Metropolitan Reform in Allegheny County: The Local Failure of National Urban Reform Advocacy, 1920-1929

Abstract

During the 1920—1929 period, the Civic Club of Allegheny County supported political consolidation of the county’s municipalities and townships. Civic Club leaders sought boundary reform to tackle perceived social problems and political inefficiencies in the Pittsburgh region. This policy was aligned with a national network of Progressive urban reformers, some of whom guided the Civic Club’s plans. These reform efforts culminated in the 1929 Metropolitan Charter, which was rejected by Allegheny County voters. Traditional explanations of this failed vote emphasize the high threshold for success of the charter. However, such accounts ignore the apparent disjunction between the national perception of regional problems and the local reception of recommended solutions. Reform advocates were unable to adapt national Progressive theories to the local context of Allegheny County. This article first describes the national network of Progressive Era research that prescribed metropolitan solutions for urban problems in cities such as Pittsburgh. The article then examines attempts by the Civic Club of Allegheny County to introduce these theories to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The failure of the 1929 Metropolitan Charter is reevaluated, and the implications of these events for current proponents of metropolitanism and political reform are discussed.