Journalist To Speak at History Lecture and Recall Past Visits from Celebrities to Oakland

On Thursday October 14, 2021, the 4th Annual Lecture in the “Exploring Our Roots” series will be held at the newly renovated and repurposed historic building at 4338 Bigelow.   This was previously  home to the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and is now the new home for the Latin American Studies Assn Cultural Center.

The speaker will be Len Barcousky,  who wrote an Eyewitness History column for the Pgh Post Gazette for many years.   All SF residents are invited.  The event is also open and free to anyone interested in local history.   Face Masks are required as a public health measure.

SPEAKER:   Len Barcousky

TOPIC:  Everybody came to Oakland: Residents of Schenley Farms had front-row seats to visits by, among others, a renowned physicist, a U.S.president and a popular preacher.

Len Barcousky got his first job in journalism in 1970, and this year he marked the 51st anniversary of the start of his newspaper career. He spent almost 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

          A graduate of Penn State with a degree in English, he has a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

          Len is the author of three books about the region:

“Remembering Pittsburgh: An ‘Eyewitness’ History of the Steel City” (The History Press, 2010); “Civil War Pittsburgh: Forge of the Union” (The History Press, 2013); and “Hidden History of Pittsburgh” (The History Press, 2016).

          For 12 years he wrote a bi-weekly “Eyewitness” column for the Post-Gazette. In it, he investigated how now historic and not-so-historic events were reported originally in the Post-Gazette and its predecessor publications.  

          Len lives in Ben Avon with his wife, Barbara, also a Penn State graduate.