The Waterfront Mural – “A Walk Through History, Then & Now”
This lively and colorful 125’x40’ mural is much more than its scale and excitement. Painted by Shane Pilster and Max Gonzales, this mural holds many references to Homestead’s present and past. From the energetic colors and stars coming from Betty Davis, to the explosive pouring of steel, this scene depicts our community’s history as an industry town and a music and technology hub. As Homestead continues to grow and change, it will always hold praise and value to its origins.
Artists Max and Shane also hold this historical knowledge close to heart as part of Rivers of Steel’s Graffiti Arts Program at the Carrie Furnaces. Both have also taught in schools, run workshops, and painted many murals with our community prior to this project. Max and Shane wanted to let us know how valuable of an experience this was for them, as over the 3 weeks of painting, they got the chance to meet and talk to many community members and friends and family of those whose portraits they were painting. As two artists who love to adapt their imagery on the fly, they even took on some community suggestions and imagery during their process.
We hope to see even more color and celebration in our community and our artists are more than willing to make that happen. If you would like to learn more from our artists or commission them for your own project, you can find them at dowhatwelove.com.
Bill Campbell – Trillion Dollar Coach
William Vincent Campbell Jr. was an American businessman and chairman of the board of trustees of Columbia University and chairman of the board of Intuit. He was VP of Marketing and board director for Apple Inc. and CEO for Claris, Intuit, and GO Corporation. Campbell coached, among others, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and Sundar Pichai at Google, Steve Jobs at Apple, Jeff Bezos at Amazon, Jack Dorsey and Dick Costolo at Twitter, and Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook. Son of a local school official, Campbell was born and raised in Homestead, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. He attended Columbia University, where he played football under coach Buff Donelli from 1959 to 1961.[3] In his senior year, he was named to the All-Ivy Team. He graduated in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in economics.
Betty Davis – Queen of Funk
In the 1970s, Betty Davis articulated a kind of pre-punk, funk-blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music – a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry constraints. Before her recording career, Betty took the fashion world by storm, becoming one of the first Black models to appear in Seventeen and Glamour, and was beloved as a trendsetter in the Greenwich Village underground. She earned her first songwriting credit in 1968 with The Chamber’s Brother’s “Harlem,” recorded with jazz and rock titans like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Mitch Mitchell, and helped to nourish Miles Davis’ musical metamorphosis in the short time they were married.
Josh Gibson – Homestead Grays Hall of Famer
Josh Gibson was born on December 21, 1911 in Buena Vista, Georgia and moved to Pittsburgh with his family during the Great Migration.
Josh debuted with the Homestead Grays in 1930. He played for the Grays through 1931 and then for the crosstown Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1932 to 1936 where he emerged as a superstar. In 1937, the Crawfords traded Josh back to Homestead where he would play for the next ten years until his untimely death in 1947. His career numbers were off the charts, and he became known as the “Black” Babe Ruth. However, for many, Ruth was the “White” Josh Gibson.
Despite never having played in the American or National Leagues, Gibson, is considered one of the greatest hitters ever and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.