An Atlas of the Allegheny West Neighborhood of Pittsburgh 1977
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An Atlas of the Allegheny West Neighborhood of Pittsburgh 1977 ALLEGHENY WEST UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR URBAN RESEARCW UNIVERSITY OF PITISBURGH 1209-0, Cathedral of Learning 249 NORTH CRAIG STREET University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260 PITISBURGH. PENN SY LVANIA 15260 Phone: (4121624-3465 PITTSBURGH NEIGHBORHOOD ATLAS GOVERNING BOARD ROGER AHLBAANDT, JR. STAFF Unlv.r,lty 01 Pltllbufgh, School of Socl,1 Wo rk Ch,I,plr..,n JAMES VALLAS Wendell D. Jordan (East Liberty-Lemington-Lincoln) ShadYllde Margaret K. Charny (Squirrel Hill) VI".Ch.l'p.... on BARBARA KELLY Julia Whitener (Mexican War Streets) Perry-Hilltop Millofred Russell (Homestead, Pa.) SIte.lta,y TERRY WOODCOCK Cerald S. Oswalt (Schenley Heights) Squirrel Hili Katherine Knorr (East Liberty) T ......H ... RICHARD ARMSTEAD John Zingaro (Shadyside) Hili Ollnlc! Dan Baskin JOSEPH BORKOWSKI L.w.r.nc .... m. Vicky Leap DANIEL CHAPPELL Howard Williams Hili Dlude' Ronald Madzy MARY COYNE Wen End Tony Gary JIM CUNNINGHAM Mary Shea Shadysld' MARY L.OU DANIEL W"I End SUPPORTIVE INSTITUTIONS JESE DEL ORE Hili ollnlc! WILLIAM P. GALLAGHER Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance G . ... nll_ld Center for Urban Research of the Univo of Pgho MARY HALL SQuirrel Hili School of Social Work of the Univ. of Pgho ROSE JEWELL Architect Workshop Shady.lda City Council of the City of Pgh. GABOR KISH Eliion Allegheny County Department of Elections ROBERT "SLUe" MARTIN ACTION-Housing, Inc. Hazelwood THOMAS MURPHY Department of City Planning of the City of Pgh. P"rry Hilltop Southwestern Penna. Regional Planning Commission EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WENOELL o. JOROAN ACTION-Vista (Volunteers in Service to America) AGENCIES Valley View Presbyterian Church Aetlon.Hou.ln".lne. U.S. Bur.. u of th" C"n.u. Carn"ijI ... Meilon Unlll"~lty FUNDING SOURCES Chrl.tl"n Alloc:lu... City Council Community Aetlon Plttlbur!ilh Alcoa Foundation COUnty Plannl"1l Departm"nt H ... lth 110 Welf.. a Allegheny Conference on Community Development PI"nnlnll A ••oc:lltlon N'tlonal Innltuta of N"I!ilhbor· Howard Heinz Endowment hood Studl ... Unlll .... lty of Pln.burlt! Sc:hool Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation of Socl,,1 Work Koppers Company Southw"U"rn P"nn.vlll"nl" Fi"ijlon,,1 Pl,nnlnll Commlulon Richard King Mellon Foundation Stat" Department of Community Affair... City Council of the City of Pittsburgh United W"y The Pittsburgh Foundation Urban and Community AH,I~. Unlll"r,lty of Pltt.burgh Henry Oliver Rea Charitable Trust CONSULTANTS Sarah Scaife Foundation, Inc. Unl ....... ltV of Plnlbu."h C"nt... for Urban R_.ch Weld Tooling Company City Plannln" Depart..,.nt University of Pittsburgh (In Kind) OZ SCHMIDT· Gaography O"pt., Unl"*,,lty of PI11obur~ JOHN YORIO· Hlgnl"nd P"rk Initiated by the PIITSBUAGH NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE INTRODUCTION The Pittsburgh Neighborhood AJ.liance was fanned in 1969 by a number of neighborhood organizations that were concerned with improving the cityts neigh borhoods and their relations with city government. The members of the Alliance recognized that in order to negotiate effectively with city government about such major concerns as public service needs, capital improvements and transpor tation, it was necessary to obtain accurate, up-to-date information about the neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this information was not available. To remedy this situation, the Alliance developed its Pittsburgh Neigh borhood Atlas project. First, the boundaries of the city's neighborhoods had to be determined. The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Atlas asked people attending community meetings to name and describe the boundaries of the neighborhoods in which they lived. This information was also provided by an Atlas-initiated survey. Responses fran every voting district of the city were analyzed. to assure citizen involvement at t he neighborhood level. Seventy-eight neighborhoods were thus identified, each made up of one or more whole voting districts in order to comply with provisions i n Pittsburgh's home rule charter relating to the election of community advisory boards. The Atlas then gathered a body of useful and up-to-date information for every neighborhood.. It is the beginning of a neighborhood information system that more closely reflects neighborhood boundaries as defined by residents in stead of by public officials. In the past, statistics about sections of the city have been based on information published for relatively large areas such as census tracts. For the atlas, much of the material describing neighborhood. characteristics came 1'rom figures compiled for smaller areas: voting districts or census blocks. As a result, detailed information is now available for neigh borhoods whose bOWldaries differ substantia.lly fran census tract bounda.ries. The information in this atlas provides an insight into current neighbor hood conditions and the direction