Category Archive: Neighborhood Development
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X marks $1.1M spot for North Side theater, URA
By Bonnie Pfister
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 16, 2007A decade of legal battles over the Garden Theatre ended Thursday with a $1.1 million agreement between the owner of the North Side X-rated cinema and the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority.
The settlement, announced at the URA’s monthly board meeting just an hour after it was signed, comes almost two months after the state Supreme Court ruled that the city of Pittsburgh could seize the theater by eminent domain.The board unanimously approved the deal, and the city could be in possession of the theater along West North Avenue before the end of the month.
“This is a great day for the city of Pittsburgh,” said state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, a URA board member. “It certainly elevates the overall development potential of the area.”
The dispute began in the mid-1990s, when then-Mayor Tom Murphy initiated the seizure of 47 buildings along and near Federal Street west of Allegheny General Hospital as part of a redevelopment program called “Federal North.”
But theater owner George Androtsakis refused the URA’s $214,000 buyout offer, saying the city was trying to squelch his First Amendment right to show pornographic films.
“Mr. Androtsakis would have loved to have a theater showing other kinds of film, but he couldn’t attract an audience because of the demographics of that neighborhood,” said James Sargent, the attorney who argued on Androtsakis’ behalf before the court and negotiated yesterday’s deal.
“He loved the Garden Theatre because it was a remarkable edifice, a real testament to our evolution as a culture,” Sargent said. “But, in the final analysis, he agreed to this without bitterness. It’s a business decision.”
URA general counsel Don Kortlandt said he first reached out to Androtsakis soon after the Supreme Court’s ruling, but negotiations broke down in mid-January. Androtsakis reconsidered about a week later, and negotiations resumed in earnest 10 days ago, Kortlandt said.
While Androtsakis initially was asking for far more than double the price finally agreed upon, Kortlandt said, “We got to a number that we both could stand, high enough for them, low enough for us.”
Last month, the URA sent out requests for proposals for redevelopment of 10 parcels surrounding the theater, but URA officials said many expressed skepticism as long as the theater continued to show pornography. The requests now will be amended to include the 92-year-old movie house, which began showing adult films in 1972.
Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
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Battle over houses heats up – Group says council went against the law when it repealed subdivision OK
By Jan Ackerman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, February 08, 2007Emotions are running high between historic preservationists and a nonprofit organization that wants to build seven houses on a vacant parcel behind Munhall’s historic library.
Officials of the Mon Valley Initiative are convinced that Munhall council violated state zoning law when it voted to repeal its approval of a subdivision they want to build in the Library Estates neighborhood.
John Bixler, executive director of Mon Valley Initiative, said the organization had gotten legal advice and believed borough council erred when it rescinded approval of the subdivision Jan. 26.
“The rescission was illegal. We have the right to build,” Mr. Bixler said.
Munhall Councilman Michael Terrick doesn’t think that is the case. He said council approved the subdivision, with the understanding that Mon Valley Initiative would comply with historic district standards that were part of a separate ordinance.
“They are hanging their hat on a technicality,” he said.
Munhall’s solicitor, Louis Silverhart, is researching the issue and will have a legal opinion for council, probably this month.
Mr. Bixler cited a letter from George Janocsko, an Allegheny County solicitor, which was read to Munhall council before its vote.
Mr. Janocsko’s letter said Pennsylvania’s municipal planning code prevents local governments from changing local zoning, subdivision and land use ordinances once a subdivision has been approved.
Mr. Janocsko said any attempt by council to amend the borough’s historic district ordinance to include the MVI property would contradict the “plain and clear prohibitions of the municipal planning code.”
As a result, he said, the adoption of the ordinance would provide Mon Valley Initiative with strong legal grounds to sue the borough for a denial of permits and other authorizations.
At a rancorous Jan 26 meeting, council took two actions, voting to expand an existing historic district to include the two-acre tract where Mon Valley Initiative wants to build the houses and to repeal the subdivision approval it had given to MVI.
Several days before the meeting, MVI officials applied for the building permits for the four-bedroom, 21/2-bath houses, which will sell for about $130,000. Mr. Bixler said his organization had every legal right to do so, given that the subdivision had been approved.
That action angered some members of Munhall council, who accused the principals of Mon Valley Initiative of trying to circumvent the desires of council to impose historic requirements on the new development.
The controversy centers on a vacant tract in lower Munhall, behind the historic Carnegie Library of Homestead in a neighborhood called Library Estates which used to be home to mill superintendents.
