Neighborhood of the week: Lower Lawrenceville (Butler, Wilson: real estate, apartments, for rent)
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Lower Lawrenceville is, as far as I can determine, named that because it is the portion of Lawrenceville furthest downriver on the Allegheny. It is not however a name which is used often by old timers in Lawrencevile, who tend to describe the portions of Lawrenceville by their ward numbers (6th, 9th, and 10th respectively for Lower, Central, and Upper). The wards do not perfectly match - the 6th Ward also includes Polish Hill and part of the Strip District, for example, but it is what it is.
Regardless, Lower Lawrenceville, although always considered part of greater Lawrenceville, had geographic separation from the founding of the neighborhood, as Allegheny Arsenal was first founded in 1814, and quickly expanded to cover all of the land between 39th and 40th Streets, running from the Allegheny all the way to Penn Avenue. When the arsenal was later decommissioned in the 20th century, the land was used for many other institutional uses, including warehouses, a school, a park, and what ultimately became several county offices up near Penn Avenue. The currently under construction Arsenal 201 - which is meant to "bridge the gap" between Lower and Central Lawrenceville - will in fact establish some level of street contiguity for the first time.
Let's take a tour of Lower Lawrenceville by starting at the river and working our way up.
The closest section of Lower Lawrenceville - or "below Butler" - as it is often called in the neighborhood - is a largely industrial area, which essentially is an extension of the same urban/warehouse fabric as the Strip District. There are still many active businesses down here, from a Restaurant Depot warehouse to Wilson McGinley. Following this is a small strip of residential properties - mostly 19th century brick rowhouses, frequently Italianate with some infill from the last ten years - sandwiched in a block or two directly behind Butler Street. Surprisingly, even looking at old maps this residential area was never that much larger than it is today - perhaps because the area closer to the river is in a flood zone, and thus was always a bad place to build houses. As elsewhere in Lawrenceville, the juxtoposition between the remaining blighted and abandoned houses and recent infill is notable.
Then of course, we come to Lower Lawenceville's section of Butler Street. Butler Street is of course the commercial heart of Lawrenceville, but the Lower Lawrenceville section gentrified very early with shops and boutiques - ten years ago, when I first moved to (Central) Lawrenceville, the southern side of Butler through the neighborhood was already almost entirely gentrified businesses (minus Frankies, which is still there) although the northern side was weirdly blighted and vacant. Since then the strip has had a ton of infill projects. Blackbird Lofts was already built at that time, but it has been joined by the Doughboy Square Townhouses, Doughboy Apartments, Square View Apartments, The Fletch, the infill retail/commercial buildings which contain Franktuary and Iron City Bikes. Currently a new small office building is being built on the 3500 block of Butler Street. Desmone will soon start an expansion to their existing office in the old Pennsylvania National Bank building. And of course Arsenal 201, which was mentioned above, is about halfway through its first phase of construction. There are still some hard-case semi-abandoned buildings on Butler Street - most of them are owned by one family where the 90-year old mother just died the other year, and are presumably still in semi-legal limbo - but given current trajectories, it's going to be completely filled in and completely yuppie - Walnut Street west, so to speak - within another decade.
Between Butler and Penn there is another residential area which historically has been dominated by 19th century brick rowhouses. Due to the proximity to Butler Street, this area has become highly desirable. There used to be a fair amount of vacant lots sprinkled in due to blight and neglect, but aside from a few tucked away in alleys, they are all gone - replaced by expensive infill houses, which are most notable on 38th Street. More recently real estate prices have climbed so high that some of the smaller, more distressed houses have begun being torn down and replaced by new infill.
Penn Avenue through Lower Lawrenceville is a bit of a mishmash. The blocks right around Doughboy Square - the intersection with Butler - are sort of turning into a spillover zone of Butler Street. There is the yoga place and ridiculously expensive juice place currently, along with the "Roberto Clemente Museum" - which is really more of an event space for rent. The contiguity will feel stronger soon, when that ugly infill building at the corner of 34th and Penn is filled in (looks like a bar/restaurant is going in soon) along with the two new planned apartment buildings (one next to Celli's Fitness, the other catty-corner from the ugly infill office building). Then there is a large dead space, where in the 90s, when they had no idea, the area would come back, they decided to put in semi-suburban style infill houses on Penn Avenue to replace run down old commercial storefronts. The remaining blocks are a weird mixture of scattered active commercial businesses, storefronts no longer used for commerce, quasi-industrial style buildings, and houses. There are a few destination businesses in this corridor (Pints on Penn, he Arsenal Cider House right around the corner on 39th) and I know that there are a few new businesses going in too (a new Vietnamese place, a higher-end Pizza place) but on the whole Penn isn't a walkable corridor until you get up outside of Lower Lawrenceville, towards the intersection with Main Street.
The residential area between Penn Avenue and Liberty Avenue has lagged in terms of gentrification compared to the rest of Lower Lawrenceville. Indeed, it's arguably rougher now than Upper Lawrenceville, making it the grittiest remaining portion of all of Lawrenceville. There has been some infill on Ligonier Street, but on the whole this area is a long walk from Butler Street, and as noted above, there are as of yet not that many amenities on the closest stretch of Penn Avenue, which means it's not as desirable. Liberty Avenue is even worse through the neighborhood, as drivers treat it like a quasi-highway as they do in the Strip District, and it lacks any real amenities besides Church Brew Works. In addition, most of the historic housing in this area was built later than elsewhere in the neighborhood (early 20th century), was frame, and is remuddled and/or junky. The area is slowly coming along, but it will be significantly longer until it reaches its full potential. Proper redevelopment of the former Iron City Brewery site would help a great deal, but this site seems to have been stuck in limbo for a decade.
