Walter Street looking southwest from Climax Street
Allentown Neighborhood
Allentown features a tight grid gently folded over undulating terrain. Densely-packed, modest houses line narrow roads. A resident across from one of the religious sites, who was interested in what I was photographing, shared that her house was built in the 1880s. In those pre-automobile days, residents may have commuted downhill to the industries along the river flats by way of the numerous inclines, one of which used to have a terminus not far from where we were standing and talking.
Three of the jobs I’ve held in my decades of working in Pittsburgh included some element of work in this neighborhood. Much of the neighborhood felt the same as I remembered it from my prior encounters. Long-standing neighborhood restaurants mixed in between vacant storefronts and newer ventures lined the commercial district. Vacant lots and vacant houses sit scattered among the residential blocks. However, I was impressed that some long vacant lots had new infill housing designed for those wanting to age-in-place or people with accessibility needs.
The neighborhood was never targeted for any large-scale Urban Renewal efforts, but individual properties that are vacant, abandoned, or tax delinquent have been demolished from time-to-time. This implies patterns of change, including population loss and disinvestment. The 5 religious sites from 1926 reflect that with each one featuring a unique outcome today: one remains religious, one is now a secular use, one sits vacant, one is a vacant lot, and one is a parking lot.
Neighborhood Statistics (Out of the 70 in this series)
50th largest by acreage
38th highest number of sites (multi-way tie)
18th most sites/acre
Locations
The map below shows the locations of the 5 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Allentown (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
What are they now?
The table below matches the 5 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
1926 Congregation Name
By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is:
Bethlehem Lutheran Evangelical Church
converted to a community center
First Methodist Episcopal Church
demolished
Progressive Spiritualists Church
replaced with a parking lot
St. George (German) Catholic Church
vacant
Trinity Methodist Episcopal
changed to a different religious institution
Photos
First Methodist Episcopal Church site (2026)
former Bethlehem Lutheran Evangelical Church (2026)
Allegheny West is a neighborhood that features a blend of stability and destruction in its built environment.
Allegheny City’s Millionaires Row once occupied this part of town. It is a dense neighborhood, with a mix of uses. While the houses are frequently attached, many have front porches that provide a buffer from the street. Architectural ornamentation is common and the sidewalks are often paved in brick.
Parts of the neighborhood were impacted by “urban renewal.” The southern portion, between Ridge Avenue and the railroads, was designated as a “renewal” area on behalf of the community college. In 1970, the project was just getting started. It was projected that 10 families and 25 individuals would need to be relocated to make way for the community college campus. A few other areas of the neighborhood north of Ridge Avenue have also seen block-scale demolition and redevelopment into parking lots, warehouses, and a fast food restaurant.
One of the buildings from the congregations listed in the 1926 Polk Directory was lost through these smaller demolition/redevelopments. The other two buildings remain intact with the same congregations.
Neighborhood Statistics (Out of 70 in this Series)
68th largest by acreage
45th highest number of sites (multi-way tie)
16th most sites/acre
Locations
The map below shows the locations of the 3 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Allegheny West (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary).
What are they now?
The table below matches the 3 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
Reconstructing a neighborhood that has been almost completely reconfigured is difficult. Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Center neighborhood was once the center of Allegheny City, which was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. In the 1800s and first half on the 1900s, the heart of this bustling city was 36 blocks of dense, walkable, mixed-use activity. Most of the buildings and streets of these blocks were erased in the 1960s and 1970s when the City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority led a major, federally-funded, “urban renewal” project in the neighborhood. Four existing streets were converted into a one-way ring road, while most of the other streets were erased or converted to pedestrian plazas. The buildings were mostly demolished and replaced by parking lots and mid- to high-rise buildings within the ring road and parking lots and housing complexes outside the ring road.
To facilitate this “renewal,” 376 families, 1161 individuals, and 598 businesses were relocated outside the neighborhood by 1970. Unsurprisingly, given the scope and extent of this displacement in the name of renewal, only one of the buildings used by the 22 congregations listed in the 1926 directory survives. What is surprising is that a former parish house survives, which helped locate the former locations of several of the church buildings that used to sit nearby.