The neighborhood is mixed. In recent years, some people have bought some of the old mansions around the library, fixed them up and installed globe outdoor lighting. The neighborhood now has its annual Christmas house tour.
Mr. Bixler said the new houses that MVI plans to build would be more expensive than most of the existing houses and would not harm the historic quality of the neighborhood.
Neighbors disagree, saying the new vinyl homes are not appropriate for the area.
Opinions aside, it looks as if the real issues might have to be resolved by the courts.
(Jan Ackerman can be reached at jackerman@post-gazette.com or 412-851-1512. )
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New casino had no ‘not in my back yard’ problem in Chateau; there are no back yards
A place with an identity crisisBy Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, December 28, 2006Contrary to previous reports, the North Shore is not getting Don Barden’s Majestic Star Casino. The lucky neighborhood is actually Chateau.
But it’s easy to understand how the North Shore is the default setting for so many people. Chateau is a neighborhood with an identity problem.
In an exhaustive search of the neighborhood, using the map on the city’s Web site, the Post-Gazette could scare up just five residences — four year-round homes on the river, all associated with boat clubs, and one in what its resident used to call “the ward.”
It was named for Chateau Street, which actually is in the adjoining neighborhood of Manchester. Chateau was once part of Manchester, but city planners designated it as a separate neighborhood after Route 65 was built and split them apart.
Chateau became further isolated from residential tradition as neighborhood support businesses gave way to light industry, warehouses and huge parking lots. The 2000 census counted 39 people as residents, but where they are or might have been is a mystery.
A paucity of habitation bodes well for a controversial development. Nary a peep was heard pro or con in Chateau while the Hill District exercised its voice in opposition to a casino. Considering what a not-in-my-back-yard issue the casino was, this may be a good time to mention that in Chateau, there are no back yards.
Its border with the North Shore is Allegheny Avenue. Heinz Field is on the North Shore side, the Carnegie Science Center is on the Chateau side.
Just beyond where the casino is slated to go, Chateau becomes its spooky-emptiest, a wasteland of lots surrounded by chain-link fences, mangled trees and overgrowth at the shoreline strewn with garbage, chunks of industrial waste covered in black soot that looks like coat dust over dirty lint, and rusted parts of old boats.
The Pittsburgh Annealing Box Co.’s warehouse of corrugated metal stretches like a stranded ghost train along the river, scrawled with the message, “Join the race to the bottom.”
Dean Bartins has lived all 46 of his years in a grand, 120-year-old house in a part of Chateau on the other side of the highway. Once his house was surrounded by houses. His immediate neighbors now are Wendy’s, McDonalds and the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society.
“Some people would say, ‘Hey, you’re surrounded by parking lots,’ ” he said. “But from the inside looking out, it’s as far as the eye can see” — views of the entire skyline and the hillside across the river.
“We always called this ‘the ward,'” said Mr. Bartins. “But I know [now] it’s Chateau.” He said he became aware of the designation “maybe 20 years ago.”
“I have always considered this Manchester,” said Peggy Baust, the owner of Peggy’s Harbor, one of three boat docks in Chateau. She and her husband, Eddie, live at the boat dock they own and operate. They moved there from Shaler in 1972 to live in a houseboat and started their dock business in the early 1980s.
Their mobile home, its side deck adorned with a red Christmas bow and pine garlands, sits several yards from the lapping Ohio River and along the trail that brings a stream of bicyclists, joggers and walkers in good weather.
Her neighbors are a refrigeration company, a company that makes metal grills and welding rods, and parking lots.
Neither she nor Mr. Bartins expressed concern about the casino.
“Absolutely not,” said Ms. Baust. “I don’t know what will happen to the part of the trail that runs beside it, but it can’t hurt me.” (Casino owner Don Barden plans improvements to the trail.)
She counts the other boat club owners who live in homes along the river as her neighbors, “good neighbors,” she said, admitting that, “when 5 o’clock rolls around,” the neighborhood is pretty empty.
Arthur Ziegler, executive director of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks and one of the preservationists who helped save much of Manchester from the wrecking ball in the 1960s, said Chateau is news to him: “I’ve never heard anyone use that name. It was all Manchester.”
He said he and other activists in the late 1960s “went to meetings because we didn’t want the highway.”
