The Junior League of Pittsburgh Inc. was incorporated Oct. 7, 1922, at No. 2340 October Term, 1922, in the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, by Decree of Incorporation as follows:

And now, October 7, A.D. 1922, the within certificate of the incorporation of the Junior League of Pittsburgh, Incorporated, having been presented to me, a Law Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, accompanied by the proofs of publication of the notice of this application as required by law, and by the rules of this Court in such case made and provided, I herely certify that I have perused and examined the said certificate and have found the same to be in proper forum and within the purposes named in the first class of corporations specified in Section 2 of the Act of April 29, 1874, and the several supplements thereto, and it appearing to be lawful and not injurious to the Community, on motion of John D. Brown and Thomas M. Brown, Attorneys for Petitioners, I do hereby approve of said Certificate of Incorporation together with this order, that the subscribers thereto and their associates and successors shall be a corporation by the name and title of The Junior League of Pittsburgh, Incorporated, for the purposes and upon the terms therein stated.

James B. Drew
Judge

The Charter of the Junior League of Pittsburgh, Incorporated, was amended in 1967 to read as follows:

1. The name of the Corporation is the Junior League of Pittsburgh, Incorporated.
2. That the location and post office address of its initial registered office following the Decree approving amendment of the Corporation’s Articles of Incorporation is 308 Frick Building, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219.
3. The purpose or purposes of the corporation are: to foster interest among its members in the social, economic, education, cultural and civic conditions of the community and to make efficient their volunteer service.
4. The Corporation does not contemplate pecuniary gain or profit, incidental or otherwise, to its members.
5. The term of its existence is perpetual.
6. The Corporation shall have a Board of Directors of not less than eleven persons.
7. The Corporation shall issue no capital stock.

• 1930s

  1930 – 1932: The League participates in earning monthly funds for milk fund clinics in Pittsburgh.

  1933 – 1934: The League helps to fund talking books for the blind.

  1935 – 1937: The League helps to fund the hospitalization of needy children.

  1938 – 1940: The League begins fundraising for the Vocation Loan Fund that is awarded to the Girl’s Service Club.

  1938: The Children’s Theater, a JLP project, is broadcast on KDKA. The broadcast continued until 1958

• 1940s

  1940s: Children’s Theater added The Children’s Bookshelf, a radio program.

  1940 – 1942 Camera Club is started with annual photo contests

  1943: The Junior League of Pittsburgh membership grows to 363 members.

  1941 – 1945: The League begins to help the newly formed Civilian Defense Volunteer Bureau by training volunteers on how to address postwar needs in the community. Sewing kits were assembled & blood drives organized.

  1949: A recreation program at Woodville State Hospital aided mental patients.

  1948 – 1949: The League, in conjunction with the Carnegie Institute, begins a project to open an Art and Nature shop located in the Carnegie Museum. The League managed the shop and provided volunteer clerks.

• 1950s

  1953: The League started WQED children’s programming, which entailed weekly programs for children.

  1953: The League is instrumental in starting The Juvenile Court Nursery School. The school was staffed by League volunteers.

  1953: The first JLP group membership meeting was held.

  1957: The League helps to start a Traveler’s Aid booth at the Pittsburgh Airport, which provided travel information to travelers.

  1957-1961: The League works on the Old Economy Village restoration project.

  1958: The League has their first Golden Age Hobby Show, a craft show for senior citizens.

  1959: The League hosts their first Ball at Carnegie Institute. Approximately 1,000 people were in attendance.

• 1960s

  1960: The Junior League moves the Thrift Shop from 5427 Penn Ave to the more spacious next door space at 5429 Penn Avenue.

  1961: A marionette production featuring JLP members was broadcasted on national television.

  1960 – 1964: The League started a cooking school at the Juvenile Court of Pittsburgh.

  1962 – 1963: The League helped to form the Pioneer School for Handicapped Children.

  1964 – 1965: The JLP co-founded the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Members were docents at various landmarks and historical sites around the city.

  1965 – 1969: The League made a commitment to the Board of Education that they would visit 89 elementary classrooms around the city to lecture about the history of Pittsburgh. The League, in conjunction with the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, named this program “Allegheny Adventures.” Tapes of the lectures are still available at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in Oakland.

  1967: The League created and published, Explore, a traveling book of Pittsburgh.

  1969: The Junior League Thrift Shop moves to 4707 Liberty Ave.

• 1970s

  972 – 1973: Tourist Information Center opens at the Old North Side Post Office. A decade later it is The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
  1973 – 1976: The League started Vintage Inc., a senior center and adult day care center.
  1975: The first Show House was held at Beatty Hall on the Chatham College campus.
  1975: The first JLP cookbook is published, Before and After Thoughts.

  1976 – 1979: Lay Person CPR was a project

  1977: All new members are now required to complete two training courses – Association Management Process (AMP) and Synergistics and Leadership Training (SALT).

  1978: Created and published Pittsburgh Ethnic Churches Guide.

  1979: The League works with adoptive parents and professionals to start the Three Rivers Adoption Council. This was a two year project aimed at establishing a central information exchange for agencies and individuals to expedite the matching of approved adoptive parents and available children.

  1979: The League helps to create the Pittsburgh Guidebook for the Handicapped.

