William A. Magee
Encyclopedia
This article is about the mayor of Pittsburgh, for other people named William Magee see William Magee (disambiguation).


William Anderson Magee (1873–1938) was born in Pittsburgh's Hill District
Hill District (Pittsburgh)
The Hill District is a collection of neighborhoods that is considered by many to be the cultural center of African-American life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an American city. Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay once called the district "the crossroads of the world," referring to the...

 neighborhood the site of the present day Mellon Arena
Mellon Arena
Civic Arena is an indoor arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is currently undergoing demolition. It was the first retractable roof major sports venue in the world, covering 170,000 sq. feet and constructed with just shy of 3,000 tons of Pittsburgh steel...

 and the region's hub for African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 culture. Before becoming mayor he gained his reputation by serving as Assistant District Attorney for Allegheny County of which Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

 is the County Seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

. He twice served as Mayor of Pittsburgh, from 1909 to 1914, and again from 1922 to 1926. He was a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate
Pennsylvania State Senate
The Pennsylvania State Senate has been meeting since 1791. It is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such...

 from 1901 to 1904.

Pittsburgh politics

Magee oversaw several developments in the city, the most notable of which were the opening of the first National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

 concrete baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 park Forbes Field
Forbes Field
Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to 1971. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city's National Football League franchise...

 in the city's Oakland
Oakland (Pittsburgh)
Oakland is the academic, cultural, and healthcare center of Pittsburgh and is Pennsylvania's third largest "Downtown". Only Center City Philadelphia and Downtown Pittsburgh can claim more economic and social activity than Oakland...

 neighborhood. To top that achievement the Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...

 won their first World Series
1909 World Series
The 1909 World Series featured the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Detroit Tigers. The Pirates won the Series in seven games to capture their first championship of the modern Major League Baseball era and the second championship in the club's history....

 in their first season in the park.

On policy the Magee administration instituted a motorized police force for the first time in the city. He also oversaw the local institution of the national prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...

 laws during his second term in office. He was the first man to serve the new expanded four year term for the Mayor's office.

Honors

Mayor Magee lives on through both Magee-Women's Hospital and Magee Street in the city, both were named for the family and the Mayor's notable uncle, Christopher Lyman Magee.

Magee also wrote an informative article about what he considered to be the inefficiencies of city government.
http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/magee.htm

While many of the concepts he addresses seem practical and logical, at the time of publication City Governments were run through executive checks and balances, to the point of ineffectiveness. The caution or national 'fear' of a powerful central government and the adoption of the 'checks and balances' system at the National level trickled down to the most local of city governments. Magee addresses this, and states that City Governments should be more centralized and focused in order to be effective.
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