in which the neighborhood is moving. The best indicators showing the health of the neighborhood are provided by citizen satis faction with the neighborhood, and changes in residential real estate transaction prices. Comparison of these statistics to those for the entire city provide a basis to begin understanding issues of neighborhood. atability. In the years to cane, as e.dditional data are gathered for each of these indicators, trends will becane more obvious. It is important to recognize that neighborhood change is a complex pro cess and that one indicator by itself may not be usefUl. Neighborhoods may be healthy regardless of their level of incane, and therefore inc:ane-related sta tistics may not be usetul guides by themselves. Neighborhoods muat be viewed over time in terms of relative changes canpared to the oity as a whole, and any analysis of neighborhood oonditions must focus upon all of the data in order to provide a comprehensive understanding. To learn shout specific sections of the neighborhood, f1gures by indi vidual. votiDg district or cenaus tract may be obtained. Additional tntonnation on the neighborhood or the inf'ormation aystem is available through the Center for Urban Research of the University ot Pittsburgh, which baa made an outstanding contribution to the development of this atlas. -1- NEIGHBORHOOD DESCRIPTION Allegheny West is approximately 1.1 miles north of downtown. It is estimated to be 59.5 acres in si~e, containing 0.2% of the city's land and 0.2% of its 1974 population. The voting district in the neighborhood is #3, Ward 22. (See Appendix for a listing of the neighborhood's census tracts.) •• - 2- NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY ALLEGHENY WEST The North Side, a =ity in its O~l right until its 1907 3nnexation to Pittsburgh, was fonneriy kno~... n as Allegheny. This name is d~rlved from the "Allegewill or "Alleghans" . an Iod .an tribe woo settled along the oanks of the Allegheuy River. The first known inhabitant in the area was Andrew Long who settled at the base of Monument Hill in 1740. By 1800 Allegheny had a population of 275. mos t of whom were farmers. This grew to 450 by 1810 and, in 1828, had reached 1.000. The development of steam boat transportation aided the town's settlement and growth. Allegheny was incorporated 8S a city in 1840. It had moved from wild terrain to farmland; from village to ':,3".181 town to industrial city. Its "lnhahi tallts '<I,H'ked as ~ow strin3 tn.1.ke!'s , wagoners, porter bottlers . plane and chair makers and spinners. Others cut oails, manufactured swords, boiled soap, and m.'ide ~rushes. hair cap9, salls, s1-toes . saddles and ha-nleSSI!R . By the late 19th ce'atury, Allegheny was both self safficieot and proSperO'.ls. The canal and, later. the railroad brought new business. Steel mills, textile. glas9 and cotton fa:tories vere established. As Alleg!\eny grew econcr.nically it sought political expansion. Surround~ ing coommnitiea were 311Oe;cad to the b:Jrgeoning ~orough. Troy Hill. the East Street Valley and Spdng GardM were incorporated in 1858. Manchester became part of Allegheny in 1869 aod ;.,loDd:3 Run in 1870. By 1870, Allegheny's population was 53,000. Alleghenialls were 3:..1. ethnic mix. The English settlers had been follo·.JM by the Scotch-Irish, the Scots .and the rris~. Germans ~ame in large ~1.um~ers. The Croatians, Czechs, Lusatian Sorbs (Wend3i, Slovaks, Carpatho-Rusins, Ukrainians and Greeks ",ere all drs'''''l bV the city's promise of empIOYTDe'lt. Blacks migrated to the North Side later. Allegheny was a town of many faiths; Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Luthera~s, Methodists, Roman and Byzantine Catholics. The Eastern Orthodox a~d Jews ~ere all repre~e~ted. Reflecting perhaps the variety of work activity there, Alleghenians achieved great prominence in numerous fields. Andre~ Carnegie. H. J . Heinz. , Samuel Pierpont Langley and Stephen Collins Foster all worked there. Two apostles of the avant-garde, Gertrude Stein and Martha Graham were both born there. Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote many mystery novels with old Allegheny settings. Allegheny West, a mixed residential-industrial neighborhood, was once known as Lincoln-Beech after two prominent residential streets. Ridge Avenue, thought in the late 19th century to have more millionaires per square foot than l ll any other place in the world, was accordingly termed I'Millionaire s Row • Monument Hill, the original location of the Western Theological Seminary, the first w~st of the Alleghenies, nO'" is the site of Allegheny Com.n1mity College. -3- ALLEGHENY WEST S ~~RY STATI STICS Neighborhood Pittsburgh Po?ulation (1974) 1,048 479,276 % Change (1970-1974) -107. -87. % Hlack population (1970) 5% 207. Housing units (1974) 505 166,625 % Vacant 9% 67. ~ Owner-occupied housing units (1974) 14% 54% Average sales price of owner-occupied dwellings (1975) $22,000 $23 , 518 % Residential real estate transactions with mortgages provided by financial institutions (1975) 20% 59% Crime rate (1975) 0.217 0.053 Average family income (1969) $ 8,500 $10,500 Income index as % of city index (1974) 877.