[Vigilanteman]

For those of you not from the 'burgh, a "Pittsbugh toilet" as noted in this article is a seemingly random johnny flusher in the basement not walled off for privacy.

Legend has it that they we installed, often with a nearby shower, so the man of the house could come home from a day at the mills or mines and clean up before heading upstairs.

My house has such an installation from the day it was built in the late 1960s but has since been given a measure of privacy with a makeshift wall.

Any other parts of the country familiar with this charming tradition?

[alternatives?]

I hate painted brick on the fireplace.

[Eagles6]

Yep, that is the purpose.

[dynachrome]

He was an excellent writer. Mysteries in a dying industrial town with hunkies,polacks, wops and “Iron City Steve”, the town drunk.

This is the first one I read by him.

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Liked-Slow-Tomatoes/dp/1567921922/ref=d_pd_sbs_sccl_2_1/131-9553146-0889929?pd_rd_w=pqAUH&content-id=amzn1.sym.979276af-0315-48f7-920c-ae1ddfce33e2&pf_rd_p=979276af-0315-48f7-920c-ae1ddfce33e2&pf_rd_r=B3XKFCQQNJJZB1Q1353F&pd_rd_wg=NbTkO&pd_rd_r=dd944dc5-8916-4cb2-a1d7-e22afdb504b0&pd_rd_i=1567921922&psc=1

[TChad]

I read and enjoyed a bunch of his Mario Balzic novels. Apparently his final novel, "Another Day's Pain," will be published soon.

If he had it do again, I wonder if he would be quite so concerned with maintaining his anonymity.

[Tired of Taxes]

Oh, is that what it’s called? Ours was walled-off, too.

[Carriage Hill]

Ping...

[sneakers]

We live in a coal mine patch town not too far from Greensburg. Our house is a 200 year old farmhouse that was later occupied by the mine foreman. We did not have a Pittsburgh toilet in our basement - other houses around us did - but we did have a sink in an odd place at the top of our basement stairs. We figured it was for the foreman to get cleaned up before entering the main house.
Also, my son lives in South Greensburg - about four miles from the Kosak home.