Suburb of the week: McKeesport (Pittsburgh, Lebanon: for sale, crime, hotel)

[eschaton]

I should have covered McKeesport a few months pack, immediately after covering McKees Rocks. I skipped it largely because I have been using Wiki's list of communities of Allegheny County to keep track, and given almost every "suburb" of Pittsburgh is a township or borough, I seldom think to look up at the city entries. However, if there is any "suburb" of Pittsburgh which does not deserve the name, it is McKeesport, as unlike Clairton and Duquense, (which were jumped up company towns, which only ended up incorporated cities and not boroughs due to historical accident) McKeesport was, and to some extent still is, a real city.

Like Pittsburgh, McKeesport formed organically at the confluence of major rivers (the Monongahela and Youghiogheny). It got its name from John McKee, who together with his father, David, established a ferry service in the region in 1769. By 1795, the family founded a village which they named after the ferry operation (McKee's Port). The village remained relatively small until the 1830s, when coal mining began in the region in earnest. In 1842 it incorporated as a borough. By 1851 the city's first foundry opened up, and in 1857 a railway line linked McKeesport to the burgeoning national industrial network.

During this early period, however, the population of McKeesport was still rather small, - only 2,500 people as late as 1870. McKeesport jumped in national prominence considerably only two years later, when National Tube Works Company was founded to make steel and iron piping. The population of McKeesport grew by 225% in the 1870s, and another 153% in the 1880s. By 1891, it incorporated as a city. In 1901, National Tube was bought out by U.S. Steel. Growth of McKeesport continued through the early 20th century, with the city's population peaking at over 55,000 in 1940.

Since that time, McKeesport has been in essentially steady decline. In the early period the local steel industry was still relatively healthy - the decline seems to have been caused by suburbanization causing many local workers to relocate to White Oak, Port Vue, Liberty, and other first-ring suburbs. Later on, the crash of the regional steel industry played a large role as well, with the entire region bleeding residents. In all but one decade since 1960, the city has seen double-digit population losses. Arguably since 2000 there has been a bit of a white flight dynamic going on as well, but McKeesport had sizable black communities going back at least to the 1940s, and is actually a well-integrated area, with most of its core neighborhoods roughly evenly split between white and black residents. What seems to be going on is simply that the white residents have slightly greater means, and are more able to move out than the black residents, who stay behind. Gang violence is a real problem in McKeesport, and not getting better, with 13 murders in 2017 alone. That said, McKeesport has many neighborhoods, which vary from blighted and dangerous to safe and suburban (some of the easternmost neighborhoods blend seamlessly into White Oak), so it's important to not stereotype across the entirety of the city limits.

McKeesport's future looks dim at the moment, for much the same reason that the Mon Valley as a whole is struggling. There are few employers remaining of any size, the area is too far from Pittsburgh to expect it to ever be of interest as a commuter town to many. I do not mean to say there could not be any "green shoots" for the city in the future however. If PreservationPioneer (or anyone else) has things to add here, it would be very much appreciated.

[gg]

I remember eating my first Gyro in McKeesport at Andros Restaurant. It was great, but is now closed. Great memories of that place!

[svband76]

McKeesport is a great little town. Full of amazing history https://www.mckeesportheritage.org/

I've been to dance events at the historic Palisades. The town has a great rail trail as well. All the tools are there for a big renewal. The location though may not be the best for commuting to other areas of the city.

[Geeo]

McKeesport is a fascinating town in that it wasn't a typical steel town like others in the Mon or Beaver valleys. It was an independent city that flourished on steel and had a more diverse economy for a time. It had the National Tube Works and other heavy industry, but it was a town that also had a symphony orchestra, community theater, and home-grown businesses like the national G.C. Murphy variety store chain, as well as a locally-owned department store. The owners of those businesses lived in McKeesport and led a lot of the community and charity work for the town. McKeesport was the shopping, business and transportation hub of that part of the county, as well. Interestingly, McKeesport had rail passenger service to Pittsburgh via the PATrain until the late 1980s.

[PreservationPioneer]

I have a lot to add.

