The Strip District’s Senator John Heinz History Center — the largest history museum in Pennsylvania — is now in the process of getting even bigger. Officials broke ground Thursday on a massive new expansion that sports sterling new features aimed at carrying the museum into the future.
The moment comes 22 years after the museum’s last major expansion, 10 years since the idea was birthed and a little more than a year after Pittsburgh’s planning commission approved tearing down four of the history center’s auxiliary buildings on Penn Avenue. The cleared space is the site of the now in-progress $80 million, six-story, 92,000 square-foot addition.
Upon expected completion in 2028, the new piece to the 1898-built building the museum began occupying in 1996 will bolster its offerings with new features that are set to include a modern theater with capacity to seat 150, permanent and rotating exhibition and event spaces, an extended great hall with a new cafe, smart classrooms “wired for kids who are born digital,” learning labs, an 8,500 square foot outdoor terrace on the fourth floor and a welcome center.
“You see those big arches behind me? This was once the Chautauqua Lake Ice Company warehouse,” began Heinz History Center President and CEO Andy Masich from within a room still rife with tastefully incorporated trappings of Pittsburgh’s industrial past. “One hundred years ago, they would cut ice on the northern lakes and railroad it to Pittsburgh, right through that chamfered corner there where the trolley is. They disgorged tons of ice that was used in people’s ice boxes here in Pittsburgh.
“It’s perfect as a museum. It’s a big refrigerator that houses our past and and keeps it for future generations. But it’s not big enough anymore.”
The expansion — being built to accommodate what Masich calls “a flood of visitors” — will eventually play host include an interactive exhibition on the life and legacy of Pittsburgher Fred Rogers, of “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” fame, and others titled Three Rivers and Innovation and History.
It will also house the center’s newly established Museum of African American History to include pieces from existing African American History program, see updates to the Franco Harris Sports Museum and the expansion of galleries hosting collections from the Italian American Program and the Rauh Jewish Archives.
The history center became an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in 2000.
“It’s never been more important for Americans to have a grounding in their history,” Masich said. “How did we get here? Why are we the way we are? And here at the History Center, our mission is to help people make good decisions in the present and plans for the future based on a foundation of knowledge.”
Outdoors, a plaza will be constructed at 13th Street and Penn Avenue to showcase large-scale pieces of Pittsburgh’s past, like the museum’s giant Civil War-era Rodman cannon cast in 1864.
“Penn Avenue will be a cultural corridor from the Strip District all the way to Point State Park, with a stop off at the Arts Landing in the Cultural District. So Penn Avenue will be activated like never before, and the History Center is sort of the connector, the hyphen, the link between the Strip District and the Cultural District.”
In June 2025, philanthropists Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin donated $11.5 million in an effort to offer year-round free admission to children age 17 and under and those attending with school groups by the fall of 2025. (A portion of that funding was also went toward expansion.)
According to Masich, since making that move, the museum has seen a 50% uptick and youth visitors and a 10% percent increase in adult visitors.
Leadership hopes the removed barrier to entry will bring in more kids like native Pittsburgher turned Westmoreland County resident Kami Marcus, 22, who was strolling by outside the ceremony when she paused to reminisce about many memories made at the museum.
“I grew up coming to the Heinz History Center, and I’ve gotten to see a lot of the different changes over the years. So seeing an addition to something like this that is really cool,” said Marcus. “It gives me a lot of hope that people are actually looking at our history and being able to see ‘Oh, this is where we came from. This is what we want to pursue. This is giving us hope for the future and hope for what future generations will bring.’ ”
She remembered spending hours at the museum during field trips in her elementary and middle school years, but it was an abstract feeling rather than one specific exhibit that still stood out in her memory years later.
“Just being able to run around with my friends, and having such an openness within the Heinz History Center, to be able to explore on my own accord and not be hounded by people saying ‘Don’t touch that! Don’t touch that!’ Being able to explore and learn more about Pittsburgh in my own way as I grew up — that was something I really appreciated.”
In recent years, the museum has seen around 300,000 in attendance annually.
On Thursday the museum — named USA Today’s No. 1 History Museum in the U.S. three years running — also kicked off a capital campaign for the project already funded to the tune of 70% of its $80 million goal in part by entities like The Grable Foundation, Heinz Endowments, The Heinz Family Foundation and others.
“I think that this is a museum of people. It’s a museum of the people, by the people and for the people,” said Masich. “We tell the stories of people to inspire those upcoming generations. And this is something that Pittsburgh deserves, because Western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, it’s the essential American city. David McCullough, a native son here, always said, ‘Andy, Pittsburgh is the essential American city. If you can understand Pittsburgh, you can understand the American experience.’ ”
To donate and for more information, visit heinzhistorycenter.org/historyforall.