Union Switch & Signal: The Rowand Rebellion

In 1881, George Westinghouse founded the Union Switch & Signal Company to manufacture equipment which would revolutionize railroad lines around the world. He built the company’s first factory a block along the Allegheny River in what is now downtown Pittsburgh.

Here is an image from the 1882 plat map showing the plant’s location situated along Garrison Alley near the corner of Penn Avenue and Ninth Street.

Union Switch & Signal grew rapidly. Before the end of the decade, Westinghouse was already planning a new factory in the eastern suburb of Swissvale.

Here’s how that site looked in 1890.

But not all was going well. That same year, a orld wide banking crisis put Westinghouse’s ambitious expansion plans in deep jeopardy.

In addition to problems with his recently formed Westinghouse Electric, finances at Union Switch & Signal were compromised.

Sensing Westinghouse’s preoccupations and fiscal fragility, Union Switch & Signal’s Board Secretary, A. T. Rowand decided it was time to stage a palace coup, as noted in this New York Times item on March 11, 1891.

The plot deepened as reported in this Times item on March 12, 1891.

Only one day later, the situation had already started to change, as reported in this item from the Times of March 13, 1891.

The “Rowand rebellion” was quickly put down, as the Times reported on March 14, 1891.

Indeed!

Under Westinghouse’s direction, Union Switch & Signal continued to prosper. Here’s how the Swissvale plant looked in 1914.