East Allegheny Neighborhood

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.

Neighborhood Statistics (Out of 70 in this Series)

• 59th largest by acreage
• 7th highest number of religious sites
• 4th most sites/acre

Locations

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).

What are they now?

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

Photos

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For more on this series, visit our introductory post.

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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