The Storefront Project: Starting with Centre Avenue, interactive PG series will map growth and change in city neighborhoods
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The Silver Bar at 1911 Centre Ave.
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In 1930, David Somerman's Poultry, Pober & Doctor Meats and Jacob Winer's Fish Market shared the building at 1805 Centre Ave. in the Hill District. In 1960, it was home to Melnick Pershing grocers and Faigen's Fish Market.
PG INTERACTIVE
Merchants were still cleaning hats in the 1960s, and Nicholas Skarvelis did that at 1905 Centre Ave. The Jewish Daily Forward shared 1862 Centre with the Palace Candy Shop. Cheesy's Sandwich Shop was one block east.
About 100 storefronts lined the nine blocks of Centre Avenue between Roberts and Kirkpatrick streets in 1930 and 1960. Today's retail on the same stretch is so scanty, the streetscape so transformed, that most storefronts and many addresses no longer exist.
As in all cities, Pittsburgh's mom-and-pop retail was what drove neighborhoods before the urban renewal of the mid-'60s. We all know that, but the names that fill old city directories and archived photos of storefronts create a poignant exhibit of social and ethnic transitions over many decades.
These transitions over time lie at the heart of The Storefront Project, which launches today. Beginning with that portion of Centre Avenue, it will include more corridors as we make progress. Your feedback, information, stories and photos will be invaluable in helping us enrich the site.
The site opens with Centre Avenue between Roberts -- where the Crawford Square townhomes end -- and Kirkpatrick, which is now anchored by the Hill's Carnegie Library branch.
The Mexican War Streets is up next, followed by Brereton Avenue in Polish Hill and Broadway Avenue in Beechview. Waiting in the wings: Beaver Avenue in Manchester, Second Avenue in Hazelwood, Homewood Avenue in Homewood, Federal Street through the Central North Side, Fifth Avenue through Uptown and Bedford Avenue in the Hill.
My partner on the project, Laura Schneiderman, created the interactive mechanism online. Special thanks to Miriam Meislik at the University of Pittsburgh photo archives library for embracing the project and being invaluable in supplying photos to help it along.
As it grows, with your contributions, The Storefront Project will be a repository of stories, photos and historic details, a tool for people to reconnect with their old neighborhoods and those of their parents and grandparents and a one-stop site for a layered look at our history through its small retail.
First Published August 14, 2011 12:00 am
