Six floors, 370,000 square feet and 250 years of Western Pennsylvania stories: the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District is the largest history museum in Pennsylvania and a Smithsonian Affiliate that behaves like the region’s attic, archive and party hall all at once.
The permanent exhibitions reward return visits: Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation celebrates the region’s world-changing ideas; the original sets from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood glow with nostalgia; the Heinz exhibition tells the ketchup empire’s story ‘by the numbers’; and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum (its own floor of glory) enshrines the region’s champions. Special exhibitions rotate through the year alongside lectures, tours and family days.
The History Center is at 1212 Smallman Street in the Strip District. Tickets and the calendar are at heinzhistorycenter.org — pair it with a Strip shopping morning for a perfect Pittsburgh day.
