Lower Hill District before Demolition

1956-10

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Lower Hill District before Demolition
  • Title
  • Lower Hill District before Demolition
  • Creator
  • John R. Shrader
  • Identifier
  • MSP285.B033.F05.I10
  • Source Identifier
  • MSP285.B033.F05.I10
  • Description
  • Looking west on Fifth Avenue at Diamond Street. Early in the nineteenth century Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood contained country estates, working farms, coal mines, and a village of black freedmen. By 1929 the Hill District was populated by a diverse number of ethnic groups. The Hill District was divided into areas that reflected the ethnic makeup of that neighborhood. Some of these areas were called Little Italy, Polish Hill, Athens, Little Syria, Jewish “Ghetto,” and the Black Belt. During the twentieth century the older ethnic and Jewish population moved away and the Hill District became known as the Harlem of Pittsburgh, a place where the best jazz could be heard. The reconstruction of the Lower Hill began in 1955 with $17 million in federal grants. This project encompassed 100 acres, 1300 buildings, 413 businesses, and 8000 residents (a majority of them African-Americans) that were displaced in an attempt to extend the revitalization of the adjacent Golden Triangle.
  • Genre
  • photographs
  • Subject
  • Lower Hill (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Fifth Avenue (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Diamond Street (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Sam Seltzer &
    Co. (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Philadelphia Yarn (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    George Lioon &
    Son (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Jack's Midtown Bar (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Bernard Slaton Co. (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Lazich Accordion School (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
  • Source
  • Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs, 1892-1981, MSP 285, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center
  • Contributor
  • Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
  • Collection
  • Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs
  • Rights Information
  • Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
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