North Side (Pittsburgh, California, Beaver: apartment complex, work, housing)

[Buzz858]

What is new on Pittsburghs North side thses days I'm talking the area of Beaver Ave. and Marshall Ave? I moved out of there in 1956 and I am sure it has change a lot. Can any one tell me anything about that area now?

[Geeo]

Marshall Avenue is still there, but Beaver Avenue is nothing like it was when you lived there in the 50s. There is now an elevated expressway that parallels Chateau Street and Beaver Avenue that goes directly to the Ft. Duquesen Bridge. All the little businesses in the old business district are gone, and it's a big industrial park all the way to the river. I don't know how many thousands of people were uprooted for the expressway in the 1960s.

[Herodotus]

The North Side was butchered badly by expressways and urban renewal. All of the housing and retail west of Beaver was removed in the 60's, and the entire area, all the way to the river was given over to light industry. The entire block between Beaver and Chateau was razed, from Marshall, down to Ridge, and an elevated extension of Ohio River Blvd built. The handsome houses on the east side of Chateau were left facing a Chinese wall, and quickly went to hell. Most of the shells are still standing. Manchester suffers from crime, though North Avenue and Sheffield probably look better now than when you lived in the area. All of the housing and retail was removed from Woods Run in the 60's. The Pen is still there. It recently reopened, after being shut down for several years. With the exception of a few mansions, pretty much all of the once high end housing that lined Ridge Ave. and it's adjacent streets is gone. The central section of the North Side was nearly totally razed in the early 60's for a mall that eventually failed, and a bunch of apartment complexes. Getting back closer to where you lived, the small area of rowhouses along California Ave., running from Brighton over to Marshall, is easily the most bombed out section of the North Side, and though much smaller, gives the Hill a run for the worst looking section in Pittsburgh.

[Buzz858]

WOW that kind of bums me out I have so many great memories of that area I was brought up in the Beaver Ave area and hung out at a place called the Bright Star and before I went into the Navy in 1956 worked at a place called the G&G market.
You could walk down as we called it the AVENUE and there was stores on both sides of the street. We use to go to Woods Run and had a few hahahahah rumbles there with the other guys from there then we all eventually hung with them too.
Well I guess time changes everything but the memories are still there.
Thanks guys for the feed back for an old goat here in Rhode Island.