Welcome to Thursday Doors! This is a weekly challenge for people who love doors and architecture to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos, drawings, or other images or stories from around the world. If you’d like to join us, simply create your own Thursday Doors post each (or any) week and then share a link to your post in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). If you like, you can add our badge to your post.
Before getting to my gallery today, I thought I’d give an update on the upcoming Thursday Doors writing Challenge. 15 photos have been contributed to server as inspiration. Fear not, we have room for plenty more. I will be adding 2 or 3 as soon as I find some time to crawl through my archives. I hope you will feel encouraged to look through your photos and find a door, or two, or three that might inspire someone to write a poem or story. The writing doesn’t begin until May 1st, but every writer needs inspiration. Maybe some writer’s inspiration could be one of your doors. For more information about the writing challenge, see my post from last week (there’s a link below).
If you want to contribute a door, send an image or a link to an image on your blog, to: noFacilities at gmail dot com – if you want to see the doors we have so far, visit the challenge page.
Last week, I shared the first set of doors from churches in an area of Pittsburgh known as the McKees Rocks Bottoms. This area is one of the earliest settled areas in the Pittsburgh area. Native American civilizations are thought to have inhabited this are of river bottom land since as far back as 2,000 BC.
One of the questions I had when I visited this are was why there were so many churches in such a small area. I forgot a couple important considerations. First, this area was founded during the 1800s before most families has access to reliable transportation. Second, immigrant families brought with them their cultural heritage, including their religious beliefs. Third, this region is somewhat inhospitable. I read stories about many families crossing the Ohio River in rowboats each Sunday to attend the only Orthodox church in the area. There was no bridge over the Ohio River at that time near this area. As the steel industry in the region flourished, families had enough money to donate to the construction of these churches in the early 20th century. The following excerpt offers is from some of the history I found.
McKees Rocks – A Home for Immigrants in The First Half of the 20th Century
An influx of immigrants came to the area to escape oppression from their old world. Most were of Central and Eastern Europeans with 42% of residents Slavic in ethnicity. McKees Rocks attracted many immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. These individuals were often skilled iron and steelworkers in their homelands and found a ready place in the iron and steel industry associated with the railroad industry around McKees Rocks. You will recall that the Ohio Valley Trading company had tried to recruit immigrants to the area during the 1800s by calling the area around Pittsburgh “New Salzburg” in an effort to attract immigrant settlers from Salzburg Germany. The combination of cultures from Germany, Slavic speaking nations and Italy produced a local culture rich in traditions that is apparent in celebrations, food, local businesses, and shops. Many of the enterprises such as bakeries, auto repair facilities, and other businesses are famous throughout Western Pennsylvania. These traditions and practices are combined in the festivals, activities, and community-oriented holidays that can still be seen today
McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation
Pittsburgh was and remains one of the most culturally diverse cities in the United States. According to the tourist bureau, Visit Pittsburgh, “90 vibrant neighborhoods make our region a major travel destination.” I would add that it was a wonderful region in which to grow up.
I hope you enjoy the gallery and I hope you have time to visit the doors from some of the other participants. If you miss any, please return on Sunday for the weekly recap.
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All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
No Facilities 
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