Neighborhood Statistics (Out of the 70 in this series)
64th largest by acreage
4th highest number of religious sites
2nd most sites/acre
Locations
The map below shows the locations of the 22 congregations listed in the 1926 directory for Allegheny Center (the dotted line marks the neighborhood boundary). Note that there are only 20 pins because three congregations apparently shared the same space.
What are they now?
The table below matches the 22 congregations listed in the 1926 directory with the current use of the site.
1926 Congregation Name
By 2026 the Congregation’s Building is:
Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church
replaced with a parking lot
Central Presbyterian Church
replaced with a community service building
Central Reformed Presbyterian Church
replaced with a housing complex
Christ Episcopal Church
replaced with a community service building
Church of the Soul
replaced with a parking lot
First Protestant Methodist Church
replaced with a housing complex
First United Presbyterian Church
replaced with a parking lot
First Allegheny Christian Church
replaced with a small scale hospital
First Presbyterian Church of Allegheny
replaced with a housing complex
Fourth United Presbyterian Church
replaced with a park (tennis and basketball courts)
Fourth Spiritualists
replaced with a parking lot
Gospel Tabernacle
replaced with a parking lot
Metropolitan Church Mission
replaced with a parking lot
Ohio Street Episcopal Methodist Church
replaced with a housing complex
Pentecostal Mission
replaced with a apartment building
Sandusky Street Baptist Church
replaced with a parking lot
Second United Presbyterian Church
replaced with a commercial building
Spiritualist Church of Truth
replaced with a housing complex
St. Cyprian Catholic Church
replaced with a housing complex
St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
replaced with a school baseball diamond
St. Peter Catholic Church
still St. Peter Catholic Church
Trinity Lutheran Church
replaced with a commercial building
Photos
Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church site (2026)
Central Presbyterian Church site (2026)
Central Reformed Presbyterian Church site (2026)
Christ Episcopal Church site (2026)
Church of the Soul site shared with two other congregations (2026)
First Allegheny Christian Church site (2026)
First Presbyterian Church of Allegheny site (2026)
First Protestant Methodist Church of Northside site, adjacent to a Spiritualist site (2026)
First United Presbyterian Church site (2026)
Fourth United Presbyterian Church site (2026)
Gospel Tabernacle site (2026)
Ohio Street Methodist Episcopal Church site (2026)
Pentecostal Mission site (2026)
Sandusky Street Baptist Church site (2026)
Second United Presbyterian Church site (2026)
St. Cyprian Catholic Church site (2026)
St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church site (2026)
East Liberty Station Pedestrian Bridge, August 2020, Carolyn RistauSpahr Street Pedestrian Bridge, February 2022, Carolyn Ristau
The winner of the 2024 Bridge Madness tournament, the East Liberty Station Pedestrian Bridge, faced stiff competition in the Final Four round from the Spahr Street Pedestrian Bridge. Both of these bridges are relatively new, constructed with funding sources from the Obama Administration. When I moved to Pittsburgh 15 years ago, neither of these bridges existed. There was no pedestrian connection at Spahr Street and the pedestrian bridges at East Liberty Station were boxed-in bridges with no greenery. (For a side-by-side comparison of the prior and current East Liberty Station bridges see their Then and Now post.) These are not the only changes to bridges in this area. In fact, I suggest that East Liberty has seen more bridge turn-over in the last 100 years than any other part of Pittsburgh.
The Penn Avenue and South Highland Avenue Bridges have stayed fairly constant, at least as far as location is concerned. The South Highland Avenue Bridge was rebuilt and redesigned in the 15 years I’ve lived here. While the Spahr Street Pedestrian Bridge is new, the 1923 G. M. Hopkins map above shows that there used to be a pedestrian bridge at this same location. The historical precedent for a pedestrian bridge here may be another factor for why the bridge was located here and not further east where residents have been asking for a pedestrian bridge for years.
