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Manchester is a city neighborhood in the lower North Side of Pittsburgh, approximately one mile from the Golden Triangle. Manchester's northeastern border has long been defined by the numerous rail tracks separating it from California-Kirkbride, and its eastern boundary is traditionally Allegheny Avenue. Historically Manchester was considered to extend to the south and west to the Ohio River, but urban renewal established Route 65 as a new boundary, establishing the "fake neighborhood" of Chateau covering the other half of the neighborhood.
Manchester first saw development in the early 19th century. It became an independent borough in 1943, and was annexed by Allegheny City in 1867. Together with nearby Allegheny West, Manchester holds claim to being the first "streetcar suburb" of Pittsburgh, as once horse-drawn streetcars began crossing the bridges between Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, many of the well-to-do who worked in what is now Downtown Pittsburgh started moving to these North Side neighborhoods. It is due to this late 19th century settlement of the neighborhood by Pittsburgh's wealthy that Manchester has many truly stunning Victorian homes - most notably the 1300 block of Liverpool Street, which is widely considered the best surviving Victorian block in Pittsburgh. That said, the neighborhood was not universally wealthy, and more modest examples of historic housing also exist. The main commercial thoroughfare of the neighborhood was Beaver Avenue, which was similar to East Carson Street in terms of its length and number of commercial amenities, though there was a secondary commercial district on Pennsylvania Avenue, and a number of scattered storefronts throughout the neighborhood.
The neighborhood began a slow decline during the early 20th century. Victorian-style housing was seen as unfashionable, and the North Side old money mostly decamped permanently to their country homes around Sewickley once the automobile became more commonplace. Also during this period the neighborhood developed a small but notable black population by this time as well - around 15% and well-integrated.
Although in decline, the neighborhood did not reach crisis point until the 1960s. Two things happened during this period to send the neighborhood into freefall. One of them was a terrible urban renewal plan. Route 65 was turned into a limited access highway, which ultimately ran parallel to the course of Beaver Avenue, resulting in the demolition of the entire primary business district of the neighborhood. At the same time, the city zoned all the remaining land on the river side of the new Route 65 for industrial. This land included many blocks of residential land which met the wrecking ball that decade, making way for the new limited-access industrial park which the city named Chateau.
At the same time, the demolition of the Lower Hill caused an influx of poor black residents into the neighborhood, who - as was the case elsewhere in the city - preferentially moved to the already integrated neighborhoods because they knew black people would not be chased out of them. This resulted in significant white flight, until the neighborhood reached its present status of approximately 85% black by the 1980s.
Early attempts at rebuilding the neighborhood were somewhat...misguided. One of the first, during a period where the residents wanted "new housing at any cost" resulted in a series of generic suburban split-levels replacing the last remaining neighborhood business district on Pennsylvania Avenue (which was blighted and vacant at the time). After this failure, the neighborhood basically "got religion" on working with its strength of historical preservation. More recent infill projects have at least attempted to fit in with the historic vernacular (example 1, example 2, example 3). Over 600 different historic houses were ultimately also included in Manchester's historic district, many of which have been lovingly restored by homeowners.
Although not geographically large, Manchester today has several distinct geographic areas.
Most of the southern portion of the neighborhood is non-residential - part of a nexus of industrial businesses near its border with Allegheny West and "Chateau" Unlike the industrial zones by the river, this area was always dominated by industry, and acts as somewhat of a natural buffer to easy walking between Allegheny West and Manchester.
North of this there is the core of Manchester - running roughly from Page Street to Decatur Street. This area can feel like a crazy jumble, because within the span of a few blocks you'll see gorgeous Victorian houses, random suburban-style infill, more contextual modern townhouses, and the occasional still blighted home. While this area was dangerous in the past, it is a relatively quiet zone now. Most of the white population of Manchester lives here as homeowner-occupants who have restored some of the homes, although the black population of the neighborhood is very economically diverse as well, with one of the larger middle-class "buppie" populations in the city. For many years the head of the Black Chamber of Commerce, for example, lived in one of the (remaining historic) houses in Pennsylvania Avenue.
