Weird Pittsburgh "Micro-Neighborhoods" (elementary school, live, garden)

[steindle]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

Then there's Eiseltown, in the valley between Arlington and St Clair Village. Parkwood Road runs up the valley from Becks Run Rd. (or down from Mountain, depending on which end has most recently slid into the valley), and there are two streets in Eiseltown, Eisel and Eads, IIRC. There's a whole bunch of folks named Eisel still living there though...

How in the world does someone else know about this? Did you grow up in Arlington or something?

A good friend of mine in elementary school was an Eisel who lived in there. Very weird area...doesn't feel like it's in the city at all, despite being a 5-minute walk from East Carson.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

The folks I've known that have lived over there, always described it as Oakland- although I know about the quasiofficial city neighborhood lines to which you refer that put Central Catholic in Squirrel Hill, Lawrenceville east of 57th Street in Stanton Heights and the Waterworks in Lincoln Lemington.

Another classic example is Friendship, which the city describes as if it's a micro-neighborhood - a few blocks between South Aiken and South Negley. Residents of "Friendship" define the border as being Gross (the far edge of Friendship Park), as the houses past this, while a bit more modest than the Friendship proper, are far more similar (brick, largely detached, etc). I'd actually go further and say the blocks north of Friendship park could be included under Friendship by the same rationale, as aside from a smattering of small apartment buildings (as opposed to converted huge houses), they're essentially identical

More generally, Pittsburgh has the habit of defining neighborhoods according to standalone, or groups of, census block groups, and seems loathe to break these up even in cases where it makes sense.

Speaking of North Oakland, my wife recently told me Pittsburgh Filmmakers is leading a campaign to get their part of North Oakland put into Polish Hill. I predict this will not get very far.

[ditchdigger]

How in the world does someone else know about this? Did you grow up in Arlington or something?

No, but a couple friends of mine had a place on Parkwood, a long time ago. My uncle, who was a city paramedic, knew exactly where it was too, when I said the name.

That was definitely part of Lower St. Clair Township, and was later part of St. Clair Borough before it became part of the City of Pittsburgh.

Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure it was Saint Clair Borough that was on the manhole lids.

[steindle]

[Evergrey]

Park Place

Officially included as part of Point Breeze by the city maps... it is tucked in between Point Breeze, Regent Square and Wilkinsburg... I believe it's bounded by Braddock, Forbes, Peebles and Penn. (not sure if adjacent parts of Wilkinsburg are included as self-identified "Park Place)

I'm also not sure if those random "hidden" streets like Underhill and Briar Cliff west of Braddock are considered Park Place... or if they have their own micro-neighborhood identification.

[Drover]

I always got a weird vibe from West End. It feels like a little holler town yet it's practically right next to downtown.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by shogun221

While poking around behind the Lawrenceville Shop and Save, I came across an overgrown set of stairs that led me to the neighborhood here:

Google Maps

Sandwiched between Lawrenceville and Stanton Heights, it's a neat little spot, with homes built into the hills. Most of them look to have been pretty modest when built, but have been maintained and improved over the years.

My favorite feature of this neighborhood is that that many of the homes are completely inaccessible by car. To get to the houses located between Joy way and 57th, you park on Duncan and head up about 5-10 flights of stairs, straight into the woods. Despite the lack of convenience, most of the houses up there look to be occupied, with the exception of the home at the end of the stairs that is almost completely unchanged from when it was built in the early 1900's. For being in the city, it's amazing how isolated these houses are, up a hill in the woods, 200 feet back from any road. It's definitely a neighborhood that came to be in another time, before modern requirements on accessibility had taken root.

On a side note, I would like to salute the initiative and/or physical fitness of the person who takes property assessment pics for Allegheny County. Here's what all of the homes on 57th street look like, according to the County Assessment website:

Also near there is a row of houses between Butler and the river, on the 5600 block of Harrison Street. It's about 5 or 6 houses dropped right into what's basically an industrial/warehouse area. Weird place to live, but I can't imagine the mortgage is more than a few hundred bucks a month... Google Maps

[BrianTH]

Here is how the Greater Park Place Neighborhood Association defines its boundaries:



That noted, I think the core of Park Place is between Braddock and Peebles, and in fact the "greater" in the NA name suggests there is such a concept (a "core" Park Place within the "greater" Park Place). But I also think that core neighborhood is pushing east as people invest in that part of Wilkinsburg.

Finally, I'd also agree that area around Briar Cliff is a micro-neighborhood of its own.

[interested_burgher]

Fantastic topic! I love this! Keep it coming!

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

Off of Carson there is a little micro neighborhood right here. I suppose it's officially part of Esplen or Sheraden, but it seems rather disconnected from both.

Looks to me like it was part of Esplen, but the railway leading to Brunot Island cut off access at some point.

Originally Posted by Drover

Also near there is a row of houses between Butler and the river, on the 5600 block of Harrison Street. It's about 5 or 6 houses dropped right into what's basically an industrial/warehouse area. Weird place to live, but I can't imagine the mortgage is more than a few hundred bucks a month... Google Maps

That's far from the only area. There's actually three separate segments of blocks in Upper Lawrenceville where some old rowhouses survive - although all are thinly populated. I dunno if I'd call it a "micro neighborhood" however, as Butler isn't really a big impediment to foot traffic, and there are more heavily populated areas directly opposite on the slope - albeit the area of Lawrenceville above Shop & Save has a weird vibe in general.

Odder, and nearby, are the random houses scattered along Butler proper. The City considers this area Morningside, which always mystifies me.