George Westinghouse, who moved to Pittsburgh in 1846, was an innovative inventor, creating the airbrake for trains, new uses of electricity, compressed air shock absorbers for cars and early natural gas technology; a talented businessman, founding the quickly successful company that bears his name; and an owner who treated his employees well for the time. He also drilled one of the first natural gas wells in 1884, and later added more, on his estate he had named Solitude.

That estate — where almost all the work we’ve just described was done — is now Westinghouse Park in Point Breeze North, and City Council will soon have the chance to approve it as a historic landmark.

Solitude was razed in 1919, five years after Westinghouse’s death, as he had requested. He gave the 10-acre tract to t

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