North of Decatur Street, Manchester is still rough in some places and arguably semi-ghetto, although things are improving here as abandoned houses are slowly restored (or demolished when too far gone) and infill is being built. There was a new-construction infill project called Columbus Square which began building homes in 2014. Although only around 40% of the planned houses have been constructed as of yet, considering this was a market-rate development in an area with relatively few amenities, it was impressive that they managed to sell so many $300,000+ homes.
The future for Manchester is likely one of slow improvement. Restored historic homes in the southern half of the neighborhood have sold for a pretty penny for some time now, and their numbers are slowly being augmented as people purchase the remaining hard-case houses in the south - along with an increasing number in the north - and restore them. But the non-historic houses (minus the newest ones in Columbus Square) sell for half these values. The reason for this depressed price is pretty simple - amazing houses are Manchester's one and only selling point. Since all the business districts have been destroyed, there are essentially no commercial amenities left in the neighborhood. The neighborhood does have schools, churches, industrial businesses, parks, athletic fields, a community farm, and various nonprofits. But there's not a single place to go to get coffee in the morning or a beer after work. The only store in the entire neighborhood is a small convenience store on W North Avenue, and that's only a short block from Allegheny West, outside of easy walking distance for most of the neighborhood. Thus absent some sort of dramatic redevelopment, Manchester is going to remain the sort of neighborhood that attracts outsiders due to "that amazing house" and not "that amazing neighborhood."
I think you're showing your bias for historical accuracy here (a bias which I share). These homes feel out of place, sure...but they are occupied, well maintained, and served their purpose in stabilizing the neighborhood. I think they successfully met the goals for which they were built.
A more "successful" endeavor may have included businesses, but just because the houses aren't to your tastes or mine doesn't make it a failure.
I think you're showing your bias for historical accuracy here (a bias which I share). These homes feel out of place, sure...but they are occupied, well maintained, and served their purpose in stabilizing the neighborhood. I think they successfully met the goals for which they were built.
A more "successful" endeavor may have included businesses, but just because the houses aren't to your tastes or mine doesn't make it a failure.
My understanding though is the residents themselves saw this as a failure, which is why there was a later u-turn in development towards infill which fit with the historic vernacular better.
My understanding though is the residents themselves saw this as a failure, which is why there was a later u-turn in development towards infill which fit with the historic vernacular better.
Now that I wouldn't know. Did they sell slowly or something? Or were people not happy with the outcome and realized they were too hasty in approving any old design just to get some sort of progress in the neighborhood?
Now that I wouldn't know. Did they sell slowly or something? Or were people not happy with the outcome and realized they were too hasty in approving any old design just to get some sort of progress in the neighborhood?
The latter I believe. They were promised something much better than what they ultimately got as a replacement for the original structures. Whether better in terms of design or intensity of use, I'm not sure.
Thanks, eschaton -- really interesting write-up, as usual. I just want to chime in because I'm personally fascinated with the idea of the Manchester Citizens Corporation, though I don't know much more than what's available on their website -- I have met some of the people involved here and there, just chance conversations in local coffee shops, but I would love to know if anyone who sees this post has had personal contact with the MCC and could comment on how it has affected the community over the years. Here's the website in case people have no clue what I'm talking about:
But there's not a single place to go to get coffee in the morning or a beer after work. The only store in the entire neighborhood is a small convenience store on W North Avenue, and that's only a short block from Allegheny West, outside of easy walking distance for most of the neighborhood. Thus absent some sort of dramatic redevelopment, Manchester is going to remain the sort of neighborhood that attracts outsiders due to "that amazing house" and not "that amazing neighborhood."
I see what you're saying, but given that the whole Lower Northside is so flat and dense I'm not sure it's true that a morning coffee is outside of easy walking distance. I think of Fulton and Liverpool as two fairly central streets, and from the intersection of the two it's less than a mile if you want to walk to Chateau Cakery on one side, or the Commonplace Coffee in the MWS in the other direction (a 10-15 minute walk if you ask Google Maps -- I just looked it up to make sure I'm not crazy...)
