Pittsburgh celebrates 100th anniversary of return of the ‘h’
Pittsburgh is spelled weird.
But folks who live there consider the “America’s Most Misspelled City” title just a little something extra — kind of like the ‘h’ you won’t find on the end of Harrisburg or Gettysburg.
Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of the return of the ‘h’ to Pittsburgh.
Back in 1890, when the country was trying to standardize the spelling of locales, Pittsburgh’s ‘h’ was dropped, as the Associated Press tells it. It wasn’t until July 19, 1911 that a lobbying effort brought the ‘h’ back.
Why was it there in the first place? Gen. John Forbes captured Fort Duquesne in 1758 to renamed it Pittsbourgh — named for Scottish Prime Minister of England William Pitt, and pronounced like Edinburgh. The name became Pittsburgh in 1769, and it stuck.
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