1850 January 0
Colonel James Anderson established in Allegheny an Apprentices' Library and opened it to working boys. Andrew Carnegie was one of the regular boy patrons.
1850 January 0
The value of Pittsburgh manufacturing was estimated at $50,000,000 by Samuel Fahnestock in the Pittsburgh Directory for the Year 1850.
1850 January 0
B. F. Jones resigned as manager of the Pennsylvania Canal to begin operating a puddling iron works on the south bank of the Monongahela River.
1850 January 0
Population: Pittsburgh, 46,601; Allegheny City, 21,262; Allegheny County, 138,290.
1850 January 0
Passavant Hospital, founded in 1849 under the name Pittsburgh Infirmary by the Reverend William Passavant of Zelienople, was chartered.
1850 January 7
Joseph Barker, an itinerant reformer, was elected mayor while serving a year's term in jail for disturbing the peace.
1850 September 10
Pennsylvania Railroad began operating trains between Pittsburgh and Johnstown.
1851 January 0
A Marine Hospital, designed to care for disabled rivermen, was established by the federal government at nearby Woods Run.
1851 January 0
The report-card system was established in the city schools.
1851 January 0
Jane Grey Swisshelm, advocate of women's rights, polled only three votes in her campaign for the office of mayor.
1851 April 25
In the city's greatest musical event of the era, Jenny Lind, under the management of Phineas T. Barnum, sang at Masonic Hall, Fifth Avenue, before 1000 persons who paid an average of $7 each for tickets sold on auction.
1851 May 16
Evergreen Hamlet, an experiment in communal living, started.
1851 July 30
Regular passenger service was inaugurated by the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad (Fort Wayne) between Allegheny and New Brighton.
1851 December 10
The Pennsylvania Railroad formally began business in the city of Pittsburgh with its rail line extended as far as Turtle Creek. At that point passengers transferred to stagecoach, which bridged a 28-mile gap in the rail connection.
1852 January 0
Pittsburgh Board of Health was created.
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