McKeesport was laid out in 1795, making it one of the older local communities. Although Elizabeth and Brownsville were developed earlier, McKeesport became the largest city in the Mon Valley and among the largest cities in western PA (and the state). Until the late '50s, McKeesport's original Market Square and oldest structures still existed in the First Ward (demolished for urban renewal). Some very old Pre-Civil War structures still exist scattered among the 2nd and 3rd Wards, and even a circa 1820 stone house (known as the Muse House) still exists near the Youghiogheny on the McKeesport side of Olympia / Versailles.

McKeesport is well-located for commuting to employers in the South Hills or eastern suburbs, as the city is about equal distance from, say, Mt. Lebanon and Monroeville. This is a reminder that not everyone works in the city. McKeesport is a city with convenient access to the eastern and southern suburbs! It's also not terribly far to Greensburg or Fayette County employers, while also being 30 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh.

On McKeesport's decline. Like Braddock, people started moving out before the industry ever did. First, to bedroom communities like White Oak and Port Vue, and later to North Versailles and North Huntingdon, etc. Suburbanization was in full swing by the time Eastland Mall opened in the 1960s. However, McKeesport still had a bustling and vibrant downtown until the Great Fire, which wiped out whole city blocks and the heart of the business district in the late '70s. This coincided with the industrial decline that was taking hold by then, and steel completely collapsed in the '80s.

So, suburbanization, urban renewal, Eastland Mall, the Great Fire, deindustrialization, and finally clueless or corrupt leadership. Those were the nails in the coffin.

The city never recovered. There are streets and neighborhoods that have gone back to nature. There are vast swaths of urban prairie. Just this last year we lost the brownstone First Baptist Church for a HUD funded "green space" already surrounded by parking lots and urban prairie. We even had a buyer lined up for the church.

The Hitzrot Mansion / Eagles Building was demolished a few years back. It was one of the downtown landmarks. This also was demolished for "green space" even though it was surrounded by vacant lots.

The Penn McKee Hotel and Union Bank Building, the tallest in McKeesport, are vacant. You can buy that early skyscraper for $500,000.

Millionaire's Row on Shaw Avenue is mostly abandoned. The local preservation society owns one of the long vacant and deteriorating mansions and is looking for donations for stabilization efforts. It is in serious jeopardy.

Another long vacant mansion once owned by Hazel Garland (first African American woman to be editor-in-chief of a national newspaper, The Courier) and Percy Garland is for sale for $8,000.

Photographer Duane Michaels' childhood home sits on an abandoned street that has returned to nature. We were going to save the foundation and make a little park but couldn't find the community support for the project.

Walking around downtown McKeesport, there are still some intact historic blocks that make for some semblance of the grand city it was, if you have imagination.

McKeesport makes my imagination run wild.

[PreservationPioneer]

Here's one of my McKeesport sets:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4WgGYCW0HLY

Also, this is worth watching to see how vibrant McKeesport was in the '60s:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ChIcLUGCU5s

[eschaton]

Thanks for the additional content PP...I know you'd have some ideas.

As with so many other declining parts of the Pittsburgh metro, McKeesport is tremendously hurt by being part of a metro with a declining population as a whole which gets little in the way of immigration. I grew up on the East Coast, and for the most part except for the absolute worst ghettos (and areas actively urban renewed), declining neighborhoods are intact because there was always more demand for housing than supply, meaning a livable house wouldn't just be abandoned wholesale. Thus a lot of the remaining positives for a place like McKeesport just don't look that good, because there are plenty of other affordable places in the Mon Valley - including places with less crime and a more intact/vibrant business district. To the extent that the people are present who might help build a "revival" of sorts, the low housing costs mean they're spread all over the place and can't build a critical mass anywhere in particular.

[PreservationPioneer]

I would not argue that the future was bright for McKeesport. I would only argue that it is a more interesting place than many with presumably brighter futures. There are a lot of dull places with bright futures.

Speaking of bright futures, I do not necessarily see one for the rust belt, Pittsburgh, or even the country as a whole. I see lots of decline.

[guy2073]

My mom worked in McKeesport, we would get on the street car into town and then take the pat train to McKeesport and then ride home with her from work. McKeesport was full of department stores and mom and pop places. That continued up untill the early 80's.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

I would only argue that it is a more interesting place than many with presumably brighter futures. There are a lot of dull places with bright futures.

I agree.

McKeesport has a terrible future but is a very interesting place.
Cranberry Township has a bright future but is a dull place.

It just goes to show the preferences of today's Americans.