GoFish! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2001. This brightly-colored rainbow fish is the reason I discovered 2025 that the Splash Lagoon fish and frogs were on display outside the paywall barrier. It caught my eye while waiting my turn at a very long light. I suspect that it is one of the ones that has been redecorated over the original design as the way the paint is chipping is different than how the original patterns age and I cannot find a match for it in “GoFish! The Offishial Tale.”
On the highest point in Mt. Oliver, the former St. Joseph Catholic Church towers above its surroundings. Its silhouette catches the eye from the surrounding neighborhoods. A woman who lives across the street stopped to chat as I was taking photographs. She mentioned that her parents were married at St. James and pointed out the plinth where the statue of St. Joseph stood until the Catholic Church removed it when they suppressed the church. She also shared stopping by an event recently held in the parish house that sounded suspiciously like an unauthorized rave and that was not her cup of tea.
Mt. Oliver neighborhood has always intrigued me. It is immediately east of Mt. Oliver Borough, the only municipality left that is completely surrounded by the City of Pittsburgh. The Borough residents soundly defeated the ballet measure to be annexed in 1928. However, the built environment is seamlessly connected between the Borough and the City. The Borough’s main commercial street runs along the boundary, the east side being the Borough and the west side the City.
I had always assumed that Pittsburgh’s Mt. Oliver neighborhood was a portion of the Borough that had agreed to be annexed. That appears to not be the case.
Mt. Oliver neighborhood was annexed to the City in 1923 as part of St. Clair Borough, which comprised the present day neighborhoods of Mt. Oliver, St. Clair, Arlington, and Arlington Heights. Today’s St. Clair neighborhood was largely undeveloped in 1916 and still comprised large land holdings. At that time, today’s Mt. Oliver neighborhood was largely platted with the lots we see today and some houses had been built. Based on the 1916 map and the diversity of style of house, it seems there was no coordinated development of housing in the Mt. Oliver neighborhood. Next door, in St. Clair neighborhood, was a different story. In 1953, the St. Clair Village housing project opened and the boundaries of the St. Clair neighborhood were drawn to encompass just that housing project. Perhaps, the Mt. Oliver neighborhood was named at that time to distinguish it from the St. Clair Village/neighborhood. Perhaps, the Mt. Oliver neighborhood was so named to put pressure on Mt. Oliver Borough to agree to annexation.
However it got its name, Mt. Oliver neighborhood probably remained influenced by its long ties to St. Clair, whether the Borough or the neighborhood. The common story of a mid-century housing project falling into disrepair due to lack of maintenance over the years and the residents abandoning the deteriorating site is the story of St. Clair Village. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church was rebuilt in 1953 after a fire destroyed the prior building, but then was closed in 1994, maybe in part due to the loss of population at the nearby St. Clair Village.
The map below shows the locations of the 1 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Mt. Oliver (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
The table below matches the 1 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
| 1926 Congregation Name | By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is: |
| St. Joseph Catholic Church | replaced with a new building, now vacant |
For more on this series, visit our introductory post.
Sources:
Brookline Connection. St. Clair Village Housing Project (1951-2010). https://www.brooklineconnection.com/history/Locations/StClairVillage.html
Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. Saint Joseph, Mount Oliver. https://diopitt.org/saint-joseph-mount-oliver
G. M. Hopkins. Plate 32: Baldwin, Carrick, Hays, Arlington. 1916. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt:16v06p32
Pittsburgh City Council. Municipal Record, 1923. Page 32. https://archive.org/details/Pghmunicipalrecord1923/page/n153/mode/2up?q=annexation
Pittsburgh City Council. Municipal Record, 1928. Pages 1116-1117. https://archive.org/details/Pghmunicipalrecord1928/page/1115/mode/2up?q=oliver
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. Census: Pittsburgh. January 2006.
Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance. An Atlas of the St. Clair Village and Mt. Oliver Neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, 1977. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735070288059/viewer#page/1/mode/1up
Polk’s Pittsburgh City Directory, 1926. Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk & Co. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056286846/viewer#page/4/mode/1up
East Allegheny is a neighborhood cut in half. The middle section of the neighborhood, along with a significant portion of its southern parts, was erased for the sake of some highways and their interchanges in the 1960s-1980s. The project was still in its early stages in 1970, at which time the city estimated that 358 families, 383 individuals, and 184 businesses would need to be relocated to execute the planned “renewal.”