The future for Lower Lawrenceville as a whole is bright. The neighborhood will almost certainly record a big population gain in 2020, between the completed Arsenal 201 project and all of the smaller infill houses and mini-apartment buildings. It will continue to grow wealthier as well. At some point development in the Strip District will esssentially merge the two neighborhoods into one, but this is likely decades away.
This weekend I walked from 48th to The Strip, and was pretty impressed by the changes this area has seen even in just the last year and a half.
201 Arsenal is an interesting project; I feel a pang of guilt whenever an old industrial building is torn down, especially this one, having experienced Art All Night there. But, at least they are keeping the brick building at the end of the lot, which is of some historical significance, and until recently, housed several local architects who were part of Lawrenceville's revitalization. I think one firm was displaced to the old Fort Pitt Brewery building, and the other is finishing up an office space very close to Desmone.
Cocoa Cafe is a real treat, for anyone looking for an excuse to check out the area. Tollgate Revival is nearby, and, while it is bougie as all hell, its front sign was hand-painted by a relatively famous photographer, and is pretty cool. -- > link to a pic of it.
I'm actually pretty excited for all of these apartment buildings to fill up. It drives me crazy that nowhere is open on Mondays, and I hope the added population density might be incentive enough for that to change.
Just curious -- where exactly is the "former Penn Brewery site" and when did Penn Brewery come over to the old Eberhard and Ober building at the base of Troy Hill? Does anyone happen to know?
I'm also curious to know if anything is happening with the old Iron City Brewing site at the base of Herron on Liberty, though I am not sure if that side of Liberty still counts as Lawrenceville rather than the bottom of Polish Hill.
Thanks for all this info, eschaton. We pass through this area a lot but rarely have time to slow down and really look at it.
and what ultimately became several county offices up near Penn Avenue.
Many of those buildings were actually a military (I believe naval actually?) hospital. The largest building was the hospital itself - several floors are currently abandoned and feel very eerie to walk through.
There are some other buildings - the isolated houses were the doctors' quarters, and some of the other buildings were used as nurses' quarters.
This weekend I walked from 48th to The Strip, and was pretty impressed by the changes this area has seen even in just the last year and a half.
Yeah. Every time I wait a few weeks, it seems like a new project is going on. For example, this building was recently rehabbed into a little mini-office. Now if only something could be done with the building next door.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbw5100
201 Arsenal is an interesting project; I feel a pang of guilt whenever an old industrial building is torn down, especially this one, having experienced Art All Night there. But, at least they are keeping the brick building at the end of the lot, which is of some historical significance, and until recently, housed several local architects who were part of Lawrenceville's revitalization. I think one firm was displaced to the old Fort Pitt Brewery building, and the other is finishing up an office space very close to Desmone.
I remember Art All Night being in the building that was knocked down to make Foundry @ 41st, but I don't remember it ever being over there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbw5100
I'm actually pretty excited for all of these apartment buildings to fill up. It drives me crazy that nowhere is open on Mondays, and I hope the added population density might be incentive enough for that to change.
Just curious -- where exactly is the "former Penn Brewery site" and when did Penn Brewery come over to the old Eberhard and Ober building at the base of Troy Hill? Does anyone happen to know?
Sorry, that was a typo on my part. I meant the Iron City site is somewhere that development always seems a few years away.
Many of those buildings were actually a military (I believe naval actually?) hospital. The largest building was the hospital itself - several floors are currently abandoned and feel very eerie to walk through.
There are some other buildings - the isolated houses were the doctors' quarters, and some of the other buildings were used as nurses' quarters.
The oldest building in this cluster is from the 19th century - when it was still an Arsenal. It's the one-story structure behind the air pollution office. It may actually be an original magazine building dating back at least to the 1880s, if not earlier.
The old hospital was built some time between 1903 and 1910 it seems. The one-story building to its left from the 1910s. The rest of the buildings are newer.
Sorry, that was a typo on my part. I meant the Iron City site is somewhere that development always seems a few years away.
Oh! Thanks for the clarification -- I do love looking at the IC site and thinking about what they could do with it, but it must be a daunting project. Does anyone know how long those buildings have been empty?
The oldest building in this cluster is from the 19th century - when it was still an Arsenal. It's the one-story structure behind the air pollution office. It may actually be an original magazine building dating back at least to the 1880s, if not earlier.
The old hospital was built some time between 1903 and 1910 it seems. The one-story building to its left from the 1910s. The rest of the buildings are newer.
That building is now used for storage. Your statement jogged something in my memory that it may indeed be a powder magazine building.. I never paid much attention to the ceiling inside, but I'll peek in when I'm there next and see what the ceiling is like inside (to see if it was a magazine).
I'm pretty sure the elevator may be original to the hospital - it is quite an experience. It has the old school style gates on the car itself, and then you have to manually open the door of the floor when you arrive. It is something I have only ever seen in a movie before... I joked riding on it for the first time was like riding a time machine.
The basement of that building is also hell-a creepy..
That building is now used for storage. Your statement jogged something in my memory that it may indeed be a powder magazine building.. I never paid much attention to the ceiling inside, but I'll peek in when I'm there next and see what the ceiling is like inside (to see if it was a magazine).
I'm pretty sure the elevator may be original to the hospital - it is quite an experience. It has the old school style gates on the car itself, and then you have to manually open the door of the floor when you arrive. It is something I have only ever seen in a movie before... I joked riding on it for the first time was like riding a time machine.
The basement of that building is also hell-a creepy..
I take it you actually work in this complex? I think you said you worked for the county before.
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I meant the Iron City site is somewhere that development always seems a few years away.