Of course I would love to see dramatic redevelopment over in Chateau (we have an ongoing fantasy about some of the empty warehouses near Preble Street becoming converted to an urban Target and/or Giant Eagle, for example), but even as it is I think most of the coffee, beer, and restaurant options in both Allegheny West and the Mexican War Streets are not bad walking distance from most of Manchester. The upper part of the triangle will always be a bit isolated because of the train tracks etc, but I think the areas around Liverpool and Franklin Streets are reasonably walkable. Manchester is one of my favorite areas to explore by foot, and I would have favored living there if my husband hadn't made a pretty good case for finding a hilltop with a view.
The original homeowners of the infill housing never saw their investment as a failure. The "suburban" homes were delivered as promised and purchased by black families who would have otherwise left the neighborhood or city all together. The new
historic ish infill was started in the 90's and spearheaded by former Mayor Tom Murphy. This was after the city received federal funding to demolish the public housing complex in the heart of Manchester. Tom Murphy push for and succeeded with adding scattered site infill development of the subsidized public housing.
I have several friends that either grew up in the neighborhood or purchased homes there. The split level homes and the infill townhouses from the 1970s and 1980s helped to stabilized the neighborhood and eliminated blight.
Of course I would love to see dramatic redevelopment over in Chateau (we have an ongoing fantasy about some of the empty warehouses near Preble Street becoming converted to an urban Target and/or Giant Eagle, for example)
I'm still salty that the NIMBYs who attended the hearing about the prison site were so staunchly against this sort of development.
NIMBY isn't even really the appropriate term since Chateau isn't residential at all.
I see what you're saying, but given that the whole Lower Northside is so flat and dense I'm not sure it's true that a morning coffee is outside of easy walking distance. I think of Fulton and Liverpool as two fairly central streets, and from the intersection of the two it's less than a mile if you want to walk to Chateau Cakery on one side, or the Commonplace Coffee in the MWS in the other direction (a 10-15 minute walk if you ask Google Maps -- I just looked it up to make sure I'm not crazy...)
Of course I would love to see dramatic redevelopment over in Chateau (we have an ongoing fantasy about some of the empty warehouses near Preble Street becoming converted to an urban Target and/or Giant Eagle, for example), but even as it is I think most of the coffee, beer, and restaurant options in both Allegheny West and the Mexican War Streets are not bad walking distance from most of Manchester. The upper part of the triangle will always be a bit isolated because of the train tracks etc, but I think the areas around Liverpool and Franklin Streets are reasonably walkable. Manchester is one of my favorite areas to explore by foot, and I would have favored living there if my husband hadn't made a pretty good case for finding a hilltop with a view.
Of course I would love to see dramatic redevelopment over in Chateau (we have an ongoing fantasy about some of the empty warehouses near Preble Street becoming converted to an urban Target and/or Giant Eagle, for example), but even as it is I think most of the coffee, beer, and restaurant options in both Allegheny West and the Mexican War Streets are not bad walking distance from most of Manchester. The upper part of the triangle will always be a bit isolated because of the train tracks etc, but I think the areas around Liverpool and Franklin Streets are reasonably walkable. Manchester is one of my favorite areas to explore by foot, and I would have favored living there if my husband hadn't made a pretty good case for finding a hilltop with a view.[/quote]
I understand what you mean, but most people would not consider a 15-minute+ walk to be highly walkable. I'm a 15-minute walk from Bryant Street in Highland Park, and I don't consider where I live to be particularly walkable at all. And even if it was closer, I'm not sure I'd want to walk to Chateau Cakery on a regular basis.
Still, yes, it's true that the further south and east you live in Manchester, the more walkable it is. There's a few blocks of housing technically in Manchester right on Allegheny Avenue which are very walkable. IIRC from looking at the block maps at the time of the last census, this little zone is heavily white, so I wouldn't be surprised if the locals think of it more as being Allegheny West, since it's right across the street.
I also do have to say I tend forget Pennsylvania Avenue goes across the rail bridge. It can act as a shortcut to walk to the Mexican War Streets. That said, from a pedestrian standpoint, it's a bleak, bleak street. I think I'd rather walk south to W North Avenue and walk around the longer way.
I'm still salty that the NIMBYs who attended the hearing about the prison site were so staunchly against this sort of development.
NIMBY isn't even really the appropriate term since Chateau isn't residential at all.
Oh wow -- I missed that entirely. Rats.
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