Except for where the highways now sit, the remainder of the neighborhood seems largely intact, at least as far as the buildings are concerned. It is a dense neighborhood. Houses and commercial spaces sit shoulder to shoulder directly against the sidewalks. Those closest to East Park in Allegheny Center are largest, more frequently built with brick or stone and featuring architectural embellishments. Moving eastward, the buildings are more plain and more frequently built with wood and covered in siding. The dividing line of the freeway brings that change into stark contrast.
In 1926, there were 16 congregations listed in the Polk Directory. They were concentrated in the west and central parts of the neighborhood. While many of their buildings still stand, nearly half were victims of the freeway. The remaining neighborhood provided context clues to approximate where they were once located.
The map below shows the locations of the 16 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for East Allegheny (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
The table below matches the 16 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
| 1926 Congregation Name | By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is: |
| Avery Mission African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church | replaced with a parking lot/freeway |
| Bethel Israel Synagogue | replaced with a parking lot |
| Eighth Spiritualists | replaced with a freeway |
| First Spiritualists | mixed-use building still stands, nonsecular uses |
| Madison Avenue Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church | converted to community arts center |
| Mt. Hope Spiritualists | mixed-use building still stands, nonsecular uses |
| Providence Presbyterian Church | replaced with a freeway |
| Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church | replaced with a freeway |
| St. Emmanuel (Slovak) Evangelical Lutheran Church | vacant |
| St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church | replaced with a freeway |
| St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church | converted to unknown secular use |
| St. Mary’s (German) Catholic Church | converted to rental hall/catering |
| St. Matthew’s (German) Evangelical Lutheran Church | converted to youth service use |
| St. Paul’s German Evangelical Church | replaced with a freeway |
| St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church | converted to housing |
| Tenth United Presbyterian Church | changed to a different religious institution |
For more on this series, visit our introductory post.
Sources:
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. A Development and Renewal Program for Pittsburgh, Summary Documentation, Pittsburgh Community Renewal Program. Pittsburgh, 1970. https://pittsburgharchives.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d1f07da0-9303-4aee-a162-04c83a0eaaa0/
Polk’s Pittsburgh City Directory, 1926. Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk & Co. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056286846/viewer#page/4/mode/1up
Central Oakland is an eclectic neighborhood. Single-family detached and attached homes, many subdivided into apartments, are mixed with vacant lots and buildings and apartment buildings from 100+ years ago, 50 years ago, and recent decades. Some buildings have first floor or basement commercial uses. Many come right up to the sidewalk, others are set far enough back to pull a car fully off the sidewalk, and some are far enough back to have a modest grass front yard.
Overshadowed by the University of Pittsburgh and multiple UPMC hospital complexes, the neighborhood is a popular off-campus housing choice for students, often to the chagrin of the long-term homeowners in the neighborhood. The large volume of temporary residents (students) may be a contributing factor for why all four of the sites listed under “churches” in the 1926 city directory are no longer used for religious purposes.
The map below shows the locations of the 4 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Central Oakland (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
The table below matches the 4 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
| 1926 Congregation Name | By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is: |
| Holy Spirit Greek Catholic Church | converted to a music venue |
| Oakland Baptist Church | replaced with a community building |
| Oakland Methodist Episcopal Church | replaced with Pitt Law School building |
| St. Mary Memorial Episcopal Church | converted to a school, but may be closed |
For more on this series, visit our introductory post.
Sources:
Polk’s Pittsburgh City Directory, 1926. Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk & Co. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056286846/viewer#page/4/mode/1up
Brookline is a neighborhood that grew rapidly with advances in transportation technology and routes. The Mt. Washington Transit Tunnel (1904) provided efficient street car access between the southern neighborhoods and downtown Pittsburgh while the Liberty Tunnels (1924) provided efficient automobile access. A steep climb up a wide curve at one end of the neighborhood follows the old street car route up to the main business district on Brookline Blvd. Other steep, but straighter, climbs provide multiple access points from the valleys on the east and west to the expansive residential neighborhoods.
