One of my favorite summer photos of Albright United Methodist Church. Photo Credit: Larry Rippel.
Last fall, the East Liberty Valley Historical Society put together a monthly lecture series on historic buildings around the East End. I had the opportunity to attend two of these lectures, both were filled with fascinating facts about buildings I see every day and building that are no longer in the neighborhood.
The Albright United Methodist Church building, which sits on the corner of Centre and S. Graham Streets, is one of the many buildings that is at risk of vanishing from the Bloomfield neighborhood. I submitted a nomination for the Albright Church building to the City of Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission last fall and the commission will be reviewing the nomination at their February meeting next week.
Not only is Albright a beautiful building, but it has quite a bit of architectural significance. This Sunday, local historian and member of the East Liberty Valley Historic Society, Justin Greenawalt will be giving a lecture on the history of the Albright United Methodist Church building. Justin is an excellent and entertaining speaker and his talk is sure to contain some interesting neighborhood stories.
This lecture will be held at East End Cooperative Ministries Community House and is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend the lecture or come early and join the Albright congregation for their weekly church service which is also held at EECM.
This is a great opportunity to meet some fellow history lovers and learn more about Albright, East End History and some of the great things EECM does for the community.
LECTURE: History of Albright
11 am – Albright Sunday Service
12 pm – Lecture on History of Albright
East End Cooperative Ministries Community House (There are several entrances to EECM, please use entrance A on Station Street. There is lots of on street parking on Station Street and more in the EECM parking lot).
Looking to learn more about local historic architecture?
Thanksgiving Day Greetings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Three years ago, on Thanksgiving eve, I was asked via a Facebook post from a friend to volunteer to serve food at a free Thanksgiving dinner. I had no idea when I walked into the kitchen, that I was walking into much more than a dinner.
One of the many things I have learned from writing this blog, is the importance of meeting and talking with your fellow neighbors. While I am thankful that this blog, (the Facebook page, Twitter & Instagram accounts, and many local MeetUp groups) have made it possible to share more Pittsburgh stories, I am most proud of the ways that IheartPGH has used all things social media to bring Pittsburghers together in person. The annual Albright Community Thanksgiving Dinner has become one of my favorite ways to bring Pittsburghers together. Here is the post I wrote after last years Thanksgiving Eve dinner:
There are so many amazing people in this city that are Pittsburghers. Sometimes I am lucky enough to get to spend some a few moments with those people. Tonight, I helped a friend clean up from the community dinner that has been organized at the Albright United Methodist Church since the 1970s. The volunteers were led by a man that is 75 and has worked at Ritters for over 40 years. Earlier this year, he left Ritters and now works at Dennys. Today he cooked 9 turkeys and all of the fixings. Tomorrow he will feed 35 people at his house, then go to work at Dennys at 5pm. I have helped with the clean up for this dinner for the past 4 years and never had the chance to hear this story. I’ll gladly wash the pots and pans, and mop the floor any night of the week if I get to spend time with Pittsburghers like this.
On top of that, another kind Pittsburgher saw my post on Reddit about volunteering a the dinner and showed up to volunteer with out having heard of me or my blog. He had taken a quiz on Facebook and learned that today was his 10,000th day alive. To celebrate that, he spent the evening helping a few strangers.
That is just a little slice of Pittsburgh for you.
The Albright Community Thanksgiving-Eve dinner is more than making sure everyone has some turkey and stuffing to eat on Thanksgiving day (many folks take home an extra meal in a to-go box), but it is an opportunity for people, neighbors, from all over this city come and sit at the table together for food and conversation.
If you have been following IheartPGH over the past few months, you know there have been many posts about the future of the Albright Church Building, while I care very much about that conversation, I think it is most important that the focus of the next week be on making sure that everyone in Bloomfield, Shadyside or any other corner of this county has a warm Thanksgiving meal and some neighbors to talk with at dinner.
Help Make the 41st Annual Albright Community Thanksgiving Dinner a Success!
