Click illustration to download the .pdf file displaying points mentioned in this tour segment.

Before the 1990s, the Cultural District -- which you're about to enter on this leg of your tour -- was a seedy, disheveled area plagued by adult theaters, sex shops and empty storefronts. Prostitutes and drug dealers scoured the streets, which in the early part of the century had thrived with theater patrons and moviegoers.

But now the District attracts more than 1 million people a year to its five theaters, three art galleries and numerous shops and restaurants, many of which are housed in restored 19th-century loft buildings.

Let's take a little side trip. Make a left on Sixth Street and walk toward the Allegheny River. On the right side of the street at the end of the block, you'll notice the Byham Theater (Point 1), Pittsburgh's only remaining vaudeville house. Built in 1903, the Byham was renovated in 1990, seats 1,300 and now accommodates small-scale arts productions.

Check out the gorgeous marquee out front, make your way down the side of the theater that faces the river. Look up and see a 1993 mural (Point 2) by Richard Haas done in trompe l'oeil style -- meaning it looks like that's a real-life stagehand standing on that painted balcony. This is where the original entrance of the theater was.

Next door to the Byham is the Renaissance Hotel (Point 3), housed in a 1905 building. Walk in and survey the breathtaking three-story lobby. Before this building was renovated in 2000, the first floor was a nightclub with one of the best dance floors in Pittsburgh. Now it's a hotel lobby right out of the Gilded Age, done in marble and complete with a domed rotunda, potted palms and large velvety chairs, which you can sink into and relax for a moment.

Leave the hotel and walk back to Penn Avenue. The ornate building on the opposite corner is Heinz Hall, named after the ketchup kings and home to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Point 4).

In the 1960s, Jack Heinz, grandson of the founder and then president of H.J. Heinz Co., made it his personal mission to find a new home for the orchestra, which had been playing in the nearby neighborhood of Oakland. After touring this building -- it was then an abandoned Loew's movie theater -- he oversaw a restoration of the structure that was completed in 1971. Heinz Hall, intended to be an American version of the Vienna Opera House, then inspired more rehabilitation of the area, making Jack Heinz the visionary of the Cultural District.

The renovation preserved the original French Court style of the 1927 building. Inside, the 2,660-seat hall features plush red velvet carpeting, gold leaf detailing and 15-foot chandeliers. If you're interested, stop in the lobby and pick up a Pittsburgh Symphony schedule. Or head diagonally across the street to Curtain Call (Point 5), the orchestra's gift shop. It features a coffee bar, a good selection of CDs, music-related merchandise and children's gifts.

Continue walking up Penn Avenue.

Across the street and to your left is the 650-seat O'Reilly Theater (Point 6), the only brand-new theater in the District and home of the Pittsburgh Public Theater. The premiere of "King Hedley II," one of th "Pittsburgh Cycle" works by the late August Wilson, celebrated playwright and Pittsburgh native, was the first performance at the theater in 1999. The theater's namesake is Jack Heinz's successor, Anthony J.F. "Tony" O'Reilly. (Are you getting the idea that Heinz is a big deal around here?) It was designed by architect Michael Graves, as was the cabaret and parking garage to the right of the theater.

At the corner of Penn and Seventh, you can take a rest in one of Downtown's most artistic public spaces, Agnes R. Katz Plaza (Point 7). Yes, those are eyeball benches -- go ahead and sit on them. The granite benches were designed by legendary New York artist Louise Bourgeois. She also designed the bronze fountain, which was dark brown when installed in 1999 but is now turning green.

Across Seventh Street you'll see -- well, we're not sure what you'll see. The northeast corner of Seventh and Penn is a space reserved for site-specific public art (Point 8), but the artwork changes periodically.

One door down from the sculpture, at 707 Penn Ave., is the Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery (Point 9), which displays work by local artists. The Three Rivers Arts Festival is held every June and features work by national artists and performers. The gallery is open noon to 8 p.m. daily.

The Benedum Center is on the opposite corner (Point 10). Notice the old "Stanley Photoplays" sign on the side of the building -- photoplays being the first word for movies. This used to be the Stanley Theatre, opened in 1928 as a movie theater. Milton Berle, Jack Benny, the Three Stooges, Guy Lombardo and Benny Goodman are some of the many luminaries who passed through here. It was built in the Art Deco style by James Bly Clark, an early theater tycoon who helped found MGM.

The 2,880-seat Benedum now hosts performances by Pittsburgh's leading ballet, opera and musical theater companies, and is a stop for touring Broadway shows. Unless the hall is open for a performance, you won't be able to see the 500,000-piece crystal chandelier or the gilded plasterwork inside. But you can admire the building's architectural features and pick up some event listings inside the box office.

Continue up Penn Avenue until you reach Ninth Street.

Look up at the top of the building on your right and see the written traces of Downtown's past: Wm. G. Johnston & Co., a printing and stationery outfit (Point 11) that dates to 1857. The founder's 1901 memoir, "Life and Reminiscences from Birth to Manhood of William G. Johnston," is full of stories about everyday life in 19th-century Pittsburgh. (You can find it by searching the Historic Pittsburgh Web site at http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/ index. html.)

Go to the corner diagonally across the street and you'll be at Watercolors Gallery (Point 12). The gallery sells original work by local watercolorists who finance and run the place themselves. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. The gallery is housed in a former bank building built in 1898 and given an art moderne front in a 1920s renovation.

Keep walking up Penn Avenue for a very long block. Keep looking up. You'll see some marvelous architecture from the turn of the century. Numbers 915 and 964 (built in 1906 and 1885, respectively) are particularly notable. You'll also see Trombino Piano Gallerie on the right side of the street.

When you reach Tenth Street, look to your left and you'll see the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center (Point 13). Perhaps you can walk in and look at some of the public artwork inside. The center also features a sweeping roof, curved up like a square bowl, but that's best viewed from across the Allegheny River.

After checking out the convention center, take a congratulatory bow -- you've seen most of the Pittsburgh Cultural District. Cross Eleventh Street, turn left, walk one block and turn right onto Smallman Street. Two blocks farther along you'll reach the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center and the next stop on our tour.

	POINT PARK		HEINZ HISTORY CENTER