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Spring Hill-City View is a hilltop neighborhood in the North Side of Pittsburgh. It is often colloquially called simply Spring Hill, although this is inaccurate, as the modern day neighborhood is actually an amalgam of two different neighborhoods, with City View being the areas in the far north of the neighborhood around the (oddly named) S Side Avenue. Some streets on the western fringes of the neighborhood close to 279 (such as Rostock Street and Solar Street) are actually surviving remnants of the now defunct East Street Valley neighborhood.
As it was not only a hilltop neighborhood, but lacked a flat hilltop like nearby Troy Hill, Spring Hill was one of the later portions of old Allegheny City to be fully settled. In the 1870s and 1880s, adjacent Spring Garden and the East Street Valley were bustling urban neighborhoods, but much of Spring Hill was still undeveloped farmland. The earliest areas of development were in what came to be named City View (still part of Reserve Township at the time) and Rhine Street in Spring Hill (already part of Allegheny City). As was the norm in highland neighborhoods of Pittsburgh in the 19th century, virtually all buildings (aside from a few of the grander farmhouses) were frame. By 1900 a streetcar snaked up Itin and Rhine, and that area filled in fairly densely with rowhouse-style frame housing. The last portions of the neighborhood to be built out were its far eastern fringes - streets like Rockledge close to Spring Hill Elementary school, along with some blocks of Yetta and Haslage closer to town. These streets are dominated by the classic Pittsburgh interwar bungalow and foursquare styles. Some streets remain lined with brick to this day. Similar to all of the adjacent neighborhoods in the eastern part of the lower North Side (Deutschtown, Troy Hill, and Spring Garden) the earliest settlers in this region were German, and the area kept up its German identity up through the 1920s.
Like many portions of the city, Spring Hill went through a period of decline in the mid 20th century. Its total population declined from nearly 8,000 in 1940 to less than 2,700 in 2010. While some of that decline was undoubtedly due to falling household size (along with the wholesale obliteration of the East Street Valley in an act of "urban renewal") there has been a good deal of housing lost to abandonment on the older, 19th century blocks of the neighborhood, as frame houses are very unforgiving to a decade or two of neglect. Spring Hill did have a small affordable housing project built in its core in the 1959. Initially named Spring Hill Gardens, the complex was eventually renamed Three Rivers Manor. Although the early racial integration of the complex ultimately ended, and it became a majority black housing complex, unlike similar complexes elsewhere in the city it did not trigger a generalized white flight from the neighborhood. Indeed, the most blighted and dilapidated portions of the neighborhood are mostly pretty far away from "the projects" suggesting the two have little to nothing to do with one another.
Spring Hill will always have significant limitations. The housing stock is for the most part very modest, as this was never a neighborhood that the wealthy settled within in significant numbers. It seems like at one point in the past there was a small business district at the corner of Rhine and Itin, but aside from a single surviving convenience store and a few abandoned commercial buildings (including a bank) there isn't much left. Spring Hill Brewing will of course add an important destination to the neighborhood, but it's still pretty thin gruel.
That said, the neighborhood is currently grossly undervalued, with most houses which go on the market under $100,000, and habitable houses needing some updates still under $50,000. One way to look at it is it's priced like Pittsburgh ten years ago. Or that it's priced like it's the ghetto, even though Spring Hill isn't really dangerous at all except for Three Rivers Manor itself (even there since 2005 there have only been two murders - the last was in 2012). I would go so far to say that Spring Hill is one of the few remaining "deals" left in the city - places where you can buy a historic home in a safe neighborhood for a ridiculously low price. Just be prepared for a long walk (or short drive) to virtually anywhere you want to go.
I love Spring Hill but it has some serious limitations. No businesses despite being a walking district. Save for a retirement home, a corner store (Meme's?). It has a cemetery with amazing views of the city. The best homes may be on that brick street. Totally cool hidden neighborhood but kinda boring. I'd rather go across the Route 279 bridge from Spring Hill into Fineview and look there.
I don't deny that Spring Hill lacks the kind of business district that you have over in Troy Hill, of course. Still there's a few more amenities that deserve at least a quick mention on here. The first that comes to mind is Steel City Boxing, which plays an active leadership role in the community. Another is Waisenhaus Park on Rockledge Street, named after the old German orphanage that once stood at the site. It's a nice little spot, and the Spring Hill Civic League organizes a few parties a year in or near the park -- usually a big summer picnic with live music, a movie night where they project a kid-friendly film on a big screen, and a holiday party in December when they put Christmas lights up in the trees along Rockledge -- there's usually carols, hot chocolate, and a visit from Santa for the kids. We also have a number of local artists who do community projects with neighborhood kids, most notably a mosaic specialist who has been putting colorful ceramic birds all over the place (like the ones on Itin Street), and Little House, Big Art which specializes in art-themed parties. Spring Hill Brewing shares its space with Rescue Street Farms, which also plans to have community and kids' events once they are fully operational. (The brewery has hosted a few parties here and there and we've been inside to see their space; not sure when they will be open officially but it should be SOON if it hasn't already happened.) Also -- the bank building at the corner of Rhine and Itin isn't abandoned; there's some sort of tech startup that has their offices in there. That's not really an "amenity" as they only employ a handful of people, but it's good that the building isn't just sitting there empty.