Route 65 plunged Chateau into habitation crisis. Starting in 1960, the population declined severely: From 5,251 — when it was still part of Manchester — to 681 to 322 to 12 to 39, making it the least populated neighborhood in the city.
The highway that Mr. Ziegler called “typical of planning that uprooted people and severed a neighborhood so people could get to the suburbs more quickly,” is now an asset for bringing people back, according to the state gaming board chairman. The Post-Gazette reported last week that Gov. Ed Rendell said the chairman cited access as one of the factors in Mr. Barden’s selection.
Mr. Barden has predicted that the Majestic Star Casino, a two-story, glass and steel construction, will be built in a world-beating 15 months. And Chateau has some bragging rights, for what it’s worth.
(Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626. )
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Historic Vandergrift looks to future
By Marjorie Wertz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 19, 2006In 1901, six years after the establishment of Vandergrift, Westmoreland County, Steel Workers Magazine called the town a “working man’s paradise.”
Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the architect of New York’s Central Park and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Vandergrift was a planned community founded by George G. McMurtry, president of the Apollo Iron and Steel Co., Apollo. It was named after Captain J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel mill.
“McMurtry was one of the first industrialists who gave respect to the working man,” said Ken Blose, a member of the Victorian Vandergrift Museum and Historical Society. “He believed that educated, churchgoing men who owned their own homes in their own community would make the best workers. These were radical thoughts at that time.”
McMurtry needed to expand his galvanized steel mill, so he bought a 650-acre farm site several miles downstream on the Kiskiminetas River. Olmstead designed the town so that the streets followed the natural slope of the hills and the curve of the river. The mill was constructed; streets were graded; utilities were installed; trees were planted; and street lights were erected.
“There were 14 main streets in the original design and only one place where two streets crossed,” Blose said. “There are no real corners. Every corner is a sweeping curve.”
Once the town was laid out, lots were sold only to men who worked in the mill. McMurtry established a bank so mill workers could buy homes at rates they could afford.
“For a man working in a mill in 1895, the opportunity to purchase his own home was practically nil,” Blose said.
McMurtry continued his philanthropic actions through the purchase of pipe organs for all the town’s churches. He also donated land for schools and the fire department and bought the fire department’s first equipment. Blose said McMurtry also sold land for $1 to the town for a cemetery.
“And what land that was undeveloped, he allowed the townspeople to use for recreational purposes,” Blose said.
At the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Vandergrift won two gold medals for best town design, and, in 1907, the Vandergrift steel mill was the largest rolling mill in the world, producing high-quality silicon steel.
“The steel for the centerpiece of the 1964 New York World’s Fair; the Unisphere, the largest metal sculpture in the world, was finished and polished in Vandergrift. Some of the steel for the St. Louis Arch was produced in Vandergrift, and the hinges for the gates and other parts of the Panama Canal were produced in the Vandergrift Foundry,” Blose said.
McMurtry also was the primary contributor to the construction of the town’s municipal building, which housed the jail, administration offices and a 500-seat theater. That building, the Casino Theatre, is undergoing renovations by a group of volunteers, Casino Theatre Restoration and Management.
“The theatre was being used by the borough for storage,” said Mary Lee Kessler, treasurer of the organization. “The theatre seats, stage curtain and all the decorative items within the theatre had been removed. There were rumors that the theatre was going to be torn down. We couldn’t let that happen.”
Built in 1900 in the Greek revival style, the theatre was a popular venue on the vaudeville circuit. President William H. Taft, boxing champ Bob Fitzsimmons, composer Hoagy Carmichael, Tex Ritter and the Three Stooges visited the Casino.
The Casino was remodeled in 1927 as the area’s largest movie theater, and in the ’50s, it was converted to show wide-screen movies. It closed in 1981.
“The east wing of the building still houses the library, and the west wing has the offices of the borough secretary, the jail and police station,” Kessler said. “The theatre was in great disrepair, but the borough was very open to a responsible group attempting to revive it, so they leased it to us for $1 a year with the understanding that we would apply for grants to renovate it.”
Kessler has been successful in obtaining grants for renovation projects. The organization was able to locate 475 seats for $5,000 and install electrical wiring, lighting and sound. A group of volunteers, affectionately called the Tuesday Night Work Crew, arrive at the theatre Tuesday evenings and “do what needs to be done,” Kessler said.
“We replaced the four wooden ionic columns in the front of the theatre, excavated in the basement, and now there’s a very pretty ladies lounge there. We also reopened the mezzanine level and renovated the front lawn,” she said.