The other major bridge changes in this area are the former Ellsworth Avenue and Shady Avenue Bridges that show on the 1923 G. M. Hopkins map. Both of those are long gone. I assume they were casualties of the massive Urban Renewal of the neighborhood that significantly impacted the street grid of the area. The digital archives of Historic Pittsburgh include photos of these former bridges. The Shady Avenue Bridge seems to have been of a similar design to the former South Highland Avenue Bridge. The Ellsworth Avenue Bridge seems to have been of a similar design to the current South Negley Avenue Bridge that is just outside the map frame to the west. One key difference is that cages were added at some point to the South Highland and South Negley Bridges.
The Lower Hill is a notorious site in Pittsburgh, a scar on the city from the height of Urban Renewal. A vibrant (but poor and predominately Black) neighborhood was demolished in the 1950s so the City could build a cultural mecca centered on a Civic Arena, most of which ended up not being built and was left as parking lots.
Now that the arena has been demolished and replaced adjacent to the former location, the Penguins hockey team has the development rights to rebuild the Lower Hill, stitching back together the fabric of the city and reconnecting the remainder of the Hill District neighborhoods with downtown.
However, grand language describing the wonderful benefits to a city are part and parcel of any major development project, including the 1950’s Urban Renewal of the Lower Hill. Fifty years later, the Urban Renewal of the Lower Hill is rarely, if ever described as a good thing. In fact the current redevelopment is sometimes described as undoing the mistakes of that project. However, can the negative financial, social, and emotional repercussions of the original demolition and decades of disconnect be undone simply by reinstating (most of) the former street grid?
This blog post is part of an on-going photographic series to watch the redevelopment of the Lower Hill. Periodically, approximately once every six months, I return to the site to take new photographs. In addition, I include links to articles about the project that I’ve encountered since the previous post in the series. At the end of the post, there are links to all the previous posts in the series.
What’s New
While still primarily a sea of parked cars, there have been a few changes on the site:
After months of the FNB Tower seemingly stuck at 5 or so stories despite activity on the site, the building shot up to what I assume is its full height.
There was some sidewalk restructuring on the older sections – though as that’s happening around the city, it may not indicate anything special in regards to the redevelopment of the Lower Hill.
The construction fencing now has a temporary art installation by a non-profit that based in the Hill District and focused on connecting youth with arts.
The hedges along Centre Ave were noticeably taller than the last time I photographed them.
Other than that, the site remains much the same. But there has been LOTS of news about it and other developments in the Hill District (see below).
Photos
Lower Hill in the News
Next Pittsburgh named the Lower Hill redevelopment as one of the top 8 developments to watch in Pittsburgh in 2023 (January 11, 2023). Throughout the year, there have been conversations on the development opportunities happening and projected in the Lower Hill and beyond (Pittsburgh Business Times, June 7, 2023; Pittsburgh Business Times, June 8, 2023; Pittsburgh Business Times, June 13, 2023).
The question of how to equitably develop the Lower Hill and other areas of the city that have long seen disinvestment is a hot topic this year (Public Source, January 23, 2023). The community continues to express concern about the deals and process in the redevelopment of the Lower Hill (Next Pittsburgh, January 25, 2023; Public Source, April 22, 2023; Pittsburgh Business Times, May 15, 2023; City Paper, May 16, 2023). The proposed concert venue that is one of the subprojects generating concern in the community moved forward (Pittsburgh Business Times, January 10, 2023; Public Source, January 10, 2023; Public Source, January 24, 2023; Pittsburgh Business Times, May 11, 2023; Public Source, May 11, 2023).
A project website dedicated to construction bidding opportunities shows the most recent bid opportunity was for the controversial concert venue.
Bethel AME is Pittsburgh’s oldest Black congregation. They were one of the organizations forced out of the Lower Hill neighborhood to make way for what became the Civic Arena and a sea of parking lots. They are now seeking reparations and the ability to return to the neighborhood (Public Source, April 14, 2023). An agreement between Bethel AME and the Penguins was reached (Public Source, April 14, 2023; Pittsburgh Business Times, April 14, 2023).
