Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Tour forges link to steel-making past
By Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 3, 2007Jim Kapusta tells his granddaughter plenty of stories from his 20 years as a journeyman at the Carrie Furnaces of U.S. Steel’s former Homestead Works.
Few of the tales made much sense to the 13-year-old until Kapusta took her on a tour of the rusting, graffiti-covered hulk — now open for tours as part of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.“Pittsburgh as a steel area is gone now,” said Kapusta, 61, of Peters. “To keep the thoughts and heritage going, we need something like this. It’s almost like going to the Carnegie museum.”
Rivers of Steel gained tour access last year to the Carrie Furnaces site — stretching along the Monongahela River in Rankin, Braddock and Swissvale — after Allegheny County purchased the former mill.
The tours help the heritage area deliver on its mission of bringing to life Western Pennsylvania’s industrial history, said Augie Carlino, president of the Steel Industry Heritage Corp., which oversees the seven-county heritage area.
About 2,000 people toured the furnaces last year, yet names remained on a waiting list. Rivers of Steel plans to start offering the tours again this month.“There’s a big difference,” Carlino said. “It’s not imaginary anymore. The scale and magnitude and what the potential is I don’t think comes home to anybody until they’re walking around there.”
The National Park Service last year designated the furnaces as a historic landmark, and backers are hoping to win congressional designation as a full National Historic Site within the next two years.
The furnaces would be on par with the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield and Grand Canyon in terms of prestige, federal marketing and park service staffing, Carlino said. The site could draw hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.
A futuristic vision includes a monorail snaking around gleaming factory buildings, while visitors linger on wide brick walkways and at open-air cafes. At night, fireworks and flaming gas plumes would erupt from a factory trimmed in decorative lighting.
Federal and state governments could share the $100 million to $120 million cost with local foundations, Carlino said.
The plans seem far-fetched — especially from the barren mill site, choked with weeds — but have roots in similar industrial tourism sites in Germany. There, a former steel mill has been turned into an amusement park with rock climbers scaling iron ore storage bins and scuba divers swimming in a seven-story water tank.
“It’s not a museum only,” said Janis Dofner, the heritage group’s spokeswoman. “You’ve got to have other amenities.”
For now, the Rivers of Steel tour allows visitors to simply walk beneath and around the 92-foot blast furnaces as they stand silently among chirping birds. The cast house, where molten iron once poured from the furnace amid showering sparks, stands as an open-air cathedral.
Kapusta and former mill workers volunteer their time to share stories of wrestling with oversized valves and the fire-breathing machines.
“It was like you’re controlling a volcano,” Kapusta said. “It was probably the same heat and everything.”
Andrew Conte can be reached at aconte@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7835.
-
New life proposed for former South Hills High School
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, April 19, 2007The former South Hills High School soon could be given new life after sitting dormant for 20 years in the heart of a Mt. Washington residential neighborhood.
“It’s been a white elephant for a long time,” said Mt. Washington resident Virginia Gates, a 1959 graduate of the school, which was built in 1916 and closed in 1986. “You can see from the sheer size of it what an impact its (revival) is going to have on the whole community.”
North Shore-based developer a.m. Rodriguez Associates Inc. has prepared a $20 million redevelopment plan to build 84 one- and two-bedroom apartments and 25 two-bedroom, market-rate rental lofts in the building.
The apartments would be marketed to senior citizens. The first floor could have more than 10,000 square feet of commercial space and a health center.
Room for off-street parking should be plentiful once the developer removes three sections of the mammoth building to bring its size to 155,000 square feet.
“In terms of why it’s important to bring this building back, it’s a huge building that at one time was a landmark and center of activity for that community,” said Tom Link, manager of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s business development center. The URA has targeted the school for redevelopment.
Gates, chairwoman of the South Hills High School committee, believes the renovation project will boost property values around the site and drive out drug dealers and vandals.
Link and Gates said many developers have tried over the past 20 years to devise ways to renovate the building, but none has come as far as Rodriguez Associates.
Victor Rodriguez said his company has applied for $12 million in tax credits from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. If those credits come through in September, an estimated 15 months of construction could begin as soon as June 2008.