The discovery of two old movie window cards netted the organization about $37,000, which was used to repair the theatre’s roof. A group of Eagle Scouts was cleaning out a portion of the theatre’s upper floor when it located an old desk with an ink blotter. Under the blotter, the group found a perfectly preserved window card for the 1927 science fiction movie “Metropolis,” directed by Fritz Lang.
“One of the volunteers contacted a fellow from Greensburg who was extremely excited because memorabilia from that move is very collectible,” Kessler said. “That window card was auctioned off by Sotheby’s, and we netted $24,000.”
A second window card for the movie that had a small bend in one corner was auctioned several years later and sold for about $13,000.
The Casino Theatre officially reopened its doors in August 1995. Three years ago, Mickey Rooney performed there, and in April, trumpeter Maynard Ferguson gave one of his last performances before dying Aug. 23.
“Every year we do a magic show for children at the end of October, and during the first weekend of December, we self-produce ‘Hometown Christmas.’ This year, it will be a musical revue,” Kessler said.
On Nov. 25, 14 bands will put on a benefit concert at the Casino to help the organization pay the heating bill.
“This is a fun place to be. The people who volunteer here are very enthusiastic,” Kessler added.
The Vandergrift Improvement Program — VIP — is another nonprofit organization comprising local residents, businesses, municipal and state government officials working to protect, preserve and restore the community through the National Trust for Historical Preservations’ Main Street approach.
“We had 15 vacant storefronts out of 100 stores in our town. We didn’t want the town to rot away,” said Wayne Teeple, vice president of the 100-member VIP.
The premise of the town’s Main Street approach is to encourage economic revitalization through a four-pronged system — design, economic restructuring, promotion and organization — to address all of the commercial district’s needs.
The town, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is in the first year of the Main Street program.
“We had to raise $94,000 to obtain funding for a Department of Community and Economic Development Main Street grant,” Teeple said. “Within a three-month period, the residents and Vandergrift government pledged that amount over a five-year period.”
The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, a nonprofit historic preservation group, was hired to manage the Main Street program, said Eugene Matta, director of the foundation’s real estate and special-development programs.
Shaun Yurcaba, of History and Landmarks, is Vandergrift’s Main Street coordinator. She is helping VIP coordinate its efforts.
“The four committees working in design, economic restructuring, promotion and organization fulfill the requirements of the Main Street program,” Yurcaba said.
The design committee is developing guidelines for the protection of historical buildings during changes or renovations. Those on the economic restructuring committee are determining how many businesses are downtown and what types of businesses are in place in order to gauge what improvements are needed.
“The organization committee works on establishing relationships with other community organizations such as the Casino Theatre renovation group and the historical society,” Yurcaba added.
Trying to bring people into town is the work of the promotion committee, which sponsors events such as a summer car cruise and a 2007 pet calendar contest, in which people cast ballots for their favorite pet photos at Vandergrift businesses.
“Once we go into year two of the Main Street project, we become eligible for an $80,000 grant — $30,000 of it will be available to downtown building owners in the form of grants,” Teeple said. “They can apply for a $5,000 matching grant for renovating the facades of their buildings. We already have five building owners interested in this.”
Other groups are working toward Vandergrift’s revitalization, as well.
“Sustainable Pittsburgh is working with us so that Vandergrift becomes a green sustainable development,” Matta said. “And the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative through the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering is also working on quite a project in Vandergrift.”
Sustainable Pittsburgh served as the “matchmaker” between the initiative and Vandergrift, said Eric Beckman, co-director of the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative.
“The goal of MSI is to create the next generation of technology that is cost-effective and sustainable,” Beckman said. “We brought in a team of undergraduate engineering students into Vandergrift and asked them if they could bring energy conservation to the Casino Theatre. The question became ‘How do you lower energy bills without destroying the historic value of the community?’ ”
The shallow, yet swift-flowing Kiski River, which surrounds Vandergrift on three sides, might be able answer, Beckman said. The group submitted a proposal to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance for a sustainable creative energy grant.
“We went in on this proposal with Sustainable Pittsburgh. Whatever we come up with in Vandergrift, we could use in other parts of the state,” Beckman said. “Eventually, we want to create something that will generate electricity and try it out in Vandergrift. The town will be our test bed.”
All the partnerships have helped VIP pick up steam on revitalization projects.
“Other towns are calling us for information. Everyone has a passion for this, and it’s something that’s really taking off,” Teeple said.