The funding announced last year for the redevelopment of the Housing Authority’s Bedford Dwelling apartments has been augmented by an additional $50 million grant (Pittsburgh Business Times, July 21, 2023; Public Source, July 21, 2023; Pittsburgh Business Times, July 28, 2023) and Planning Commission approval of the plans (Pittsburgh Business Times, July 11, 2023; Public Source, July 25, 2023). The Pittsburgh Business Times also ran a profile of Michele Beener (May 11, 2023), who helped with the grant application for Bedford Dwellings that received funding in 2022.
The New Granada Theater is a historic building with strong ties to the cultural wealth of the Hill District about 0.5 miles from the Lower Hill. The community has put in decades of advocacy, planning, fundraising, and more around redeveloping this building in a meaningful way. Fruits of their labors are starting to ripen with the groundbreaking for new life for the theater (Pittsburgh Business Times, May 25, 2023; Post-Gazette, May 26, 2023) and a ribbon cutting for a new affordable housing development adjacent to the theater (Post-Gazette, September 1, 2023).
The grocery store that the Hill District advocated for many years, was built, and closed after a few years in business is getting new life. A local multi-ethnic market purchased the site earlier this year (Pittsburgh Business Times, April 13, 2023; Public Source, April 13, 2023).
For more information on the community that lives and has lived in the Hill District, Ralph Proctor Jr. published a book describing his memories and experience living in the Hill District (Next Pittsburgh, June 20, 2023) and Next Pittsburgh published an article on the influence of the Burke family on the bar and entertainment scene in the Lower Hill from the 1920s to 1960s (January 19, 2023).
The Lower Hill is a notorious site in Pittsburgh, a scar on the city from the height of Urban Renewal. A vibrant (but poor and predominately Black) neighborhood was demolished in the 1950s so the City could build a cultural mecca centered on a Civic Arena, most of which ended up not being built and was left as parking lots.
Now that the arena has been demolished and replaced adjacent to the former location, the Penguins hockey team has the development rights to rebuild the Lower Hill, stitching back together the fabric of the city and reconnecting the remainder of the Hill District neighborhoods with downtown.
However, grand language describing the wonderful benefits to a city are part and parcel of any major development project, including the 1950’s Urban Renewal of the Lower Hill. Fifty years later, the Urban Renewal of the Lower Hill is rarely, if ever described as a good thing. In fact the current redevelopment is sometimes described as undoing the mistakes of that project. However, can the negative financial, social, and emotional repercussions of the original demolition and decades of disconnect be undone simply by reinstating (most of) the former street grid?
This blog post is part of an on-going photographic series to watch the redevelopment of the Lower Hill. Periodically, at least once a year, I return to the site to take new photographs. In addition, I include links to articles about the project that I’ve encountered since the previous post in the series. At the end of the post, there are links to all the previous posts in the series.
What’s New
In 2022, construction of the FNB Tower progressed. Not much else changed on the ground, but the news shared some of the negotiations and deals being made to move the rest of the site forward.
Photos
Lower Hill in the News
Next Pittsburgh named the Lower Hill redevelopment as one of the top 10 developments to watch in Pittsburgh in 2022 (January 3, 2022).
Bethel AME, Pittsburgh’s Oldest Black Church (Public Source, January 31, 2022) who’s building was taken through eminent domain and demolished in the 1950s to build the Civic Arena, has been in talks with the Penguins about reparations as part of the redevelopment of the Lower Hill (Next Pittsburgh, October 3, 2022). In October 2022, it appeared a preliminary agreement had been reached (Public Source, October 17, 2022; Next Pittsburgh, October 17, 2022), but in November the talks stalled according to Bethel AME (City Paper, November 18, 2022).
The plans for “Block E” were presented to the Planning Commission in the first of two hearings (Planning Commission Agenda & Application; Public Source, December 13, 2022; Pittsburgh Business Times, December 13, 2022). In the months prior to this hearing, this plan, which is a revision from the original Preliminary Land Development Plan, was presented to the community amid concerns about process and the Community Collaborative Implementation Plan (Pittsburgh Business Times, October 14, 2022).