  1979: The League begins the Better Business Bureau Tel-Tips project, a two year project that created a new service to get fast, authoritative information from the Better Business Bureau.

• 1980s

  1980: The League began plans for the development of The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. The actual opening was fall of 1981.

  1982 – 1983: The League helped to staff Bright Beginnings Warm Line, a parental stress center to help prevent the occurrence of child abuse.

  1983: The League assisted Pittsburgh City Council with bringing the US Figure Skating Championships to the Civic Arena.

  1984: 244 North Bellefield Ave in Oakland was purchased as the new League head quarters. The League rented space in the building for meetings, banquets, and special events.

  1985: The League helps to start Second Chance, a nonprofit kinship foster care agency.

  1986: The League and the transplant center at the University of Pittsburgh spearheaded a task force that determined that Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO) could best serve more people through an international, independent parent organization with local chapters worldwide. To achieve this goal, in 1987, TRIO was incorporated as a nonprofit organization. The original group of TRIO members became the Pittsburgh chapter, the founding chapter of TRIO.

  1987: The League started Teen Outreach programs to help combat teenage pregnancy and drop out among high school students.

  1987 – 1988: The League participated with the United Way project, BoardWALK, which helped to identify, recruit, and connect volunteers to leadership and policy making positions in nonprofit organizations.

  1989 – 1990: The League cosponsored Shakespeare Saved, a cultural literacy program.

  1989 – 1990: The League sponsored Woman to Woman, an alcohol abuse and awareness program.

• 1990s

  1990: The League elected their first African American president, Thelma Lovette Morris.

  1990: A community awareness program, “Don’t Wait to Vaccinate”, was sponsored by the League.

  1991 – 1996: The League cosponsored the North Hills Affordable Housing program, which helped homeless women and children transition to housing.

  1994 – 1995: The League volunteered with the Pittsburgh AIDS taskforce.

  1994 – 1996: The League supported the Free Wheelers program, which assisted with field trips for disabled populations.

  1994 – 1997: The League partners with Family Resources, an organization dedicated to preventing child abuse.

  1995 – 1998: In conjunction with other community organizations, The League helps to establish the Center for Grieving Children. This organization later becomes the Highmark Caring Place.

  1997 – 1998: The League volunteers with the Hunger Services Network, to combat hunger in the city.

  1998 – 2000: The League, in conjunction with the National Council of Jewish Women, began the Silent Witness Initiative, a domestic violence awareness program.

• 2000s

  2001 – 2003: The League helped to fund the building of The Backyard of The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, an outdoor play space.

  2002 – 2005: The League brings the Everybody Wins! Program, a lunchtime literacy and mentoring program, to Pittsburgh. The League participates by providing volunteer reading mentors, called Reading Buddies, in various Pittsburgh Public Elementary Schools.

  2004: The League announces the piloting of a program for at-risk teenagers entitled the Providence Teen Program. The program provided developmental, social and recreational activities for youths ages 12-16 in the Marshall-Shadeland (North Side) and surrounding neighborhoods. The Providence Center utilized the knowledge and expertise of eight Junior League volunteers as the program was developed and refined.

  2004: Safety Kids Camp, a summer camp program for children in grades 1 through 5, was chosen as another community project. The program taught children how to protect themselves from abduction, abuse, victimization, and accidents by addressing issues such as lures, home-alone skills, emergency situations, weapons, drugs, bullying, conflicts fires and bike safety. Junior League volunteers assisted in the areas of session planning and camp operation. Additionally, League volunteers were trained in the “Be a Safety Kid” curriculum to teach camp lessons.

  2006 – 2009: The Junior League of Pittsburgh and KaBOOM! join forces to give children in Allegheny County safe, fun and fitness-oriented places to play while at the same time developing communities and neighborhood spaces.

  2006: The League partners with the Hill House Association (Hill House) to present Kids in the Kitchen, an annual program based on a nutritional initiative founded by the Association of the Junior Leagues International (AJLI). The League continues to hold annual Kids in the Kitchen events.

  2007: The first annual Touch-a-Truck event, a new annual fundraiser for the League, was held in the Strip District.

  2008: The League hosts their first annual American Girl Fashion Show at the Pittsburgh Field Club.

  2009: The League partners with Strong Women Strong Girls (SWSG), a nonprofit organization that promotes self-esteem and leadership development in women, as the League’s “Signature Project”.

• 2010s

  2009 – 2012: For three years, League members worked closely with Strong Women Strong Girls staff and volunteered to mentor both college women as well as the young girls, and helped to provide infrastructure as the organization grew, both in number as well as service offerings.

  2010 – 2015: The League partners with Huggies Every Little Bottom, a campaign to create awareness about mothers who are in diaper need, to raise funds for a new Diaper Bank at the Greater Food Bank of Pittsburgh.

  2012 – 2015: The League chooses is a founding partner of iQ Kids Radio, an innovative new media collaboration between WQED Multimedia and Saturday Light Brigade Radio Productions to develop commercial-free 24/7 Internet streaming radio for families with children ages birth to 12.

  2016  – Present: The Junior League of Pittsburgh is working towards securing food access for households living below the poverty line in the East End of Pittsburgh.  Click here to find out more!

• 2020s

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