“There’s a great market for this up there, especially for seniors,” he said.
Ethan Raup, executive director of the Mt. Washington Community Development Corp., credited Gates and the URA for helping to persuade the building’s owner — Pittsburgh Public Schools — to make the property more enticing to developers by removing asbestos, adding a new roof and doing other renovations.
“To me, it’s going from having an enormous dead space in the middle of a residential community to injecting it with new life,” Raup said.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
-
Repairs on North Side library branch expected by early summer
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 10, 2007The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh expects to finish repairing damage done by a lightning bolt at the former Allegheny branch by early this summer.
“In the next few weeks, they’ll place the actual capstone upon the clock tower,” said library spokeswoman Suzanne Thinnes.Lightning struck the 117-year-old, Romanesque-style library in the North Side’s Allegheny Square on April 7, 2006. It has been closed since, and plans call for it to no longer be used as a library.
A piece of granite weighing several hundred pounds fell into the lecture hall on the second floor, and a one-ton chunk destroyed the building’s heating and cooling system and damaged waterlines.
The collapse did not injure anyone or damage the library’s collection.
The repairs will cost an estimated $2 million. Insurance will cover most of that, Thinnes said.
North Side-based Mascaro Construction is doing the work. “We chose them because they have expertise in repairing historical buildings,” she said.
The building was named a historic landmark by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation in 1970 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places four years later.
“The work that’s going on is helping its historical fabric, not hurting it,” assured foundation President Arthur P. Ziegler Jr.
Carnegie Library is planning a new building along Federal Street, and will not be using the Allegheny branch building after the repairs are done.
The New Hazlett Theater and a city senior citizen center occupy the building. Landmark Design Associates, a South Side firm, is studying possible uses for the space once used by the library.
Ziegler said one option is office space, possibly for a nonprofit group.
The library hopes to break ground on the Federal Street building this fall, Thinnes said.
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7828.
-
Teacher wants Point View’s history documented
Brad Pedersen
Staff Writer, South Hills Record
Trib-Total Media
Thursday, April 5, 2007The Point View Hotel is all but history, though Sarah Martin, a teacher from the city’s Knoxville neighborhood, hopes to help document what happened in the building before it is torn down.
“Saving the Point View is moot,” said Martin. “It’s going to be torn down and there’s not much chance of saving the physical facility. What I’d like to do is document it as carefully and well as possible before it is demolished.”
A three-story medical facility will be built at 3720 Brownsville Road, where the Point View stands, for now. The projected plan is to tear the Point View down to build the facility for Brentwood Medical Group.
The medical group was recently granted a zoning variance, allowing them to build a three-story facility in the area zoned for two-story structures. According to Ralph Costa, Brentwood building inspector, without the variance, Brentwood Medical Group would have had to build an expanded two-story building, which they feared would impact parking space around the facility.
Martin has been taking groups of students throughout the city on hikes of documented Underground Railroad routes for the past 15 years. She has been coming to Brentwood for the past eight years.
According to Martin, Brentwood, the Hill District, North Side and Mount Washington have the most credible evidence of Underground Railroad activity.
“Those four areas of the city I’ve done for a long time,” said Martin. “I’m very much interested in hiking and walking and children and history, so it all comes together for me.”
There are no specifics on when the Point View was built, although most estimate it was built during or before the 1820s along the Brownsville Road carriage route. When it was constructed, it was a part of Baldwin Township, which was broken into several villages, including Point View. Brentwood became a borough in 1915.
The hotel boasted eight modest rooms and the most famous was referred to as the President’s Room. Prior to their presidencies, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan and Zachary Taylor stayed in the room. It is also one of few structures standing that served as an Underground Railroad “station” in Allegheny County, along with the Bingham House in Chatham Village and the Morning Glory Inn, Southside.
“I’m going to hold their feet to the fire,” said Martin.
Martin has contacted the Brentwood Medical Group and feels that they are willing to work with her efforts in documenting the site, whether it be allowing her to take photographs of the inside or displaying a plaque.