Funding announcements for the greater Hill District included infrastructure funding from a federal RAISE Grant (City Paper, August 11, 2022) and Housing Authority funds allocated toward the redevelopment of the Bedford Dwelling apartments along with the intention to apply for a Choice Neighborhoods grant (Public Source, December 15, 2022).
A car crashed into Freedom Corner damaging the monument on the site (City Paper, August 3, 2022). This is an important neighborhood location for many social justice actions including as a marker at the demarcation line of the redevelopment of the Lower Hill, which did not spread beyond that line due to community resistance.
In other Hill District development new, the redevelopment of the former Miller School into apartments was moving forward (Pittsburgh Business Times, November 30, 2022).
After WWII, while the federal government was building highways — sometimes through communities — and subsidizing and incentivizing the construction and purchase of detached single-family dwellings — that is, if you were of the “right” race, ethnicity, and economic level, — there was a growing sense that cities, and perhaps even towns, weren’t safe places to live. As people and jobs, or jobs and people, or some people and jobs starting leaving cities in large numbers, the cities started looking for ways to reinvent themselves to reattract people and jobs in order to survive. Pittsburgh was a leader at that time, inventing and defining the process of Urban Renewal. Other cities like Bethlehem looked up to Pittsburgh and tried to adopt the strategies and techniques of Urban Renewal used in Pittsburgh. Often these cities, as illustrated by Bethlehem, lacked the resources and power to pull off Urban Renewal on the same scale as Pittsburgh.
Revisiting the once familiar environs of Stroudsburg (pop. 5,950) and East Stroudsburg (pop. 9,669), I realized that even these small towns adopted practices and principals of Urban Renewal. And similar to the pairing of Allentown (pop. 125,944) and Bethlehem (pop.75,624), the larger of the two municipalities implemented more Urban Renewal projects while the smaller implemented more historic preservation practices.
Below is a very biased sample of the the Urban Renewal practices I believe I identified in the Stroudsburgs:
Urban Renewal Practice #1 – The Ring Road
Both boroughs contain a partial or complete loop of one-way streets around portions of their downtowns. This traffic pattern now appears to me as strongly reminiscent of the circles Pittsburgh built around important commercial neighborhoods – which subsequently nearly died, possibly because they were already dying, but probably aided by being choked off by these ring roads. In Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg, it didn’t appear that the ring road has the same sort of death grip on the commercial enterprises they encircled. Several of the business I remembered were still operating and I didn’t notice significant numbers of vacant properties – though the couple vacant businesses I noticed were in East Stroudsburg. However, they weren’t areas that were tempting to explore more closely because they were sites developed along the second Urban Renewal practice.
Urban Renewal Practice #2 – Auto-oriented Uses
Both boroughs contained drive-through businesses in the center of their ring roads. In addition, strip malls are off to the right as you enter each borough on the ring road. In Stroudsburg, the auto-oriented uses felt like they were tightly centered on the ring road; nearby and spilling into the ring road was a dense, walkable downtown. On the other hand, in East Stroudsburg, it felt like the auto-oriented uses were spilling beyond the immediate environs of the ring road and into what was presumably once a much more extensive dense, walkable downtown.
Urban Renewal Practice #3 – Demolition for Underutilized Parking Lots
Part of what made the experience in East Stroudsburg feel more auto-oriented was the larger number of visible paved lots, presumably for parking, but largely empty. While I was most likely day-dreaming about the plot of my latest story featuring either princesses or cowboys when I previously spent time in downtown East Stroudsburg, there was a feeling of familiarity in the near empty parking lots suggesting that I would have felt uncomfortable if they were actually parked to capacity in the same way I felt uncomfortable passing locations where trees I used to know had been cut down.