1. Plan to attend the Thanksgiving Eve Dinner! This is a free meal and all are welcome to attend if you need food, fellowship or just an excuse to meet your neighbors please plan to attend the meal. You can RSVP on Facebook Event here.
Albright Thanksgiving Eve Dinner
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
5:30-8pm
First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall
5401 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 – Next to the Wendy’s
2. Spread the word! Please invite your friends, neighbors, community groups and anyone else in Pittsburgh who needs some food & fellowship to attend
4. Donate! You can support the Albright Community Thanksgiving Eve Dinner by making a financial contribution to Friends of Albright. Friends of Albright’s fiscal sponsor is New Sun Rising and all donations are made to the group through New Sun Rising here.
History of the Albright Community Thanksgiving Dinner
Forty years ago, one of the boy scouts who attended Albright planned a free Thanksgiving meal for his Eagle Scout Project. Ever since, the congregation of Albright United Methodist Church has continued to serve a free Thanksgiving meal. Starting in 2014, Albright began holding the annual Thanksgiving dinner in the fellowship hall at First United Methodist Church, which is located just around the corner from Albright.
Here is a 2012 article from the Trib about the Albright Thanksgiving Dinner:
“Will you come to church with me on Sunday” is most certainly not a blog post title I thought I would be writing this summer, or ever. Last Sunday, I attended the service that Albright United Methodist Church held on the lawn in front of their church on Centre Ave. I don’t often go to church, I am not Methodist and I had not attended a church service at Albright before. If I go to church it is to look at the architecture or I will on the rare occasion sneak in the back of East Liberty Presbyterian Church in time for the sermon. Sometimes I go to church because it feels like it is the one place where there are no cell phones or emails.
So how did I get to Albright and why am I asking you to come with me? In 2012, I was asked by a good friend to help with the Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Albright. Albright has hosted a free Thanksgiving dinner for the last 40 years. I have been happy to lend a hand with the event and it is one of the nicest ways I can think of to spend Thanksgiving eves in Pittsburgh.
This is the post I wrote after the last Albright Community Thanksgiving Dinner:
My latest favorite photo of Albright with the stained glass illuminated.
Over the past years Albright, I have worked with my friends who have been life long members of the Albright congregation and a dedicated group of volunteers to help envision a future for this grand old 109-year-old church building. There are so many ways that this church building can not only continue to be a bright spot in the neighborhood (Albright is technically in Bloomfield, but sits across the street from Friendship & Shadyside) as a beautiful building and as a community space that is much more than just a place to worship on Sunday mornings. This summer, I have been working every weekend and many weekday evenings to help the congregation spruce up their church so they can return to worship in the sanctuary. There are still a few more things to clean up before the congregation and the community can use the building again, but we have been working very hard to show off this beautiful space to the city of Pittsburgh. Last month we hosted a community block party and had an incredible response from all over the city. You can see some photos from the block party here.
I know this is last minute, I know it is a Friday afternoon in August and many of you are at the beach or wishing you were at the beach, but if you are free this Sunday, I want to invite you to come with me to the Albright church Sunday service and to stay for the community meeting that will follow the service. If worship isn’t your thing, just come and sit with me in the back of the service (I will be sitting in the back, and I will happily save you a seat). If church isn’t your thing, that is ok too. Feel free to come just for the community meeting or stop by and drop a few dollars in the collection basket. All funds are being used to repair and restore the church so that it can continue to serve as a bright spot in the neighborhood for many more years to come.
Albright Sunday Service & Community Meeting
Sunday, August 16, 2015
486 S. Graham St. – Corner of Centre & S. Graham
10:30-11:15 Sunday Service
11:30-12:30 Community Meeting Facebook Event
If you can’t make it this Sunday, but are interested in learning more about Albright and how you can help preserve this building for the future:
Follow @AlbrightPGH on Twitter and Instagram – we have been sharing lots of interesting artifacts on the Instagram account
Donate to the Albright GoFundMe Page – every dollar is being used to repair and rehab the Albright Church so that Albright can be Home for the Holidays and hold the 2015 Community Thanksgiving Dinner in the church social hall