According to Martin, Brentwood Medical Group representatives told her that they are looking into allowing her access to the building. The group has not given Martin a definite answer, though she is optimistic about the project.
Along with photographs and a plaque, Martin is also hoping to bring an archaeologist to the Point View, either before or during its demolition. She hopes to verify the age of the columns in the basement.
“It is a part of our history that needs to be reconciled and shared,” said Martin. “History usually just talks about the institution and what happened. All the small people along the way did things, it gives us perspective and balance and helps us to understand that not everybody is on the same issue and page.
“It’s an opportunity to get to know and revisit that, to know that there were people there to help runaway slaves and they were not all in favor of institutional slavery. It helps us see both sides of people and help us understand how we got through that period, even prior to the civil war.”
Since the time of the presidential stays and Underground Railroad, the building has gone through several updates, including the addition of the kitchen and bar area, aluminum siding and many other changes. These changes have prevented the Point View from achieving a historical landmark designation. A high cost to restore the Point View to its original state has kept previous owners from earning the designation.
-
Historic designation sought for Turtle Creek school
By Daveen Rae Kurutz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, April 2, 2007Peter Rubash has a vested interest in Turtle Creek High School.
His grandfather helped dig the foundation for the building, now known as East Junior High School, 90 years ago, and most of his family graduated from the school.“It’s a grand old building, very charming,” said Rubash, 47, of Churchill. “It clearly has historical significance.”
The Woodland Hills School District facility has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places amid controversy over whether to keep the school open.
The district, which has undergone several evaluations on whether to consolidate schools, voted in March to begin the process of closing East Junior High School, citing the building’s age and declining enrollment.
“We’re very proud and happy for the Turtle Creek community to have a resource such as this,” Woodland Hills Superintendent Roslynne Wilson said. “We all feel extremely lucky to live in an area so rich in history.”For a structure to be added to the registry, it must meet three criteria:
* It must be at least 50 years old.
* It should be associated with events of local or state historical significance.
* It must embody a type or school of architecture.
East Junior High School meets all of these criteria easily, said Jill Henkel, who advocated its addition to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation.
The building, which reflects the classical revival style of architecture, is visible from any point in the borough, she said.
“East Junior High School has really become the central point of the town,” said Henkel, 46, of Turtle Creek. “Sometimes, you have to save something just because it’s worth saving, for a pure, unselfish reason.”
Two representatives from the school district, Wilson and school board president Cynthia Lowery, attended a March meeting with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation. While Wilson did not address the committee, Lowery spoke against including the school on the registry. She said she spoke as a resident, not as president of the board.
“We went there to find out what was going on,” Lowery said. “I decided to speak. I spoke for myself.”
Wilson said that putting the school on the registry would not restrict what the district could do with the building.
Adding the school to any list of historic buildings is only a first step, Rubash said.
“It doesn’t really mean anything unless we have added funding because of it. Just because it’s named to the registry doesn’t mean it will be saved,” Rubash said. “That building needs a lot of love, and a lot of help.”
Daveen Rae Kurutz can be reached at dkurutz@tribweb.com or 412-380-5627.
-
A fresh start for Wilkinsburg
By Marjorie Wertz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 25, 2007It was Col. Dunning McNair who laid out the first lots in what now is Wilkinsburg in 1790. He named his plan McNairsville and built the first mansion, Dumpling Hill.
The mansion eventually became the home of James Kelly, a wealthy businessman. Kelly bought thousands of acres and donated the land for churches, schools and two homes for senior citizens. It was Kelly who eventually would fight to make the borough independent.“Col. McNair had purchased about 266 acres, and he and Kelly developed the village,” said Jim Richard, a former borough tax collector and member of the Wilkinsburg Historical Society. Richard also is a member of the Wilkinsburg School Board.
But it was from the well-connected Wilkins family that the 2.03-square-mile borough eventually would take its name.
John Wilkins owned a lot of property in the village, while his brother, William, was a county judge, founder and first president of the Bank of Pittsburgh, legislator, state senator, minister to Russia in Tyler’s administration and, eventually, Tyler’s secretary of war.