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- Carino’s, which closed several years ago, was housed in one of Vandergrift’s signature buildings. — Bob Fritz/For the Tribune-Review
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- John Pomfret repainted a turn-of-the-century tin ceiling in his store, Pomfret’s Paint and Variety. — Bob Fritz/For the Tribune-Review
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- The Casino Theatre was remodeled in 1927 and again in the ’50s before closing in 1981. It reopened in August 1995 after undergoing extensive work. The building houses a library, municipal offices and a police station. — Bob Fritz/For the Tribune-Review
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- Mary Lee Kessler is treasurer of Casino Theatre Restoration and Management, a group of volunteers renovating the theater. — Steven Dietz/For the Tribune-Review
Marjorie Wertz can be reached at .
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Historic Vandergrift looks to future
By Marjorie Wertz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 19, 2006In 1901, six years after the establishment of Vandergrift, Westmoreland County, Steel Workers Magazine called the town a “working man’s paradise.”
Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the architect of New York’s Central Park and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Vandergrift was a planned community founded by George G. McMurtry, president of the Apollo Iron and Steel Co., Apollo. It was named after Captain J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel mill.“McMurtry was one of the first industrialists who gave respect to the working man,” said Ken Blose, a member of the Victorian Vandergrift Museum and Historical Society. “He believed that educated, churchgoing men who owned their own homes in their own community would make the best workers. These were radical thoughts at that time.”
McMurtry needed to expand his galvanized steel mill, so he bought a 650-acre farm site several miles downstream on the Kiskiminetas River. Olmstead designed the town so that the streets followed the natural slope of the hills and the curve of the river. The mill was constructed; streets were graded; utilities were installed; trees were planted; and street lights were erected.
“There were 14 main streets in the original design and only one place where two streets crossed,” Blose said. “There are no real corners. Every corner is a sweeping curve.”
Once the town was laid out, lots were sold only to men who worked in the mill. McMurtry established a bank so mill workers could buy homes at rates they could afford.
“For a man working in a mill in 1895, the opportunity to purchase his own home was practically nil,” Blose said.
McMurtry continued his philanthropic actions through the purchase of pipe organs for all the town’s churches. He also donated land for schools and the fire department and bought the fire department’s first equipment. Blose said McMurtry also sold land for $1 to the town for a cemetery.
“And what land that was undeveloped, he allowed the townspeople to use for recreational purposes,” Blose said.
At the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Vandergrift won two gold medals for best town design, and, in 1907, the Vandergrift steel mill was the largest rolling mill in the world, producing high-quality silicon steel.
“The steel for the centerpiece of the 1964 New York World’s Fair; the Unisphere, the largest metal sculpture in the world, was finished and polished in Vandergrift. Some of the steel for the St. Louis Arch was produced in Vandergrift, and the hinges for the gates and other parts of the Panama Canal were produced in the Vandergrift Foundry,” Blose said.
McMurtry also was the primary contributor to the construction of the town’s municipal building, which housed the jail, administration offices and a 500-seat theater. That building, the Casino Theatre, is undergoing renovations by a group of volunteers, Casino Theatre Restoration and Management.
“The theatre was being used by the borough for storage,” said Mary Lee Kessler, treasurer of the organization. “The theatre seats, stage curtain and all the decorative items within the theatre had been removed. There were rumors that the theatre was going to be torn down. We couldn’t let that happen.”
Built in 1900 in the Greek revival style, the theatre was a popular venue on the vaudeville circuit. President William H. Taft, boxing champ Bob Fitzsimmons, composer Hoagy Carmichael, Tex Ritter and the Three Stooges visited the Casino.
The Casino was remodeled in 1927 as the area’s largest movie theater, and in the ’50s, it was converted to show wide-screen movies. It closed in 1981.
“The east wing of the building still houses the library, and the west wing has the offices of the borough secretary, the jail and police station,” Kessler said. “The theatre was in great disrepair, but the borough was very open to a responsible group attempting to revive it, so they leased it to us for $1 a year with the understanding that we would apply for grants to renovate it.”
Kessler has been successful in obtaining grants for renovation projects. The organization was able to locate 475 seats for $5,000 and install electrical wiring, lighting and sound. A group of volunteers, affectionately called the Tuesday Night Work Crew, arrive at the theatre Tuesday evenings and “do what needs to be done,” Kessler said.
