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River town revival: Millvale is drawing young families, new businesses in its comeback
Wednesday, April 11, 2001 By Rick Nowlin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
In another town, the neighborhood pharmacy and 1950s-style soda shop might merely be quaint reminders of a simpler time. But in Millvale, they're symbols of a past that is becoming the future.
The well-scrubbed Lincoln Pharmacy and P&G Diner at Lincoln and North avenues are adorned with colorful crepe-paper decorations that suggest something big is about to happen in Millvale.
It is.
The 130-year-old borough, hurt by the loss of industrial jobs beginning in the 1980s and later plagued by financial problems, is making a comeback.
Millvale is becoming "sort of a combination Shadyside/South Side without losing the indigenous qualities that make it so special," Mayor Jim Burn said. "Everyone looks out for everyone else. It's one big neighborhood."
Jennifer Cohen, the third-generation owner of the pharmacy that her late grandfather Joseph Cohen founded in 1928, lived in Millvale when the steel mills and E.T. Lippert Saw Co., defunct since 1995, employed most townsfolk. She witnessed the borough's transformation into "a transient town," where no one came to live permanently.
"That's all changed," she said. "It has a flavor all its own, and newcomers are welcome here."
Cohen, who lived out West for several years and now lives in Pittsburgh's Regent Square neighborhood, loves the small-town feel of Millvale. "There's not that sense of community in the cities as much," she said.
Another shopkeeper also spoke of the borough's community feel.
"It's like the village [where] I grew up in France," said Jean-Marc Chatellier of Shaler, who owns a French pastry shop on North Avenue.
Business is good, he said.
"We get a lot of people from Squirrel Hill on Saturdays," he said. It's "cheaper than the Strip [District] and there's always parking."
Crime, he added, is practically nonexistent. "Not too many robberies here," he said. On warm days, he often walks to work.
It took Chatellier a year to find a suitable storefront for his shop. The central location and affordable real estate drew him to Millvale in 1991, he said, and a realtor who had placed him on a "waiting list" contacted him before it went on the market.
"It was an old butcher shop -- the opportunity was here and I grabbed it," he said. "I thought it was a pretty good location. It was a gamble, but hey, nothing happens in one day."
His motto: "Bake it and they will come."
Catching up
Millvale sits in a valley between cliffs in neighboring Reserve and Shaler. "There were mills in the valley, and that's how it got the name," Burn said.
According to the 2000 Census, the borough of 4,028 lost a little more than 7 percent of its population over the last decade. But Burn said that statistic is misleading.
"We're catching up," he said. "We had a dip in the early and mid-'90s, but things have stabilized."
Most residents point to Burn's 1993 election as the town's turning point.
With the backing of a reform-minded borough council, Burn placed then-shaky borough finances on more solid ground; took steps to bring more businesses into town; and worked to get two apartment buildings built for senior citizens, allowing their homes in the borough to be sold to young families.
Now, the town is turning to its waterfront as the latest source of renewal.
A recreational development is planned that will include a hiking and bicycle trail, a marina and a boathouse. The project, expected to cost $1 million, is being funded in part with government grants. Work is expected to start soon.
The strategy appears to be succeeding.
Borough Manager Virginia Heller said 20 to 25 properties have been sold and renovated over the past two years. She acknowledged that some owners may transform their properties into rental units, but "we've been steering toward home [ownership]."
Signs abound that the borough is home to families raising children, usually considered the lifeblood of a community.
At Howard and North avenues, McCarthy Park, named for former Mayor Regis McCarthy, is outfitted with playground equipment. The former St. Anthony Church and school, now part of Holy Spirit Parish, are a block away. Pictures of the Easter bunny colored by schoolchildren are posted on the door of the pharmacy.
About a mile away, off Grossman Lane in the northern part of the borough, an athletic fieldfeatures two baseball diamonds -- one for Little League, the other for older players -- a concession stand, bleachers, a bullpen and lights for night games.
Polly Grimpe, owner for the past year of Lasting Memories, a flower shop on Grant Avenue formerly known as Charles Schach Florist, shares the optimism about Millvale's future.
"I wouldn't have bought this shop if it didn't have potential," Grimpe said.
Although she wasn't complaining about business, she added that it might "be better if we had more retailers in town."
Other than the bars, businesses close at 6 p.m. "We're the old nine-to-fivers here," Grimpe said. If more restaurants came to town, perhaps other businesses would stay open longer, she said.
Grimpe, the mother of two preteens and a 6-year-old, grew up in Shaler. She and her husband bought an older house in Millvale in 1985 and, like others, have renovated it.
The L-shaped business district -- most businesses are along Lincoln and Grant --contains the little shops that typify the classic small town -- the bakery and florist, a furniture store, a hobby shop, a store selling used records and CDs, a funeral home or two.
It doesn't contain many abandoned structures or eyesores. Not anymore, at least.
Back at the soda shop, long-time resident Ann Good -- "not Ann Bad," she noted -- laughed with the waitress and other customers. She cleans the borough building in the evenings. "I have to be very well-behaved," she joked, "because of the police around."
Good, who is an Oakland native, said she has enjoyed her adopted hometown despite the occasional flooding and believes more activities could be offered for young people.
"We're centrally located," she said. "I wouldn't live anywhere else. When I moved here, it was good living."
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