In 1742, John Fraser and his family established the area at the mouth of Turtle Creek as the first permanent English settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains.[6]George Washington visited the area in 1753–1754. It was the site of Braddock's Defeat on July 9, 1755.
Braddock is also the location of the first of Andrew Carnegie's 1,679 (some sources list 1,689) public libraries in the US, designed by William Halsey Wood of Newark, New Jersey, and dedicated on March 30, 1889. The Braddock Library included a tunnel entrance for Carnegie's millworkers to enter a bathhouse in the basement to clean up before entering the facilities (which originally included billiard tables). An addition in 1893, by Longfellow, Alden and Harlow (Boston & Pittsburgh, successors to Henry Hobson Richardson), added a swimming pool, indoor basketball court, and 964-seat music hall that included a Votey pipe organ. The building was rescued from demolition in 1978 by the Braddock's Field Historical Society, and is still in use as a public library. The bathhouse has recently been converted to a pottery studio; the music hall is currently under restoration.
During the early 1900s many immigrants settled in Braddock, primarily from Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary.
Condemned houses in Braddock, 2009
Braddock lost its importance with the collapse of the steel industry in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. This coincided with the crack cocaine epidemic of the early 1980s, and the combination of the two woes nearly destroyed the community. In 1988, Braddock was designated a financially distressed municipality. The entire water distribution system was rebuilt in 1990-1991 at a cost of $4.7 million, resulting in a fine system where only 5% of piped water is deemed "unaccounted-for".[citation needed] As of the early 2020s, Braddock's population is approximately 90% reduced from a peak of about 20,000 in the 1920s.[3][4]
Since 1974, Braddock resident Tony Buba has made many films. One of his earlier films is Justice League centering on the borough and its industrial decline, including Struggles in Steel.[10] In September 2010, the IFC and Sundance television channels showed the film Ready to Work: Portraits of Braddock, produced by the Levi Strauss corporation. This film interviews many of the local residents and shows their efforts to revitalize the town.[11]
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.6 km2), 0.6 square miles (1.6 km2) of which is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) (13.85%) of which is water. Its average elevation is 764 ft (233 m) above sea level.[12]
Braddock borough, Pennsylvania – Racial and Ethnic Composition (NH = Non-Hispanic) Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
According to the American Community Survey in 2020, Braddock has an employment rate of 34.2%, a median household income of $23,050, 3.7% of the population has no health care coverage, with 10.7% of the population possessing a Bachelor's degree or higher.[19]
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