“We replaced the four wooden ionic columns in the front of the theatre, excavated in the basement, and now there’s a very pretty ladies lounge there. We also reopened the mezzanine level and renovated the front lawn,” she said.
The discovery of two old movie window cards netted the organization about $37,000, which was used to repair the theatre’s roof. A group of Eagle Scouts was cleaning out a portion of the theatre’s upper floor when it located an old desk with an ink blotter. Under the blotter, the group found a perfectly preserved window card for the 1927 science fiction movie “Metropolis,” directed by Fritz Lang.
“One of the volunteers contacted a fellow from Greensburg who was extremely excited because memorabilia from that move is very collectible,” Kessler said. “That window card was auctioned off by Sotheby’s, and we netted $24,000.”
A second window card for the movie that had a small bend in one corner was auctioned several years later and sold for about $13,000.
The Casino Theatre officially reopened its doors in August 1995. Three years ago, Mickey Rooney performed there, and in April, trumpeter Maynard Ferguson gave one of his last performances before dying Aug. 23.
“Every year we do a magic show for children at the end of October, and during the first weekend of December, we self-produce ‘Hometown Christmas.’ This year, it will be a musical revue,” Kessler said.
On Nov. 25, 14 bands will put on a benefit concert at the Casino to help the organization pay the heating bill.
“This is a fun place to be. The people who volunteer here are very enthusiastic,” Kessler added.
The Vandergrift Improvement Program — VIP — is another nonprofit organization comprising local residents, businesses, municipal and state government officials working to protect, preserve and restore the community through the National Trust for Historical Preservations’ Main Street approach.
“We had 15 vacant storefronts out of 100 stores in our town. We didn’t want the town to rot away,” said Wayne Teeple, vice president of the 100-member VIP.
The premise of the town’s Main Street approach is to encourage economic revitalization through a four-pronged system — design, economic restructuring, promotion and organization — to address all of the commercial district’s needs.
The town, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is in the first year of the Main Street program.
“We had to raise $94,000 to obtain funding for a Department of Community and Economic Development Main Street grant,” Teeple said. “Within a three-month period, the residents and Vandergrift government pledged that amount over a five-year period.”
The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, a nonprofit historic preservation group, was hired to manage the Main Street program, said Eugene Matta, director of the foundation’s real estate and special-development programs.
Shaun Yurcaba, of History and Landmarks, is Vandergrift’s Main Street coordinator. She is helping VIP coordinate its efforts.
“The four committees working in design, economic restructuring, promotion and organization fulfill the requirements of the Main Street program,” Yurcaba said.
The design committee is developing guidelines for the protection of historical buildings during changes or renovations. Those on the economic restructuring committee are determining how many businesses are downtown and what types of businesses are in place in order to gauge what improvements are needed.
“The organization committee works on establishing relationships with other community organizations such as the Casino Theatre renovation group and the historical society,” Yurcaba added.
Trying to bring people into town is the work of the promotion committee, which sponsors events such as a summer car cruise and a 2007 pet calendar contest, in which people cast ballots for their favorite pet photos at Vandergrift businesses.
“Once we go into year two of the Main Street project, we become eligible for an $80,000 grant — $30,000 of it will be available to downtown building owners in the form of grants,” Teeple said. “They can apply for a $5,000 matching grant for renovating the facades of their buildings. We already have five building owners interested in this.”
Other groups are working toward Vandergrift’s revitalization, as well.
“Sustainable Pittsburgh is working with us so that Vandergrift becomes a green sustainable development,” Matta said. “And the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative through the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering is also working on quite a project in Vandergrift.”
Sustainable Pittsburgh served as the “matchmaker” between the initiative and Vandergrift, said Eric Beckman, co-director of the Mascaro Sustainability Initiative.
“The goal of MSI is to create the next generation of technology that is cost-effective and sustainable,” Beckman said. “We brought in a team of undergraduate engineering students into Vandergrift and asked them if they could bring energy conservation to the Casino Theatre. The question became ‘How do you lower energy bills without destroying the historic value of the community?’ ”
The shallow, yet swift-flowing Kiski River, which surrounds Vandergrift on three sides, might be able answer, Beckman said. The group submitted a proposal to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance for a sustainable creative energy grant.
“We went in on this proposal with Sustainable Pittsburgh. Whatever we come up with in Vandergrift, we could use in other parts of the state,” Beckman said. “Eventually, we want to create something that will generate electricity and try it out in Vandergrift. The town will be our test bed.”
