John Beale, Post-Gazette Signs posted on the Hamilton Avenue doorway of the Travelers Social Club in Larimer. The club, targeted as a nuisance bar by authorities, was closed Friday by agreement of the owner and the district attorney's office. Click photo for larger image.

A stretch of Hamilton Avenue that's described as "pretty dead" by day may be less deadly by night with the demise of The Travelers Social Club in Larimer.

Owner Carolyn Green signed an agreement with the Allegheny County district attorney's office on Friday to cease operating at 6525 Hamilton Ave. Had the case gone to court, said DA spokesman Mike Manko, "we had exhibits as thick as a phone book."

Ms. Green could not be reached for comment.

At least six people have been killed by gunfire related in some way to the bar since the early 1990s.

"There's not a business in the neighborhood that's going to [complain] about the place being closed," said Bob Lyons, owner of Pittsburgh Machine Services.

No one was home at either of the only two houses within a block of the club yesterday afternoon.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Steve Warren peers through one of two bullet holes that pierced the doors where he works at Pittsburgh Machine Service about five years ago. The business is located next to the Travelers Social Club. Click photo for larger image.

Merchant Craig Marcus calls the two- or three-block length of Hamilton "auto alley." Its warehouses and like-sized buildings advertise bearings, crankshafts and auto repairs. One is a storage warehouse for Chatham College.

The Travelers building looks like a warehouse on the outside. It is a barren-looking light-brown brick rectangle that's 110 feet long at the corner of Hamilton and Putman Street.

The Nuisance Bar Task Force -- a collaborative of the district attorney's office, police department and neighborhood representatives -- had been gunning for the Travelers for years. It is the 28th bar the task force has closed in five years.

Cmdr. Philip Dacey of Zone 5 said the last shooting was of a security guard this month "after an altercation. When some guys were barred, one went to his car and got a gun and they got into it again with security people. In the struggle, he dropped [the gun] and his buddy picked it up and began shooting. Constables [who may have been inside at the time] detained them."

The end of the Travelers "has to be a positive for the community," he said. "There is some residential scattered in that area, and it had to be hell at night."

The day and night weren't always so separate. Anita Prizio, owner of Pittsburgh Crankshaft, said she showed up for work very early one morning and the cars of Travelers clients along Putman Street blocked her gate and left her a space to squeeze into. "When I came out, my windows were all smashed."

Cmdr. Dacey said the club had become a magnet for "a lot of players from all over the city. It was so bad that to make an easy arrest I had my detectives just watch people go to their cars or come from them. They could see them put a gun under a seat or hide it in bushes [before entering the club]." Often, when the detectives ran a plate number, they would find outstanding warrants, he said.

With or without the club, Mr. Marcus is concerned about the lingering stigma that such a place can have on potential customers.

Marcus Studio is a large showroom of fine furniture and art across the street from the Travelers. "It was partly because of the undervalued real estate," he said of his decision to open there.

At the studio's grand opening two weeks ago, he said, "I left here at 2 a.m. and I could not believe how many people were in the street." Usually, two people might walk by in 15 minutes.

Mr. Lyons said he had "flat-out had enough" of the trash he had to contend with when he came to work in the morning. "Beer bottles, cans, wigs, a bra. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I had to pick up."

The bullet hole that pierced the steel roll-up door of his shop is still there, a lasting reminder of what he said he hopes is history. "When I came here for a job interview 14 years ago, there were chalk lines of a body in the parking lot. Fourteen years ago. So I was surprised to see the sheriff's department here Friday [for the padlocking of the Travelers].

"A deputy said to me, 'You lost your neighbor,' and I said, 'It's not anyone's loss.' "