In the 1800s, the area that became Wilkinsburg was annexed to the city of Pittsburgh. Kelly fought to make the village independent again, and, in 1871, he prevailed. Fifteen years later, on Oct. 5, 1887, Wilkinsburg was incorporated as a borough, and the community quickly grew.
The Pennsylvania Railroad laid its first tracks through the community in the mid-1800s. The Lincoln Highway would come through the borough in the early 1900s.
“We also used to have an airport in the Blackridge area of Wilkinsburg from 1930-38,” Richard said.
“Wilkinsburg was the home of a transportation network, with the highway as the main street, the railroad, and it was an early streetcar hub,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The borough’s access to Pittsburgh’s “amenities” made it appealing. Plus, it was known as the “city of churches.” And it was, and still is, a “dry” community — no taverns or bars are allowed in the borough.
Popular home-construction styles in the borough’s heyday included Queen Anne and Romanesque (1890s), as well as Colonial Revival, Federal and Vernacular (early 1900s). Many buildings remain, forming the foundation for the borough’s rich architectural heritage.
The historical society has written a book that will be published by Arcadia Publishing on April 30. The book features 220 photographs and will be available at local bookstores and through the Wilkinsburg Public Library.
Joel Minnigh has been head librarian for 31 years. The library was founded in 1899 as a branch of the first Carnegie Library in Braddock.
“In its heyday, it was the largest library in the state,” Minnigh said. “Our first librarian was Fred Evans, whose father designed the British House of Parliament.”
According to a report by the Wilkinsburg Neighborhood Transformation Initiative in December 2004, the borough, like many Allegheny County neighborhoods, began to experience declining and aging population in the late 1960s, which led to an eroding tax base, out-migration, loss of neighborhood schools, abandoned or underutilized buildings and decaying business districts.
After the borough began to decline in the ’70s and ’80s, criminal activity increased.
Mark Smith lived in Uniontown for 10 years before moving to Wilkinsburg in 1998. Smith was director of the Wilkinsburg Chamber of Commerce from 1998-2000 and now is involved in a real estate and community-development consulting firm.
Smith bought and renovated property along Jeanette Street. His book, “Boldly Live Where Others Won’t,” resulted from his interest in community development.
“My desire has been to convince people to become property owners and live in the community as resident landlords,” Smith said. “There’s this housing stock in Wilkinsburg of larger homes that lend themselves to duplexes and small, multi-unit apartments, in which the property owner can live in one unit and rent the others.”
Smith lists three advantages to buying property in Wilkinsburg: convenience, cost and conscience.
“You can get favorable appraisals and that leads to favorable financing plans. Plus, Wilkinsburg is 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh and 10 minutes from Monroeville,” he said. “Wilkinsburg has its issues, but for those who have vision and willing to stick it out and become a part of the solution, there’s opportunity.”
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation became interested in Wilkinsburg because of its history and the rich architecture of its buildings.
“Residents and local government officials asked us to try and assemble a program to create reinvestment in Wilkinsburg without relocating anyone,” Ziegler said. “We have developed a multi-pronged effort, which includes the use of our preservation loan fund to help some local nonprofits restore and renovate buildings.”
Kasey Connors, a Wilkinsburg resident and owner of Vintage Reconstruction, a restoration contracting company, also is involved in the Wilkinsburg Neighborhood Transformation Initiative.
The initiative came about when a development proposal called for demolition in the Jeanette Street area.
“The community felt so strongly about the historic nature of that area, we asked Landmarks to come in and help,” Connors said. “Landmarks brought their resources to the table with consultants and held multiple community meetings focusing on the Jeanette Street corridor.”
History & Landmarks was drawn to the project because of the architectural integrity of the Jeanette Street buildings, which were built in the 1890s and early 1900s.
Three houses along Jeanette Street and one along Holland Avenue were targeted for restoration. Restoration began in summer 2006 on the three single-family homes and one owner-occupied duplex.
