Why us? Because Pittsburgh is rich in organizations and sites suitable for our one-day programs. Pittsburgh also is the home of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, who saw the need for providing something for Allegheny County's fit and able seniors, and who provided the start up funding.
In 2000, the first Pittsburgh catalog listed 16 programs. This has expanded to nearly 60 in our latest catalog.
On this web page you will find a sampling of some of the programs offered during the last 3 years. For a current catalog and registration information please call the Pittsburgh regional office at (412) 422-2060.
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These three programs are deemed the very best by this reviewer. They fill up quickly so when you see one listed in the catalog that you'd like to attend, call your reservation in quickly!.
George Westinghouse Museum
This wonderful program brings you to the Westinghouse castle which sits on a hill overlooking the town of Wilmerding. There, you are greeted by Museum Director Ed Reis, who portrays George Westinghouse himself, recounting his personal history, his inventions and his many businesses. Then you are treated to a tour of the castle and the museum by knowledgeable docents. There is a buffet luncheon served in the executive dining room of the castle. Finaly, there is a panel of former Westinghouse employees open to questions from the floor about any aspect of Westinghouse as it once was.This program is a favorite with former employees and anyone wanting to know more about this Giant of the industrial age. Normally, the castle is closed to the public and is opened specially for our Elderhostel programs. You can see more about this program at the George Westinghouse page elsewhere on this site.
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Jail and Coroner's Office
Participants in this program go where we seldom have a chance to go -- behind the scenes at the County Jail, where they meet with selected inmates and learn about the life behind bars. After a fine lunch, usually at the Common Plea restaurant, Elderhostelers procede to the Coroner's office to explore how fingerprinting, DNA testing, blood typing, dental records and other methods are used to solve crimes.======================================
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
This program offers an opportunity to look behind the scenes of our city newspaper, the Post Gazette. Led by a staff member, you tour all the departments of the paper and learn how they work together. Lunch is served in the meeting room of the paper, after which representatives of the features, news and editrial departments offer a candid and lively discussion of what makes news and how decisions are made to run specific stories.
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This next group of programs takes you to sites in the city that you may not know about, or behind the scenes of a familiar site. Many of these are repeated every quarter.
University of Pittsburgh
: You'll visit some "seldom seen" spaces at the University of Pittsburgh when you participate in this program, including the Babcock Room on the 40th floor, with spectacular views on all sides; the Ballroom, and some of the Nationality Classrooms. Then, you'll move on to the Steven Foster Memorial and the Frick Fine Arts Bldg. Lunch at PAA, a visit to the Masonic Temple, and finally a tour of Heinz Chapel concludes a very busy day.=======================================
Community Food Bank
The Community Food Bank is located in Duquesne, on the site of a former steel mill. You'll learn where the Food Bank gets its food, and how it distributes it to programs that help Pittsburgh's hungry. After a boxed lunch, you'll move on to the warehouse area where you'll spend a couple hours packing cartons of canned goods for distribution. If you've ever wondered how Pittsburgh meets the needs of it's hungry citizens, this one is a must-see must-do.=======================================
WQED
WQED offers a slightly different version of this tour each quarter. Always, there is a full tour of both television and radio studios. You'll get to meet at least 2 of the WQED celebrities, and learn about his or her area of interest. There'll be a buffet lunch, with Chris Fennimore dishing up his own special desert.
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The National Aviary
We have had "Breakfast with the Birds" several times. This program starts early in the morning in order to be "up with the birds" and view their breakfast feeding. It's a back stage tour and you'll see birds not usually on display, and talk with the keepers about special diets, needs, etc. for their birds. It's up on my webside at National Aviary========================================
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation partners with Elderhostel for tours of buildings, such as the courthouse, or neighborhoods, such as Vandergrift, or the churches of McKee's Rocks.Always extremely well done.
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Hartwood Acres
Hartwood Acres, now a county park, is an elegant mansion that harkens back to the elegant1930's. They offer a program every quarter, with a different emphasis but always interesting, and always elegant!========================================
The Bridges of Pittsburgh
An early morning cruise on the "Discovery", one of the Science Museum's floating classrooms. You'll sail on all 3 of Pittsburgh's rivers, learning about the city and the bridges you pass beneath, This, and breakfast, and the company of other elderhostelers make it an enjoyable morning.
