Mark HouserI dive into the research, reading history, memoirs, landmark status reports, and especially old newspapers. Once I have more notes than I know what to…moreI dive into the research, reading history, memoirs, landmark status reports, and especially old newspapers. Once I have more notes than I know what to do with, it's a challenge to figure out what stays and what goes. It's like putting a puzzle together, and the challenge is to use as many pieces as I can without the narrative getting too confusing.(less)
Mark HouserMultiStories started as a monthly column in Pittsburgh Magazine. Though everyone in Pittsburgh knows about our famous steel baron, Andrew Carnegie, I …moreMultiStories started as a monthly column in Pittsburgh Magazine. Though everyone in Pittsburgh knows about our famous steel baron, Andrew Carnegie, I found so many interesting but forgotten things about the lesser tycoons, like our "bathtub king" James Arrott. From there it wasn't too long before I began to wonder about other similar forgotten stories of business mavens in other cities just waiting to be dug up again. Capitalist archaeology.(less)