“The houses will have special financing that includes $10,000 in soft mortgage provided by the county government,” said Michael Sriprasert, Landmarks’ assistant for real estate programs. “The houses will cost $70,000, but the buyer will have a first mortgage of $60,000. The $10,000 soft mortgage will be deferred until the buyer sells the home. If they sell after 15 years, the soft mortgage will be forgiven.”
Funding for the restoration projects came from Allegheny County, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Hillman Foundation and others.
The homes will be available for sale in early fall. Sriprasert said buyers can customize fixtures, paint and flooring if Landmarks has an agreement of sale in April.
Ziegler said History & Landmarks also might get into a restoration project with the historic Pennsylvania Railroad Station, which was built in 1916 but has been abandoned since the 1970s.
“The county wants us to look at the train station, which we’ve looked at many times,” Ziegler added. “That’s a big commitment.”
Connors is quick to commend History & Landmarks for its efforts in the community.
“I see them as a rescuing agent,” she said. “They brought these homes up to the standards on which historic districts are based.”
Mindy Schwartz saw opportunity in the form of gardens on vacant lots.
Schwartz operates Garden Dreams Urban Farm and Nursery on two vacant lots across the street from the Holland Avenue home renovation project. The business markets specialty and heirloom seedlings, sustainable gardening supplies and vegetables. A greenhouse in her Center Street basement allows her to grow 10,000 plants, including 80 types of tomatoes.
“My garden is a green oasis in the middle of a distressed neighborhood; a patch of green where life is growing,” Schwartz said. “The farm is a fountain of regeneration, in a way. It creates good energy and is a bright spot in town. It seems to have a significant impact in the community.”
Schwartz and two friends, Barb Kline and Randa Shannon, created Grow Pittsburgh, which teaches and facilitates urban agriculture. Its two affiliates are Garden Dreams and Mildred’s Daughters Urban Farm in Stanton Heights.
“There have been a number of people redoing houses and investing in the neighborhood,” Schwartz said. “My farm has been a magnet that’s excited and engaged people and has been a contributing factor in helping people want to invest in this neighborhood.”
She is working on another project in the Hamnett Place area of Wilkinsburg. The Hamnett Homestead Sustainable Living Center will be in a building Schwartz owns. The building will be transformed into a community center and greenhouse, where she will teach people how to grow food and achieve sustainability.
For Mayor John Thompson, the changes to the community in which he’s lived for 42 years are invigorating.
“I’m excited about the positive things I see happening in Wilkinsburg,” said Thompson, who took office on Jan. 2, 2006. “We have committees working together and focusing on seven areas — economic development, municipal services, human services, communications, education, beautification and housing.”
A much-needed grocery store, Save-A-Lot, opened Feb. 20 in the borough, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Generations Building, on the corner of Wood and Franklin, took place March 14. The newly renovated structure will have offices and housing. The Sperling Building, on the corner of Penn Avenue and Coal Street, was transformed into a six- to eight-unit apartment building.
“We’re also looking at doing single-family housing projects on McNair Boulevard,” Thompson said.
In December 2006, the police department hired a new chief, Ophelia Coleman, who served as a Pittsburgh Police detective for 20 years.
“She is very community-oriented. She knows what needs to happen here in Wilkinsburg,” Thompson said. “There’s truly a lot going on in Wilkinsburg. If you can’t get excited about what’s happening now, I don’t know what it will take.”
—
The history:
Wilkinsburg, which was first home to settlers in the 1700s and broke away from Pittsburgh’s eastern flank in 1871, has made its share of contributions to the region’s history.
* It was home to President John Tyler’s secretary of war.
* It was a transportation mecca in the 1800s, with the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Lincoln Highway and a streetcar system running through it.
* It was where, in 1919, the first commercial radio station, 8XK, was broadcast from the garage of Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad; the station was a forerunner to KDKA radio.
* It was birthplace, in 1920, of Scholastic Magazine, founded by Wilkinsburg native Maurice Robinson as a newsletter for high school students. Scholastic Magazine would become Scholastic Publishing, publisher of the wildly popular “Harry Potter” series.
For all the borough’s historic value, though, the past several decades have brought economic and social ills that have coincided with an eroding tax base. But within the past few years, a renaissance has begun, as residents and nonprofits work to revitalize the community.