Stroudsburg’s Ring Road Encompasses Auto-Oriented usesWalkable Downtown Spills into Stroudsburg’s Ring RoadEast Stroudsburg’s Ring Road (left two roads) with Auto-oriented Uses Spilling beyond the Ring (mid-frame parking lot)
At the November 2021 ribbon cutting for the Frankie Pace Park on the CAP, Governor Wolf said, “A great injustice was done in the ’50s and this is finally a way to address that injustice.” He was referring to Pittsburgh’s poster child Urban Renewal project that demolished thousands of homes and businesses that once formed the physical infrastructure of a community whose members were predominantly Black, poor, or both. The buildings of the Lower Hill neighborhood were demolished, and the people dispersed to make way for the Civic Arena, a cultural amenity for the wealthy and White featuring opera performances. This erasure of community was followed in the early 1960s by the construction of a moat between the Lower Hill and downtown for the I-579 freeway, also known as the Crosstown Boulevard. The CAP now covers that moat and provides an educational park (and a pedestrian connection between downtown and the Penguins arena).
In addition to the infrastructure restitching the physical gap between downtown and the Lower Hill, the public art installed throughout the park aims to at least partially stitch the cultural gap that is one of the legacies of Urban Renewal and other segregationist policies. An educational display tells the stories of Frankie Pace, a 20th century activist for the Hill District neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, and Martin Delany, an abolitionist, journalist, and doctor in 19th century Pittsburgh. Throughout the park, proverbs of African heritage are etched on the walls and on metal blocks as reflective as Chicago’s Cloud Gate.
Below is a slideshow of some of the public art in the park. At the end of the post, there are links to all the previous posts in the series.
When I first explored the interior of the Frankie Pace Park, I was surprised by the wayfinding approach. A series of signs are posted throughout the site describing different features of the park, such as the rain garden. The surprising part was the choice of a Black girl narrator who wants you to join her as you journey through the park. It felt like the intended audience is elementary school-aged children. Given the park’s location adjacent to the tallest office skyscrapers downtown, adjacent to the first new building to be built on the Lower Hill – another office building, and kitty-corner-ish to the Penguins hockey arena, children seem to be a very small percentage of the prospective users of the park.
The CAP is a project in Pittsburgh “fixing the mistakes” of Urban Renewal. The Crosstown Blvd was built in the 1960s creating a freeway in a canyon dividing the Lower Hill neighborhood from downtown. The Lower Hill neighborhood, formerly predominantly poor and black, had already been demolished by this point to make way for the Civic Arena and other cultural amenities that were never built.
The CAP is a park on a bridge built over the Crosstown Blvd and is intended to reconnect downtown and the Lower Hill, while the Lower Hill is being rebuilt by the Penguins hockey team. Construction began in June 2019 and was completed in November 2021.
Below is a slideshow of these wayfinding signs. At the end of the post, there are links to all the previous posts in the series.
This week, I took a lunch-time walk through the new Frankie Pace Park to see what the completed CAP project looks like and how it is used. There were two men sleeping on benches in the park and a handful of other people walking the paths singly or in pairs. Prior to 2020, I would have interpreted this as a failure of the park to attract users because any green space downtown between 12 and 1 was always full of people. However, in the continuing fallout of the pandemic, a handful of people walking or using the seats is typical even of the parks that you used to need to arrive before 11:59 if you wanted to find a seat to eat your lunch.
The CAP is a project in Pittsburgh “fixing the mistakes” of Urban Renewal. The Crosstown Blvd was built in the 1960s creating a freeway in a canyon dividing the Lower Hill neighborhood from downtown. The Lower Hill neighborhood, formerly predominantly poor and black, had already been demolished by this point to make way for the Civic Arena and other cultural amenities that were never built.
The CAP is a park on a bridge built over the Crosstown Blvd and is intended to reconnect downtown and the Lower Hill, while the Lower Hill is being rebuilt by the Penguins hockey team. Construction began in June 2019 and was completed in November 2021.
Below is a side-by-side comparison of the four corners of the CAP from November 2019 when I first started this photographic series and from my August 2022 walk. At the end of the post, there are links to all the previous posts in the series.
The Photos
CAP Northwest view – November 2019CAP Northwest view – August 2022CAP Southwest view – November 2019CAP Southwest view – August 2022CAP Southeast view – November 2019CAP Southeast view – August 2022CAP Northeast view – November 2019CAP Northeast view – August 2022
urbantraipsing 