Penn Lincoln Hotel in Wilkinsburg to be demolished? (Pittsburgh, Edgewood: appointed, apartment)

[PennHillsNative80]

I just read on the Wilkinsburg Council minutes that applications for demolition of the Penn Lincoln Hotel on Penn Avenue are being made...

I wonder if the building is far too gone for renovation. Has anyone ever been inside of it?

[BrianTH]

Last I knew the PHLF was studying possible reuses, and I would be disappointed if it was going to be torn down. Sometimes there is a "demolition" phase in major remodels--so that is what I am hoping, perhaps in vain, is going on.

[PeterRabbit]

I ate there a couple of times so I only saw the restaurant before it was shut down by IRS or the health dept.?, you could look in the window and see plates of food still on the tables. It was kind of old fashioned but didn't look as old as it was. The hotel part looked old in a cute way. I wish it could have been saved.

This Trib article from a year ago said it has seriously decayed and has been vacant since 1995:

The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation said it will conduct a series of studies on the Penn Lincoln Hotel on Penn Avenue to assess the building's structural character and how it might be redeveloped.
Old Wilkinsburg hotel could get new life as office, retail space - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[PreservationPioneer]

This is a shame. If only all of the money the PHLF was pumping into those houses could have went towards the renovations and stabilization of the hotel, which is a centerpiece of Wilkinsburg, really...

[jamilbroom]

EXACTLY, ALLEGHENY ANGEL! Does anyone know WHY PHLF is pumping ridiculous amounts of money into those houses? Because of some...study? I went to one of their focus groups telling them how ridiculous it was, but never heard back. I don't care how nice a house is, people don't want to live in it if it's in the ghetto...what the ghetto NEEDS is jobs, resources, businesses for people that already DO live here. And before anyone goes around throwing that much money into something, they need to take into consideration the needs of the community, by ASKING the REAL community that already lives there.

[BrianTH]

Yes, the PHLF and CMU did a bunch of studies in conjunction with the Hamnett Place projects. The upshot is that trying to expand already established residential areas (in this case, trying to expand Regent Square and Whitney Park, as well as Edgewood, into Hamnett Place) with targeted investments has worked in other cases. The benefits, if successful, would include things like increasing the tax base in Wilkinsburg, which would allow lowering tax rates in general, which could attract more development investment elsewhere.

None of this is mutually exclusive with redeveloping the commercial area, and in fact lots of the money in question is coming from programs that wouldn't be available for commercial areas, whereas conversely there are funds available for the commercial area that aren't available for residential areas, some of which Wilkinsburg has started to access. So I really don't see the point in setting these efforts against each other: it makes sense for Wilkinsburg to be working in both of these areas at the same time.

[PreservationPioneer]

I agree with you, Brian. I think it is a great idea to work on redeveloping the Hamnett Place neighborhood. However, I feel that the hotel should have been made a priority. Improving the Wilkinsburg core is very important to the future of the neighborhood. Fortunately, the business district is still very intact; however, if the hotel is lost, that is a missing link.

[squarian]

"what the ghetto NEEDS is jobs, resources, businesses for people that already DO live here"

So in other words, pork and welfare. Can't imagine why no one has ever tried that before - sounds like a sure-fire solution to me.

[BrianTH]

Within the business district, the hotel was in fact a priority for the PHLF--the studies they were doing were supposed to cost something like $75,000, and they had gotten the County to help fund them. Assuming these references mean demolishing the whole building (I still hope not), there may have been a falling out between the actual owner of the building and the PHLF.

[wpipkins]

Originally Posted by PennHillsNative80

I just read on the Wilkinsburg Council minutes that applications for demolition of the Penn Lincoln Hotel on Penn Avenue are being made...

I wonder if the building is far too gone for renovation. Has anyone ever been inside of it?

I worked for United Publishers in the 90's and the main office was located in what was the Ball Room. It was a very handsome building with lots of period features. My brother rented a one bedroom apartment in the building also and it was pretty cool with amazing architectual details as well.