-
Monessen targeting ‘blueprint’ program for business district
By Stacy Wolford
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
Wednesday, March 21, 2007MONESSEN – City council will apply for a grant as part of an effort to participate in a downtown revitalization program.
Councilwoman Mary Jo Smith prepared a grant request for $22,500 for the “Blueprint for Pennsylvania Downtowns.” The program is provided through the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities and HyettPalma, which will conduct the study.
Smith presented the proposal to council during a Monday night work session.
The “Blueprint” program is designed to provide hands-on help to city officials and community leaders interested in energizing their downtowns.
HyettPalma will start by creating a working partnership with the city by forming a process committee. The end result will be a “downtown blueprint” that provides a comprehensive strategy to reinvent the downtown economy.
Smith said the city will apply for the $22,500 grant through the state Department of Community and Economic Development. If it receives the grant, the money will be used to offset the $45,000 cost to participate in the “blueprint” program.
Smith said the program will benefit everyone in the city, not just the downtown area.
“We need a starting point and we have to have a goal to get to,” Smith said. “All of us are working and we can’t put an eight-hour day into this.
“But this is their line of expertise and they can bring a fresh new outlook into town,” she added with reference to HyettPalma.
Smith said Uniontown, Franklin Township and St. Mary’s have all participated in the “downtown blueprint” program.
Mayor Anthony Petaccia approved the grant request and said he felt the program would be beneficial for the city.
Council will meet tonight at 7 for its public meeting.
Stacy Wolford can be reached at swolford@tribweb.com or (724) 684-2640.
-
Saving Brownsville: Is its history key to future?
By Robin Acton
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 18, 2007Hamburgers and hot dogs sizzle on the grill at Fiddle’s Confectionery, where 15 counter stools fill as the lunch crowd arrives on a brisk afternoon.
Waitresses serve steaming cups of coffee with the $3.79 pizza burger special. Dozens of customers, including Warren Galiffa, of Bethel Park, and his 100-year-old aunt, Rose Hughes, dine in booths where generations of Brownsville’s sweethearts carved their initials on the tabletops.“It’s a throwback in time,” Galiffa said. “It reminds you of the way things used to be.”
The “way things used to be” is a frequent topic in this bleak Monongahela River valley town that has bled population and businesses for decades.
Tara Hospital, the former Brownsville General Hospital, closed last year. Police and borough workers were laid off in December. In January, when a longtime lender, National City Bank, denied a $75,000 tax anticipation loan, council members begged the electric company not to shut off the town’s street lights.
“There ain’t nothing here,” said Levi Gnus, a lifelong resident. “We don’t even have a grocery store downtown.”
What’s happening in this Fayette County community is not unique. Experts say it is an example of a downward spiral common to small municipalities.
“It’s an unhappy situation, but it’s replicated all over the valley,” said Robert Strauss, a professor of economics and public policy in the Heinz School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Like many southwestern Pennsylvania communities, Brownsville already was in decline when it suffered crippling job losses from the demise of the region’s steel mills and coal mines in the 1970s and 1980s. Families moved, college students never returned and failing businesses closed until the main thoroughfare, Market Street, became a desolate stretch of shuttered storefronts and empty lots.
In 1960, Brownsville had 6,055 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2005, death and migration cut the population to 2,690.
Between 1960 and 2005, the same thing happened all over the region. Pittsburgh’s population went from 604,332 to 316,718, while McKeesport’s dropped from 45,489 to 22,701 and New Castle’s fell from 44,790 to 25,030.
“We train people very well and then they leave,” said Albert Luloff, a professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology at Penn State University. “You can’t stop that unless we create jobs.”
Luloff and Strauss also blame Pennsylvania’s “fractured government system” for creating hundreds of municipalities with dwindling tax bases, no industry and limited means to provide services.
“It makes any effort by any community almost impossible as they’re trying to attract industries while competing with each other,” Luloff said. “They’re working at each other’s throats.”
Civil war
Brownsville’s leaders agree that something must be done, but they are at odds over a solution.
