Mount Oliver native Steve Boehm received an eye-opening look at the city he’s called home for 52 years on the new Molly’s Trolleys tour.
Even though Nicole Slappo’s 15-month-old daughter Mikiea can’t relate to some attractions, the young girl enjoyed her first trolley ride.
Employee Jared Lathrup thinks the new tour benefits riders even when they decide to travel on foot around the city.
These ‘tourists’ have taken a ride on the vintage 1920s style Trolley all over the city from Downtown to the North Shore, Strip District, South Side and Oakland to catch a glimpse of Pittsburgh history and other relics on the “All About the Burgh, the Culture to Ketchup Tour.”
“I remember how the city used to be when my parents would take us into town, so it was pretty cool to take my daughter on this tour and see how much things have changed over the years,” said Slappo.
The tour departs from Station Square every Saturday at 12:45 p.m., where riders get insight on the conditions of the mills that industrialized Pittsburgh in the early 1900s, landmarks dedicated to the city’s founding fathers that owned much of the mills, a look at the city’s many universities and their campuses, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of the Duquesne Incline.
Molly’s Trolleys has been providing tours to local schools, offices, private events and the public since 1995. Operated out of the same building in Station Square, the Just Ducky Tours and Molly’s Trolleys have recently begun to associate themselves with one another even though they still have separate owners. The Just Ducky Tours take riders on tours of Station Square, the Cultural District and a boat ride on the Allegheny River. Molly’s Trolleys take riders on tours all year round, feature luxury seating and are handicap accessible. Reservations can be made at 412-391-7433 with adult tickets at $25, children’s tickets at $15, infants tickets at $5 and all children under 2 are free.
Donald Mendoza came to Pittsburgh when he was 17 from the Philippines and now takes riders on a tour of the formerly known “smoky city” when he drives for Molly’s Trolleys. Out of all the areas on the tour, he claims that the demographic of Oakland is the most interesting for tourists.
“There’s a big diversity of kids around all the universities and history that’s been built around them like the Cathedral and the museums, so they get to learn about what young people are doing now and the history of the area,” said Mendoza.
Lathrup is enrolled in Point Park’s graduate journalism program and found the tours beneficial to his knowledge of Pittsburgh and how to get around the city.
“I’m from a small town called Franklin in West Virginia, and since working on the tours, I’ve gained so much knowledge and really got to see what the city has to offer,” Lathrup said. “I was given all the information on how to travel on foot or bus when I started working here and now am able to give that info to the riders on the tour.”
Running both the Pittsburgh Marathon and the Boston Marathon in under a week in 1990 gave Boehm the chance to compare his hometown to how he described it as a “foreign land.” Pittsburgh may not be what it was nearly 25 years ago but after taking the tour Boehm feels more in touch with the city than ever before after taking the “All About the Burgh Tour.”
“It’s real easy to forget how things used to be in town and in South Side, so it’s nice to see that the tours keep bringing attention to how Pittsburgh built itself up to what it is today,” Boehm said.
