researching a cool old building

if you walk across the Millvale Bridge on your way from North Oakland to Bloomfield, you'll notice a creepy building with lots of security cameras, a fenced in walkway, and very few windows tucked away in the hollow under the bridge. I've heard many speculations about this place - that it housed animal experimentation, secret government groups, and generally shady/scary stuff. Recently, my nebbiness got the best of me and I found a way to google it. The proper address is 720 Gross Street. Most recently, it was a research facility for West Penn Hospital, but it was recently for sale. You can see the real estate listing for it here.



So it's current status isn't that exciting but it's past life is actually pretty awesome. This facility used to house the Three Rivers Computer Corporation. They were there from 1980-1986. They were a branch of the computer science dept. of CMU and helped create some of the earliest computers and software. Even better, looks like they really knew how to party. Here's a link to some really fantastic old photos.