Allegheny Arsenal on Butler Street. In 1814, William Barclay Foster (father of composer Stephen Foster) sold 30 acres of land (between today's 39th and 40th Streets) for $12,000 to the U.S. Government to erect the Arsenal. On September 17, 1862, an explosion struck the Allegheny Arsenal. It killed 78 people (mostly young girls), making it the worst civilian disaster of the American Civil War.
