Tag Archives: East Liberty Valley Historic Society

Allegheny Valley: Its Industry and Its Railroads

Join us for the second lecture of our Fall 2017 Series

Keneth Kobus, author on Steel and Railroad History, will present “Allegheny Valley, Its Industry and Its Railroads”

Ken Kobus is author of the 2015 book “City of Steel: How Pittsburgh Became the World’s Steelmaking Capital During the Carnegie Era“.

More about Ken Kolbus’s research into Pittsburgh steel industry:

All Lectures are Free and Open to the Public

East Liberty 1935: Subterranean Public Bathrooms

Today’s post comes from East Liberty Valley Historic Society Facebook page. ELVHS added some helpful captions to this photo of Penn Ave from 1935. This is the section of Penn Ave where Target is now located. One of the questions on the Facebook post asks if these bathrooms still exist underground. It would be interesting to find out if these were filled in or if there are still bathrooms under Penn Ave. A different take on the Pittsburgh Potty.

I don’t believe any of the buildings in this photograph are still standing today.

You can find more information about Joyce McClements on this family genealogy website here. It looks like after the fire, the restaurant relocated to the Kenmawr building at Walnut & Shady.

This is the current view from the intersection where Shady meets Penn.

The roads in the 1935 photo are different than today. Frankstown Road no longer intersects Penn Ave.

East Liberty History & Upcoming Lectures on George Washington & Frederick Scheibler, Jr.

The East Liberty Valley Historic Society is a nonprofit that exists to document and share the history of the East Liberty neighborhood and surrounding areas. East Liberty is a particularly interesting area of Pittsburgh when it comes to development as it has many buildings from the time East Liberty became a fashionable suburb for some of Pittsburgh’s wealthiest families who were looking to escape the congestion of Downtown Pittsburgh in the 1850s. East Liberty is also the site of a massive Urban Renewal project in the 1950s.

The East Liberty Valley Historic Society has been documenting and sharing information about the neighborhood from both of these eras and everything in between.  You can read a detailed history of East Liberty from the 1700s to today, on the East Liberty Valley Historic Society website here. Follow East Liberty Valley Historic Society on Facebook for more photos and history of East Liberty.

East Liberty Valley Historic Society Spring Lecture Series

There are two more lectures in the East Liberty Valley Historic Society Spring Lecture series that may be of interest to Pittsburghers looking to learn more about history and local architecture.

George Washington: Here on Business

Presented by Miles S. Richards, Ph.D., author and retired Faculty Member, University of South Carolina and Midlands Technical College.

  • Date: Friday, May 5, 2017
  • Time: 7:30-9pm
  • Location: East Liberty Presbyterian Church (use entrance on Highland Ave)
  • Facebook Event

Apartment building on Highland Ave designed by Frederick Scheibler.

Architect Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr. and His Work in the East End

Presented by Martin Aurand, Author and Principal Architecture Library/Archivist, Head of University Libraries Arts Library and Special Collections Department, Carnegie Mellon University.

  • Date: Friday, June 2, 2017
  • Time: 7:30-9pm
  • Location: East Liberty Presbyterian Church (use entrance on Highland Ave)
  • Facebook Event

Looking for more historic preservation events? Join the Pittsburgh Historic Preservation MeetUp group.

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