Charles Howard Kline (December 25, 1870 – July 22, 1933) served as the 47th
Mayor of Pittsburgh from 1926 to 1933.
Early life
Charles H. Kline was born in 1870 in
Indiana County, Pennsylvania
Indiana County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the west central part of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,246. Its county seat is Indiana. Indiana County comprises the Indiana, PA Mic ...
. He attended the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and became a lawyer in 1898. He married Katherine Whitesell Johnson in 1900.
Kline was elected to the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts.
It ...
in 1904, and to the
State Senate in 1907. He served three terms in the latter, and was the
President pro tempore
A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...
during the 1915 session.
[ He was a judge in state courts from 1919 to 1925, and was elected Mayor of Pittsburgh in 1926.][
]
Pittsburgh politics
During Kline's administration the city was plunged into the national Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Despite these newfound hardships, Pittsburgh's corporate community continued to expand, adding several new skyscrapers to the region's horizon. Among these were the Gulf Oil Tower, Grant Building, and Koppers Tower. Kline is, to date, the last Republican to be elected Mayor of Pittsburgh.
Mayor Kline expanded the city's borders annexing the neighborhood of Carrick to the city's tax rolls. His administration ended on a bad note however, Kline was forced to fight charges of malfeasance and political wrongdoing regarding the purchase of an oriental rug.
He was indicted on 48 counts of malfeasance, and on conviction in 1932 ordered to resign and sentenced to six months imprisonment. He died at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh on July 22, 1933.
See also
* Eliza Kennedy Smith
Eliza Kennedy Smith (December 11, 1889 – October 23, 1964), also known as Mrs. R. Templeton Smith, was a 20th-century American suffragist, civic activist, and government reformer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Upon her death in 1964, ''The Pitts ...
* List of mayors of Pittsburgh
References
External links
1933 news article on Mayor Kline
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kline, Charles H.
1870 births
1933 deaths
Mayors of Pittsburgh
Republican Party Pennsylvania state senators
Republican Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
People from Indiana County, Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Lawyers from Pittsburgh
Burials at Allegheny Cemetery
Pennsylvania politicians convicted of crimes