Homestead

Homestead, borough (town), Allegheny county, southwestern Pennsylvania, U.S. It lies across the Monongahela River from the southeastern edge of Pittsburgh and is adjacent to West Homestead and Munhall boroughs. Laid out as Amity Homestead in 1871, the borough developed with the growth of Andrew Carnegie’s steel empire. The steelworks, which later became part of Munhall borough, opened in Homestead borough in 1881. Called the Homestead Works, they were the site of the noted Homestead strike of July 1892, when company guards (hired through Allan Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency) fought a pitched battle with the strikers who were in control of the town. State militiamen were sent to quell the trouble. The strike directly influenced the reelection of President Grover Cleveland over Benjamin Harrison in 1892, and the strikers’ defeat retarded the unionization of American steelworkers for more than 40 years.

The Homestead Works closed in 1986 and its buildings were torn down in 1993–94. Homestead’s economy is now based on service industries and light manufacturing. Inc. 1880. Pop. (2000) 3,569; (2010) 3,165.