated Theatres converted an old city police station into a first-run movie theater. Because the outside of the police station had a sort of English castle motif, it was called the King’s Court Theater. Its location next to Pitt’s campus made it a popular theater for a number of decades, premiering many of the hot "youth-oriented" pictures of the late 1960s and 1970s and for years running midnight movies, especially “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” wherein patrons would dress like the characters in the film and act it out along with the screening
​
King’s Court Theater went out of business in 1990 due to increasing rents, and has now been replaced with Noodles & Co.

History of Immigration

The first Europeans arrived in the 1710s as traders. The French and British competed to build forts in 1753, building Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt at the Point; however, it wasn’t until 1760 that the first considerable European settlement around Fort Pitt began to grow.

​New immigrants after 1800 made Pittsburgh a major Scotch-Irish stronghold, where industrialists such as James Laughlin (b. Ulster 1806–1882) of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company comprised the "Scots-Irish Presbyterian ruling stratum of Pittsburgh society."

During the 19th and especially the 20th centuries, African Americans from the southern states also moved to Pennsylvania in large numbers, escaping Jim Crow Laws and racial violence as well as looking for economic opportunities. In the mid-19th century, Pittsburgh witnessed a dramatic influx of German immigrants, including a brick mason whose son, Henry J. Heinz, founded the H.J. Heinz Company in 1869. Between 1870 and 1920, the population of Pittsburgh grew almost sevenfold, with a large number of European immigrants arriving to the city. The most popular sources were rural areas in southern and eastern Europe, including Italy, the Balkans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia. Unskilled immigrants found jobs in construction, mining, steel mills and factories. They introduced new traditions, languages, and cultures to the city, creating a diversified society as a result. Ethnic neighborhoods, such as South Side, Polish Hill, Bloomfield, and Squirrel Hill, developed.

In the last twenty years the region has seen a small but influential group of Asian immigrants, including from the Indian sub-continent. The Hispanic population, particularly Puerto Rican immigrants, has also increased rapidly.