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Heinz History Center
The Heinz History Center partners with the Heinz chapel at Pitt almost every quarter to bring you "How Clear Glass and Horseradish built a Chapel" - a great favorite with Elderhostlers. They also often bring programs associated with the current special exhibition at the museum.========================================
Elderhostel partners with many of the Cultural Organizations downtown, bringing you not only a performance, a meal (lunch or dinner) but also a behind the scenes look. You may learn a dance routine with the choreographer from the CLO, learn about the production schedules of the Pittsburgh Public Theater. When the symphony played "The Planets" by Gustav Holts, Elderhostelers met first with an astronomer to learn more about the planets. Elderhostelers were able to be a part of the Chamber Music's very special Beethoven Project .
Some of Elderhostel's Cultural Partners include:
- Pittsburgh Opera
- Pittsburgh irish & Classical Theater
- River City Brass Band
- Mattress Factory
- Westmoreland Museum of Art
- Society for Contemporary Crafts
- Pittsburgh Symphony
- Pittsburgh Public Theater
- Civic Light Opera
- Bach Choir
- Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society
- Kuntu Reperatory Theater
- Associated Artists of Pittsburgh
- Manchester Craftsman's guild
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Western Pennsylvania is filled with historic sites. Most are out of town, some require a bus trip, but if you are interested in what has made our area what it is, these programs are for you!
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Native American winter lodge at Oglebay
This was an intergenerational Elderhostel. Hostelers and their grandchildren learned Indian lore, games and dances, ate a dinner made from native foods (however, cooked in a more modern fashion). Bedrolls were carried down to the winter teepee for a bonfire and story telling before settling down for the night. The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, Hostelers and young learners went on a nature hike, and learned winter survival skills and fire building along the way.
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Fort Ligonier
Fort Ligonier is afull-scale, on-site reconstruction of the 1758-1766 origial fort. The program begins with a behind the scenes tour of the site. Hostelers learn about life in a fort of the late 18th century, and how such forts were defended. Finally, hostelers learn about the important role Fort Ligonier played in determining the future of southwestern PA.========================================
Albert Gallatin and Friendship Hill
Albert Gallatin was Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson, and in that position funded both the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. Before coming to national service, he was a major player in the events surrounding the Whiskey Rebellion and the Treaty of Ghent. Friendship Hill is the estate he built and retired to. Hostelers tour the building, view some of Gallatin's maps, learn about his life and career.=========================================
Historic Harmony
Harmony is located north of Pittsburgh and many buildings in the town are original to it's founding as a Harmonist settlement in 1804. The history of the Harmonists is told, with a slide show of the German village from whence they came. An architect leads the group on a walking tour of Historic Harmony, pointing out the Harmonist buildings and later Mennonite buildings, and the different features of each. Lunch is at the 19th century Harmony Inn, afterwhich hostelers are transported to important sites in the area, including the Harmonist and Mennonite cemeteries.
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Old Economy Village
The Harmonists left historic Harmony for Indiana, where they established the town of New Harmony. After 10 years in the wilds of Indiana, they returned to Western Pennsylvania, and built their final town of Old Economy in Ambridge, just north of Pittsburgh. Part of this village has been restored and is run as a museum of 19th century life. Hostelers will learn about George Rapp and his philosophy, and what made the Harmonists such a successful group financially, but also why they ultimately failed. Hostelers also can try some of the 19th century crafts such as spinning. or blacksmithing, and learn something about gardening practices of that time.==========================================
West Overton Museums
Henry Clay Frick, who plays an important role in Pittsburgh history, grew up in the Mennonite community of West Overton. Early on, West Overton was a master weaving center and renowned wisky distillery. Each quarter the museums of West Overton offer Elderhostel an exciting and different program, all usually touching on Henry Clay Frick and adding some theatrical entertainment and scrumptious dinner============================================
The National Road - Rte 40
The National Road, now Rte. 40, was a crucial transportation route for the country from 1830-1850. Goods were moved from Cumberland, MD westward over the Allegheny mountains to Pittsburgh. Hostelers visit the Mount Washington Tavern (near Fort Necessity), and the newly restored Searights Tollhouse and learn about the Conestoga Wagons that traveled this route. Finally, dinner at the historic 1794 Century Inn in Scenery Hill.==========================================
Johnstown - Flood and Heritage museums
Johnstown is the site of two excellent museums - the Flood Museum, which tells the story of the famous 1889 Johnstown Flood through displays and movies. Hostelers will also visit the Johnstown Heritage Museum and learn about the immigrants who flocked to the area both before and after the flood, to work in the steel mill. The day also includes a trip up Johnstown's famous incline, a visit to the Grand View cemetery, where the unidentified victims of the flood were laid to rest, and a visit to the North Fork Hunting and Fishing club, which was the cause of it all.