All that being said, Spring Hill is very much a "suburb in the city" in many ways, but that's part of the appeal. It's safe and quiet, the sort of place where kids play street hockey all day long in the summer. The walk down to Deutschtown is really pleasant when the weather is good, and there's a good bus line that connects Spring Hill to downtown surprisingly quickly. The architectural history of the area is indeed a mix, but there are some very handsome Victorians -- including one from the 1850s that was the home of Adam Reinemann and Elizabeth Rickenbach (the landowners who developed much of Troy Hill, Spring Hill, Spring Garden and Reserve Township in the 1800s; you can read about them here) before they resettled in Troy Hill a few years later. It's true that the neighborhood is still quite cheap by Pittsburgh 2018 standards, but properties sell fast -- for example, this one on Yetta and this one on Leister Street, near the crown of the hill, both went pretty quickly. I don't think property prices will go up all too sharply, but I do think the neighborhood will continue to improve gradually as young professionals keep buying older homes and renovating them.
Last edited by RogersParkTransplant; 01-08-2018 at 09:21 AM..
Maybe being quiet and flying under the radar is a good thing for Spring Hill. There is a .67 acre lot for sale on South Side Ave that I've been looking at. Wish more of that lot would be for sale. I have a friend who lives in Spring in small modest home on a 4 acre lot. She says city people told her it's one of the largest privately owned properties.
I have a lot of "history" with this neighborhood, although unfortunately I have never lived there. I almost purchased my first house on Yetta in 2009, before I had a problem with getting the mortgage because of peeling paint. That was really heartbreaking for me, because I loved the house! A few years later, I almost closed on a brick 1880s row house on Itin, before the inspection scared me away. I just wasn't ready to tackle a major renovation at that time. I just tell myself it wasn't meant to be. There was another little house on Walz that I was close to buying as well. A little Victorian cottage. What scared me away from that was job insecurities I had at the time. Sigh!
I loved Spring Hill mostly for the views and the mix of 19th c. working class housing. I've spent a lot of time walking around up there over the years. I hope it continues to stabilize without gentrifying.
I don't deny that Spring Hill lacks the kind of business district that you have over in Troy Hill, of course. Still there's a few more amenities that deserve at least a quick mention on here. The first that comes to mind is Steel City Boxing, which plays an active leadership role in the community. Another is Waisenhaus Park on Rockledge Street, named after the old German orphanage that once stood at the site. It's a nice little spot, and the Spring Hill Civic League organizes a few parties a year in or near the park -- usually a big summer picnic with live music, a movie night where they project a kid-friendly film on a big screen, and a holiday party in December when they put Christmas lights up in the trees along Rockledge -- there's usually carols, hot chocolate, and a visit from Santa for the kids. We also have a number of local artists who do community projects with neighborhood kids, most notably a mosaic specialist who has been putting colorful ceramic birds all over the place (like the ones on Itin Street), and Little House, Big Art which specializes in art-themed parties. Spring Hill Brewing shares its space with Rescue Street Farms, which also plans to have community and kids' events once they are fully operational. (The brewery has hosted a few parties here and there and we've been inside to see their space; not sure when they will be open officially but it should be SOON if it hasn't already happened.) Also -- the bank building at the corner of Rhine and Itin isn't abandoned; there's some sort of tech startup that has their offices in there. That's not really an "amenity" as they only employ a handful of people, but it's good that the building isn't just sitting there empty.
FWIW, zoning maps show the neighborhood actually has two small areas still zoned for commercial. One is right around where the old bank building is (basically just the bank building and four frame buildings nearby - but not the side where Hamm's Market is located). The other is way up in City View, on the parcel where Pittsburgh Cut Flowers is located.
No, last time we went by the place was being renovated, and as far as I can tell it's just being turned back into a single family home. We always thought it was a little funny that a place called "Cookie Cutters" was actually a hair salon and not a bakery...I mean, who wants a cookie cutter haircut?
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Originally Posted by eschaton
FWIW, zoning maps show the neighborhood actually has two small areas still zoned for commercial. One is right around where the old bank building is (basically just the bank building and four frame buildings nearby - but not the side where Hamm's Market is located). The other is way up in City View, on the parcel where Pittsburgh Cut Flowers is located.
Yes, us locals are always hoping that a little retail will come back to the Itin/Rhine intersection, but honestly I think it makes more sense for Chestnut Street to be revitalized -- it's really not that far once you wrap your mind around the steep grade of Itin, and Chestnut is so much more walkable to other amenities that it makes more sense. I mean, if some one DOES open a bakery at Itin/Rhine, or if MeMe's Market ever expanded to offer sandwiches or something, we'd be all over it...but I don't really think there's enough people up here for it to work on its own, at least not yet. Pear & Pickle over in Troy Hill would be the model for an ideal little neighborhood deli, but again since Troy Hill has more of a business district it makes more sense over there (and is still only a five-minute drive for us). It's also worth pointing out that the people who run Kaffeehaus on Chestnut Street are actually from Spring Hill and are active in the Civic League -- ie, they are also aware that the business will get more traffic down at the bottom of the hill.
We forgot to mention Brady Memorial Home, which is still functional as far as I know, though I believe there has been a recent change in ownership (not actually certain, but I think the owner passed away recently).
Yes -- when were you looking, maybe 2012 or so? Honestly I think this home would sell closer to the $200k range now. Some friends of ours who had been renting on Rockledge recently finally gave up and moved to Marshall-Shadeland, because they wanted something like this but very few would come up for sale, and when they did they sold very, very quickly. They found what they were looking for near Wood's Run, which is a nice area too, and getting nicer.
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I have a friend who lives in Spring in small modest home on a 4 acre lot. She says city people told her it's one of the largest privately owned properties.