All the partnerships have helped VIP pick up steam on revitalization projects.
“Other towns are calling us for information. Everyone has a passion for this, and it’s something that’s really taking off,” Teeple said.
Marjorie Wertz can be reached at .
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Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. Keynote Address at the 2006 National Preservation Conference
PHLF News
October 31, 2006“Preservation In Pittsburgh” Keynote address of Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. at the 2006 National Preservation Conference held in Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2006
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New Granada Theatre could turn a corner
C. Denise Johnson
New Pittsburgh Courier Staff Writer
October 5, 2006View all articles by C. Denise Johnson
Grop plans to bring new life to once prominent site
A single glance conjures images to bygone days of women dressed to the nines and their Jim Dandies. For some it brings backs days of daylong movie matinees. For others still, the New Granada is a constant reminder of dreams deferred.Much of recent Hill District memories evolve around loss: loss of a once-thriving neighborhood based business district and a community on the verge of prosperity. Then came urban renewal.
All of the advantages that justified the construction of the civic arena missed the Hill. Aspirations of improvement and/or expansion became as frozen as the Penguin’s playing surface; for years the Hill has been stuck in time.
The promise of rebirth springs eternal and such is the case for the New Granada.
Two years ago, the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh cited the deserted venue as one of its “Top Ten Best Preservation Opportunities, which lead to Pittsburgh City Council designated the site as a local historical landmark.
Plans are afoot to secure a national designation, says Marimba Milliones of the Hill Community Redevelopment Corp.
“The New Granada is on the itinerary for the National Trust when they hold their conference in Pittsburgh next month,” Milliones said.
In the interim a collaborative of concerned community residents along with the HCRC, YPF, artists, and architecture gather for the specific purpose of bringing new life to the prominent eyesore.
It is a painstaking process that involves structural analysis, feasibility studies and visioning groups made up of the immediate stakeholders—Hill District residents.
“The New Granada is a community icon, and we must be very deliberate in how we proceed,” said Milliones.
In the interim, there have been several efforts to spur development, said former City Councilman Sala Udin.
“There was a committee set up by the mayor’s office during Tom Murphy’s administration,” said Udin, who represented the Hill on council. “The police chief also was a part of that group.”
Part of the reason for the slower re-birth of the New Granada is the ongoing open-air drug activity along that block of Centre Avenue.
“That’s the fly in the ointment, offered Udin.
“It was acknowledged that one of the ways to promote invest and redevelopment on the Hill is to eradicate the drug trafficking. I know there was one meeting, but I’m not aware of any subsequent meetings or outcomes, Udin commented.Evan Frazier agrees. As the Executive Director of the Hill House, Frazier is keenly cognizant of the structure’s significance to the Hill.
“The New Granada is part of the Hill’s signature, so it’s important that the legacy be preserved,” observed Frazier. “Community should be flexible to make sure whatever is decided on is sustainable and attractive to investors. It should be developed to add value to the community and the region.”
Future options for the building are many and because of its size, Milliones says it could be a multi-purpose facility that could eventually become the hub of a revitalized Centre Avenue corridor.
Designed 1927 by local architect Louis Bellinger—one of the few Black architects in the country and constructed in 1928, the building was as a base for the local chapter of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal group of Black construction workers. The structure also offered commercial and office space.
Ten years later the facility was converted in to a commercial theater by it’s then owner, Harry Hendel, who renamed the facility in light of the demise of another business venture, the original Granada situated two blocks away on Centre Avenue.
The New Granada also housed the Savoy Ballroom (a former auditorium) which opened in 1941, hosting such luminaries as Stanley Turrentine, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, to name a few and developed a storied history as evidence by this Courier account:
“In January 1932, the Pythian Temple hosted the largest crowd in its history when the Pittsburgh Courier, the nation’s pre-eminent African-American newspaper, crowned Duke Ellington the “King of Jazz” in a concert and presentation broadcast nationally over radio station WCAE. This event shattered previous attendance records of any such event in the city and to date has never been equaled. Nearly 3,000 patrons from as far as New York City, including his mother, wife, sister and son, watched as Ellington was presented with the Courier’s “Loving Cup.” Ellington’s mother later expressed her gratitude for the event and her son’s honor to the Courier in a letter to the editor. The people of the Hill District still refer to the event as the crowning of the “King of Jazz,” and “…second to none in the annals of time of the Hill District.”