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Steel Industry Heritage
This group has offered a number of trips , by bus and by boat, up and down the Mon. Learn how and why the Steel Industry grew in Pittsburgh, and why it declined. Learn about the Homestead Strike, and see where it happened. These trips usually end up at the Bulgarian-Macedonian Center in Homestead, for a home-cooked Eastern European meal and a tour of their beautiful center.=========================================
Arthurdale
Arthurdale was a planned community built by the WPA during the Roosevelt administration. It was also a favorite project of Eleanor Roosevelt, who visited it often. Over 70 houses were built for out of work miners, as well as a community center, school and factory and work spaces. Most of the homes are standing today, and one has been restored to 1930's furnishings and appliances. The Community Center and several workshops are also a part of the Elderhostel tour.
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Some of our programs include a session of crafts - making something to take home as a "souvenir" of the day. These include:
- Clayton - after a tour of the house, Elderhostelers moved to the education center where they were taught to make "kissing balls" - this program was scheduled near Christmas time.
- At the Society for Contemporary Crafts, Elderhostelers made quilt squares in the style of traditional African quilts.
- Phipps Conservatory brought us a Japanese afternoon. We toured the Bonsai collection and learned how a Bonsai is trained, after which we had a lesson in Ikebana flower arranging.
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Elderhostel Pittsburgh has begun offering multi session classes which include:
- World Affairs Council discussion of pertinent National topics
- Genealogy
- Robotics at the National Robotics Engineering Consortium
- Writing your personal history
- Turning real life into Literature
- Seniornet (computer instruction)
- Art History through CMA
- Reading Virgil's Aeneid
- Time study
- The brain and aging.
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Finally, a list of some of our "Active" Elderhostel programs which usually include enrichment beyone the active ingredient, and a meal besides.
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Biking the Pittsburgh Trails
- Youghiogheny Trail - Boston to Sutersville
- Youghiogheny Trail - Cedar Creek to Sutersville
- Eliza Furnace Trail downtown
- The Panhandle Trail
- Ohiopyle to Confluence
- Ghost Town Trail
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Allegheny Trails Alliance - Rockwood
Includes a haywagon ride and fossil hunt, lunch and a performance at the Opera House at Rockwood.=======================================
Allegheny Trails Alliance - Connelsville
Rafting down the Youghiogeny with historical narration by costumed guides; Lunch at Dawson, tour Cochran House and Philip G. Cochran Memorial Church. Finally, a 6 mile bike ride back along the Yough with geologist to talk about geologic history of the area.=======================================
An overnight in Jumonville
Study the first skirmish in the French and Indian War, and the site's Civil War significance - the Civil War Orphange. Dinner and overnight at Jumonville with campfire activities. Next morning, a bike ride to Ohiopyle, where a boxed lunch awaits, then a raft trip down the Yough.=======================================
Laurel Caverns
Start with a classroom presentation of Earth history, with a focus on local geology. After a boxed lunch on the porch, overlooking the beautiful Laurel mountains, you'll don jackets for a tour of Laurel Caverns, and a return to the surface for a fossil hunt.========================================
Powdermill Reserve
Here is a chance to explore the important work of the Powdermill Nature Reserve. At their 1 hectare study grid, you'll experience the habitat, relationships, activity patterns and role of small mammals in our region's ecosystem. Then, at the bird banding area, you'll observe the valley's beautiful songbirds. After a catered lunch, you'll spend the afternoon conducting a stream study.=========================================
Bird watching at Oglebay Institute
Start with "Breakfast with the Birds" on the canopy walkway, extending into the forest at treetop heights. Then, a birdwatching walk along the Hardwood Ridge Trail. Back at the Center's Bird Cafe, you'll learn about bird feeding and view nesting techniques through video monitoring and one-way glass allow you to observe the birds without disturbing them.=========================================