Pittway Corporation was a diversified holding company best known as a manufacturer and distributor of professional fire and burglar alarms.
The company was originally known as Pittsburgh Railways and operated the streetcar system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The biggest shareholder for several years was Standard Shares, an investment company.
In 1962, Neison Harris became president. His brother, Irving B. Harris, also played a significant part in the company.
The company acquired G. Barr & Co., a manufacturer of aerosol cans, in 1962, and bought Alarm Device Manufacturing Company (Ademco) in 1963. Its streetcar system was acquired by the Port Authority of Allegheny County in 1964, for which it received proceeds of $16,558,000 and significant tax losses.
It relocated its headquarters to Chicago. In 1967, the company was renamed to Pittway Corporation. Later, Pittway became best known as a manufacturer and distributor of the First Alert brand of home smoke alarms, professional fire and burglar alarms, and other security systems, and as a real estate firm. On February 3, 2000, Pittway was acquired by Honeywell.