The earliest residential booms grew out from the street car line and business district and the automobile access along the Pioneer Avenue ridge in a mostly grid-like pattern. Later, a post-WWII residential boom created additional residential sections with the curvilinear roads and cul-de-sacs popular in that suburban-centric time period, but perhaps also more compatible than a grid to the topographic variety of these areas.
Urban renewal brushed over this neighborhood, but only for the development and expansion of two parks in largely undeveloped parts of the neighborhood. In 1970, the Department of City Planning estimated that at most 7 families would need to be relocated for one of the parks.
Since then, Brookline has remained relatively stable, with significantly less vacancy than the City’s average. Six of the seven religious sites remain active for religious worship, although only two of those are still the same congregations as in 1926.
The map below shows the locations of the 7 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Brookline (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
The table below matches the 7 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
| 1926 Congregation Name | By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is: |
| Brookline Methodist Episcopal Church | changed to a different religious institution |
| Brookline United Presbyterian Church | changed to a different religious institution |
| Church of the Advent | still Church of the Advent |
| Grace Lutheran Evangelical Church | changed to a different religious institution |
| Paul Presbyterian Church | changed to a different religious institution |
| Resurrection Catholic Church | still Resurrection Catholic Church |
| St. Mark’s Lutheran Evangelical Church | converted to residential use |
For more on this series, visit our introductory post.
Sources:
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. A Development and Renewal Program for Pittsburgh, Summary Documentation, Pittsburgh Community Renewal Program. Pittsburgh, 1970. https://pittsburgharchives.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d1f07da0-9303-4aee-a162-04c83a0eaaa0/
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. Geodetic and Topographic Survey. Sheet 62. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A015e1927/viewer
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. PGHSnap. City of Pittsburgh. 2011.
Polk’s Pittsburgh City Directory, 1926. Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk & Co. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056286846/viewer#page/4/mode/1up
GoFish! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2001. “Stained Glass Bass” by Ed Grout & Creators from the Black Lagoon was one of the fish I caught at Splash Lagoon summer 2025.
“Bluff” is the name used on the official map of city-designated neighborhoods, but the local community organization calls it “Uptown” and the city used “Uptown” for the special zoning districts inspired by the EcoInnovation District Plan for “Uptown/West Oakland.”
Both names are descriptive of different aspects of the neighborhood. Located upriver from downtown Pittsburgh, “Uptown” is a logical (and attractive) name. On the other hand, near the southern border of the neighborhood, Bluff Street blends into Blvd of the Allies. Both streets line the edge of a sheer cliff and provide sweeping vistas across and down the Monongahela River to South Side Flats and Slopes neighborhoods and beyond.
Uptown suggests a dense and vibrant community, while Bluff suggests a steep, potentially tough, sparsely populated area. Between Bluff Street and Fifth Avenue, Uptown/Bluff is a densely developed neighborhood. Between Bluff Street and the Monongahela River, Uptown/Bluff is currently predominately freeways and parking lots where there used to be numerous railroad lines, rail yards, and a handful of small industries.
While Uptown/Bluff was densely built out in 1926, the neighborhood has experienced disjointed investment and disinvestment in the decades since.
The Bluff Street Urban Renewal project was investment for the expansion of Duquesne University. As of 1970, the city relocated 219 families, 252 individuals, and 101 businesses for this expansion, and had 288 new units of housing under construction. Another 5 families, 200 individuals, and 9 businesses were expected to be displaced before the end of the project. Another investment was planned for a different institution’s expansion. The Mercy Hospital Expansion Urban Renewal project was proposed to cover 20 acres, but no projections were provided in the 1970 report for any displacement in this dense neighborhood.
Decades of disinvestment are apparent in the number of vacant lots and vacant buildings. Many lots had been bought up and converted into surface parking lots, something the EcoInnovation Plan and subsequent zoning districts strongly curtail.
In the last 10 years, reinvestment in the neighborhood has grown significantly, shifting from small efforts of individuals who purchased homes and restored them to large developers filling in new, large, multi-story buildings. UPMC Mercy and Duquesne University also continue to expand and build large new institutional buildings in the neighborhood. The neighborhood’s infrastructure is also seeing investment now as Forbes and Fifth Avenues have been undergoing a multi-year reconstruction to support a future bus rapid transit line through the neighborhood.