According to Milliones, the theatre’s immediate future includes a feasibility study.
“Considering how long it’s been vacant, it’s in relatively good condition aside from the need of a new roof,” she said. “We also exploring the possibility of it becoming an energy efficient, environmentally-friendly “green building.”
Funding is another challenge and is part of the reasoning for the New Granada’s inclusion on the National Trust’s radar. “A lot of the preliminary work is technical in nature, which means the need for funding.”
Members of the New Granada Theatre Committee, which Milliones co-chairs, include Robert Neu of the Kelly-Strayhorn, Hill resident and entrepreneur Williams Benton, attorney William Bercik, Cathy McCollum of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks and Chloe Velasquez of YPAP.
Milliones sees potential for a multipurpose facility based on the size of the structure.
“It’s a phenomenal building!” Milliones exclaimed.
“It represents a tremendous opportunity to add momentum to the ongoing development along the Centre Avenue corridor,” added Frazier.
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Arts center kicks off remodeling of building
By Kimberly Kweder
For the Tribune-Review
Thursday, September 21, 2006Inside a vast and empty room, the Rev. Regis Ryan walks along the dusty, old, wooden floors with his eyes scanning the white walls, blue ceiling and railings that line a balcony.
Another room adjacent to the right is nothing but a gutted ceiling, a floor full of broken pieces of material.“This building is beautiful,” said Ryan, director of Focus on Renewal Inc. “Everyone agrees this is fantastic.”
It’s beautiful, he said, because a $3.4 million dollar remodeling project at the bare, three-story furniture store will transform it into art studios, offices, classrooms, a 125-seat theatre and space for a wide variety of social gatherings.
The Sto-Rox Cultural Arts Center at 420 Chartiers Avenue in McKees Rocks will bring the visual, performing and literary arts together for all ages.
A partnership between the Community Outreach Partnership Center at Point Park University and Focus on Renewal developed two years ago to work toward revitalizing McKees Rocks. They are spreading the word to neighbors, foundations and state and local officials to promote the need for an arts center.
A kickoff event Sept. 13 at the center gave residents of the Sto-Rox School District, Community Outreach Partnership Center participants and public officials an opportunity to view the design plans. Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, McKees Rocks Mayor Jack Muhr and representatives from State Sen. Wayne Fontana’s office also supported the cause.
“I think it opens doors and is certainly a cultural value to the whole region. I understand the arts are growing, and I think it’s a good thing for everyone,” said Fontana, D-Brookline, who toured the facility with Ryan months before any work was done on it.
Work started over the summer.
“Everybody’s excited about this … It’s a valuable addition to the town,” Ryan said.
“We hope it brings life and vibrancy to the neighborhood,” said Sister Sarah Crotty, an Aliquippa resident who works with Focus on Renewal as part of her ministry through the Sisters of St. Joseph, based in Baden.
Focus on Renewal Inc. still needs to obtain a large chunk of funding for the project.
The Allegheny County Department of Economic Development approved a $470,659 grant for interior upgrades last May. However, Ryan said, about $3 million more is needed for the entire project.
For the past two years, a handful of Point Park students and adjunct faculty have volunteered with the Community Outreach Partnership Center. They provide afterschool programs for Sto-Rox School Districts students that teach theatre, dance and music from the students. At the end of every session, students registered in the program perform on stage and show off their skills.
About 100 students have registered for the program this semester, said Pat Moran, Community Outreach Partnership Center director.
“It’s been increasing about 10 to 15 percent every semester,” Moran said.
“It has sparked enthusiasm in the community, and adults have been begging for programs for themselves, too. The community is anxious to get the doors open (of the cultural center).”
Ryan said he is optimistic the center will open next fall.
Taris Vrcek, executive director of the McKees Rocks Community Development Corp. and a third-generation resident of the area, said the arts center will act as a catalyst for other projects to start.
“The arts center is a huge start to the revitalization process. It’s symbolic because it involves the people’s heart, mind and soul and creates a place for residents to come together.”
Arlene Lichy, 55, a Sto-Rox resident, said she’s going to use the center when it opens. Lichy has displayed her artwork at a gallery in Lawrenceville and said the center will provide her another venue. Lichy also said her 10-year-old grandson loves art, and she hopes he and other youngsters will be able to take classes at the center.
“This is a poor community, and we’re looking for something positive to look forward to,” Lichy said. “It just takes a lot of persistence, lots of money, though.”