Mayor Lewis Hosler said there is a power struggle between preservationists who want to bank on Brownsville’s rich history and people who favor projects such as a proposed velodrome for Olympic-style bicycle races.
“There’s people who don’t want to see change,” Hosler said. “They want to preserve the old buildings, and a lot of them aren’t even historical.”
Leading the preservationists is former mayor Norma Ryan, a volunteer with the nonprofit Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp., who believes the town’s history is critical to its future.
Located off Route 40, the National Road, Brownsville was the first meeting site for the Whiskey Rebellion, boasts the nation’s first cast-iron bridge and is where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had a boat built for their westward exploration.
“I think people have faith that the town will come back,” Ryan said.
Records show the organization received several million dollars in state, federal and foundation grants and matching funds since 1989 that were spent on property acquisition and renovation, cultural ventures and educational purposes.
Restoration of Market Street’s Flatiron building, Frank L. Melega Art Museum and Flatiron Heritage Center is perhaps its main achievement. A store that sells clothing for historical re-enactments and a flower shop opened in its renovated buildings.
“We are slowly acquiring and renovating buildings to get the town back on track,” Executive Director Alison McConnell said. “If you have the ability to see beyond the blight, you can see the potential.”
Councilman John Hosler, the mayor’s brother, disagrees.
“Nobody’s coming here. Why should they? You can’t go downtown to buy a dress or a pair of shoes or food. You need a hub store, not a store that sells flowers or relics,” he said.
Critics contend the organization has little to show for its efforts and claim it undermines viable projects while advancing its agenda of property acquisition.
“BARC doesn’t belong in the real estate business,” said Ray Koffler, owner of Tru-Copy Printing Service.
Luloff doubts that selling history will revitalize Brownsville. He said dozens of small museums and groups are trying to do the same thing.
“These places barely survive,” he said.
Property disputes
Plans for the community have been a point of controversy for decades. Central to the dispute are Monroeville developers Ernest and Marilyn Liggett, owners of Manor Investments.
Since 1992, they’ve pumped millions into some 100 blighted properties purchased on the assumption that “mass creates opportunity,” Ernest Liggett said. Although Brownsville’s access to highways, the railroad and the river made it ideal for development, problems obtaining permits and opposition from some circles blocked their plans for riverboat gambling, an Indian casino or a retail strip mall.
Some blame the Liggetts — who fell behind on taxes and have been fined for code violations as their properties further deteriorated — for all that is wrong with Brownsville. Others say it was in trouble long before they arrived.
“It’s not these people,” said hardware store owner Pat Ballon. “All they bought was the empty buildings.”
Future plans
Ballon, Koffler, the Liggetts and others support the velodrome proposed by CB Richard Ellis, a real estate brokerage and management firm in Pittsburgh.
“I’d like to see Brownsville become to Olympic cycling what Williamsport is to Little League Baseball,” said Liggett, who envisions his properties filled with retail, hotel and office space.
Supporters are shocked that others in town question its chances for success.
“It doesn’t make sense to me why they’re not beating the cymbals, saying it’s Mardi Gras time,” Ballon said.
Frank Ricco, president of the Greater Brownsville Chamber of Commerce, said the Brownsville Free Public Library, the post office and American Legion Post 295 could be relocated from the Snowden Square area to a new civic complex to accommodate the velodrome, which would be owned by a public authority.
“There’s no question in my mind this could be the thing to save Brownsville,” he said.
Lead architect Jeff Slusarick, a principal of the Astorino firm in Pittsburgh, said CB Richard Ellis and Astorino consultants are developing plans for a project feasibility study.
Slusarick, whose firm designed Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, called the velodrome “a unique opportunity.” The 1980 Brownsville Area High School graduate has wanted to do something to help his hometown for years.
That’s the way it should be, according to Luloff at Penn State.
“When people care about each other and the place that they live, the community is alive and well. When they stop, it falls apart,” Luloff said. “If they really are interested in the best thing for the community, they’ll realize a community isn’t buildings and a community isn’t history. A community is people.”
Robin Acton can be reached at racton@tribweb.com or 724-830-6295.