What these patterns have in common is change. The religious sites from the 1926 directory reflect that change as none of them are what they were 100 years ago, except for the hospital chapel.
The map below shows the locations for 9 of the 10 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for the Bluff (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary). I’m intentionally leaving out the Mercy Hospital Chapel as a religious center that doesn’t fit the typology of what I’m studying. There are only 7 pins because some congregations appear to have shared buildings.
The table below matches the 10 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
| 1926 Congregation Name | By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is: |
| Central Presbyterian Church | being redeveloped into housing |
| Corinthian Baptist Church | vacant |
| Eighth United Presbyterian Church | replaced with a parking lot |
| First Pentecostal Church | location unclear, may be a parking lot |
| Jesus Saves Mission | replaced with a parking garage for a Catholic university |
| Mercy Hospital Chapel (no photo) | still Mercy Hospital Chapel |
| Russian Mission | being redeveloped into housing |
| Second Methodist Protestant | replaced with a commercial building that is now used by a religious institution |
| Second St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran (Missouri) Church | converted to a religion-based community service organization |
| St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church | replaced with a parking lot |
For more on this series, visit our introductory post.
Sources:
G. M. Hopkins & Co. Bluff. Plate 14. 1914. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt:20090804-hopkins-0016
G. M. Hopkins & Co. Central Business District, Bluff. Plate 8. 1914. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt:20090804-hopkins-0010
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. A Development and Renewal Program for Pittsburgh, Summary Documentation, Pittsburgh Community Renewal Program. Pittsburgh, 1970. https://pittsburgharchives.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d1f07da0-9303-4aee-a162-04c83a0eaaa0/
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. EcoInnovation District: Uptown/West Oakland. September 2017. https://www.pittsburghpa.gov/files/assets/city/v/1/dcp/documents/3494_ecoinnovation_plan.pdf
Polk’s Pittsburgh City Directory, 1926. Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk & Co. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056286846/viewer#page/4/mode/1up
The boundaries of Bloomfield are defined differently depending on who you’re talking to. This may be partially attributed to the two distinct patterns of residential development found within the city’s official boundary of the neighborhood. Much of the residential portion of Bloomfield, and the part I always picture when someone says they live in Bloomfield, is filled with small homes perched shoulder-to-shoulder at the sidewalk’s edge. The rest of the residential portion of Bloomfield features larger homes with modest front and rear lawns. The Liberty Avenue commercial corridor cuts through the middle of the neighborhood. Vacancy is low for both the residential and commercial properties.
While vacancy is low and most of the buildings present 100 years ago remain standing, Bloomfield still experienced change in that time. This is most clearly illustrated by its religious sites. Some remain religious site, though not for the congregations that worshipped there in 1926. Others have been converted to new uses. Several have been demolished. Three sites closed in the last two decades; two of which experienced strong contention between the former congregants and the religious entity owners over the fates of the buildings. One was demolished (not what the former congregants wanted) and the other was sold to a developer who restored it for secular uses (the former congregants’ preferred outcome).
The map below shows the locations of the 15 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Bloomfield (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
The table below matches the 15 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
| 1926 Congregation Name | By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is: |
| Christ Methodist Episcopal Church | now First United Methodist Church |
| First Evangelical Lutheran Church | converted to a secular use, may be vacant |
| Fourth United Presbyterian Church | converted to a faith-based community service use |
| Friendship Park Methodist Episcopal Church | replaced with a hospital building |
| Gospel Hall Mission | converted to a secular use |
| Gustavus Adolphus Evangelical Lutheran Church | now Evaline Lutheran Church |
| Holy Calvary Mission | converted to a secular use, possibly abandoned |
| Immaculate Conception Catholic Church | demolished |
| Luther Memorial Evangelical Lutheran Church | replaced with new building, now the East End Assembly of God |
| Mt. Olive Baptist Church | demolished |
| Olivet Mission | demolished |
| Shadyside United Presbyterian Church | replaced with a drive-thru restaurant |
| St. John’s (German) Evangelical Lutheran Church | converted to residential |
| St. Joseph’s (German) Catholic Church | vacant |
| St. Luke’s Episcopal Church | replaced with a parking lot |
For more on this series, visit our introductory post.
Sources:
Polk’s Pittsburgh City Directory, 1926. Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk & Co. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056286846/viewer#page/4/mode/1up
Beltzhoover is a neighborhood I am interested in learning more about. It usually doesn’t come up in the discourse around the intentional disinvestment and destruction of the buildings in Pittsburgh’s majority-minority neighborhoods. While it was not targeted with the traditional block-scale demolition and redevelopment of Urban Renewal, it was designated as an area needing “restoration” under the City’s Neighborhood Improvement Program in 1966 to “hold and stabilize declining area.”
Since that time, Beltzhoover has seen significantly more lot-by-lot disinvestment and demolition than the surrounding neighborhoods that have higher percentages of white residents. In 2010, Beltzhoover’s population was 83% Black, while it’s northeastern neighbor, Allentown, was 35% Black and it’s southeastern neighbor, Knoxville, was 52% Black.1 Between 1974 and 2010, Beltzhoover lost approximately 700 housing units while Allentown and Knoxville each lost only about 200 units.
Walking the streets, the lines between these three neighborhoods are not apparent except that once you get into Beltzhoover, the exponentially higher number of vacant lots is very noticeable. Given the high rate of demolition in this neighborhood, it is interesting to note that only 1 of the 6 religious sites from 1926 is no longer actively used for religious purposes. However, two of these buildings indicate a different kind of story than the other neighborhoods we’ve visited in this series so far. The bunker-like appearance of the buildings on the sites of the former Montooth Methodist Episcopal Church and South Hills Baptist Church suggests perseverance in the face of financial struggles or social struggles or both. The recent renovations to McKinley Park and the strong blocks of housing edging the park also tell a story of community perseverance and success.
The map below shows the locations of the 6 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Beltzhoover (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
The table below matches the 6 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
| 1926 Congregation Name | By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is: |
| Belulah Baptist Church | new Belulah Baptist Church |
| Church of Christ | demolished |
| McKinley Park Presbyterian Church | changed to a different religious institution |
| Montooth Methodist Episcopal Church | unclear, a different religious institution now uses the site |
| South Hills Baptist Church | unclear, a different religious institution now uses the site |
| St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church | changed to a different religious institution |
For more on this series, visit our introductory post.
Sources:
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. A Development and Renewal Program for Pittsburgh, Summary Documentation, Pittsburgh Community Renewal Program. Pittsburgh, 1970. https://pittsburgharchives.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d1f07da0-9303-4aee-a162-04c83a0eaaa0/
Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance. An Atlas of the Allentown Neighborhood of Pittsburgh, 1977. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735070288703/viewer#page/1/mode/1up
Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance. An Atlas of the Beltzhoover Neighborhood of Pittsburgh, 1977. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735070288679/viewer#page/1/mode/2up
Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance. An Atlas of the Knoxville Neighborhood of Pittsburgh, 1977. https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735070288976/viewer#page/1/mode/1up
Pittsburgh Department of City Planning. Planning Commission Minutes 1966. City of Pittsburgh. (page 363) https://pittsburgharchives.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_48290996-fb3f-41b9-8873-1189a3642972/
Pittsburgh Department of City planning. PGHSnap. City of Pittsburgh. 2011.
Polk’s Pittsburgh City Directory, 1926. Pittsburgh: R. L. Polk & Co. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735056286846/viewer#page/4/mode/1up
GoFish! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2001. In 2023, Shelly and I took a long weekend in Erie with a goal to find as many fish as we could. We used Amy H.’s FourSquare map to locate probable locations. Several fish were shown as being at Splash Lagoon. I assumed they would be inside the amusement facility and so we did not try to collect photos of them. However, when I went to Erie in Summer 2025 and stayed at a hotel across the street from Splash Lagoon, I found that their fish and frogs were all outside (three fish and one frog, plus one frog at an adjacent business).
“Splash-the-Lagoon-A-Tuna” was designed by artist Dan Byler and sponsored by Scott Enterprises.
urbantraipsing 