The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part five.

Yet another abandoned residential building, seen on Pittsburgh’s North Side, and captured while mid scuttle on a medium length walk. That blue sticker on the door is what a Pittsburgh condemnation notice looks like.

Much of the building stock in this ‘zone’ miraculously avoided demolition, during two 20th century seismic waves of urban renewal, which ravaged nearby blocks and neighborhoods. The ‘zone’ used to be part of a separate municipality called Allegheny City, which Pittsburgh annexed at the start of the 20th century.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Having written about the Borough of Queens back in NYC, endlessly documenting how the warnings of LIC’s last Mayor – Patrick ‘Battle Axe’ Gleason – that ‘if the Manhattan people ever get a hold of us, the first thing they’ll do is export all their dirty industries to LIC’ – played out.

Looking around LIC, at the Midtown Tunnel, and the LIE, and the train yards that serve Manhattan and not Queens, and the waste transfer stations and the rendering plants and… and… yeah, we can state that Gleason was right in his assessment.

A similar process played out in Pittsburgh. Need a highway? North Side. Prison? North Side.

Now… here’s where some ‘nitty gritty’ that I’m not a hundred percent sure about begins to come into play. I was cutting down what turned out to be Eloise Street. Eloise is a bit more of an alley than it is a street, but what I was wondering was ‘am I in the Mexican War Streets historic district?’ I used to be able to point to the exact border between Astoria and Woodside or Sunnyside, so this sort of pedantry means a lot to me.

According to Google AI:

• The Mexican War Streets in Pittsburgh’s Central Northside is a historic district renowned for its restored 19th-century Victorian row houses and tree-lined streets. Developed in the 1840s, the area features streets named after Mexican-American War battles and figures, including Buena Vista and Monterey. It is a vibrant residential neighborhood, featuring community gardens, the Mattress Factory art museum, and proximity to Allegheny Commons.
• Key Aspects of the District
• Location: Situated in the Central Northside, adjacent to Allegheny Commons, and within walking distance to Downtown.
• Architecture: Characterized by restored late Victorian, Greek Revival, and Italianate row houses, often with unique architectural details.
• History: Originally the “Buena Vista Tract,” the neighborhood was developed for residential use in the mid-19th century and is recognized for its successful urban preservation efforts in the 1970s.
  

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The ‘main drag’ is a block away, and facing Allegheny Commons Park. There’s retail businesses there, and that hospital which you see on the HBO TV show ‘The Pitt.’ Medical offices, retail businesses, one truly great pizza joint. It’s nice.

Me?

I don’t navigate through this section often, as I’m usually moving a lot closer to the river, and I generally tend to avoid residential streets. It’s never good if- the humans notice me slopping along, and pointing a camera at their homes.

Additionally, driving wise, it wouldn’t make sense to interact with these narrow streets unless you had to. One scuttled along, with the eventual goal of connecting to the T Light Rail, for a ride back to HQ at the end of this walk.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Interesting housing stock, have to say. ‘Disturbingly heterogeneous’ is how I’d describe what’s on display. Again – just like Western Queens.

This area is easy walking, as a note. Mostly flat.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s quite few ‘gems’ back in here, and this is quite a desirable neighborhood to live within, if you can afford it. It’s a bit more ‘urban’ than I’d want these days, but when we were moving out here from NYC nearly four years ago, this neighborhood was actually one of the places we considered living.

Thing is, I’ve got a strong desire not to share a wall with anyone anymore.

This is something realized when end stage planning the move from Astoria, and it’s why we ended up in ‘the burbs.’

I don’t have to worry about the old lady/cat hoarder who lived next door to me in Astoria having a fire anymore, or why the common wall we shared with her was always wetly bulging in from her side. Nor am I still concerned about my upstairs neighbor falling asleep while drunk, forgetting that she was deep frying something on the stove (same neighbor once fired up a BBQ – in the house). Nor do I have a bookie pulling up in front of my house at seven in the morning, every day, yelling ‘Mario, where’s my money, Mario,’ anymore.

Haven’t had a roach or a mouse randomly turn up in the house for nearly 40 months, either. That’s a record for this ex-New Yorker.

Yeah, there’s a lot of things I don’t miss…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That one is a beauty, I tell’s ya. Turns out it’s all kinds of historic.

According to Google AI:

The cottages located at the intersection of Resaca Place and Eloise Street (formerly known as Civil Alley) in the Mexican War Streets Historic District are classic examples of the neighborhood’s mid-to-late 19th-century architecture.

• Architectural Features Scale and Material: Most homes in this area are approximately 20 feet wide and two stories high, constructed primarily of brick, though some rare wood-frame structures exist.
• Design Styles: The district showcases a mix of styles, predominantly Italianate and Second Empire, characterized by ornate woodwork, stone or marble fireplaces, and high ceilings.
• Independence: Unlike row houses in other cities that were built as unified blocks, these cottages were often constructed independently, leading to subtle variations in height and detail between neighbors.
• Neighborhood Context Historic Significance: The streets were named by William Robinson Jr. in 1847 to commemorate battles and generals of the Mexican-American War (e.g., Resaca de la Palma).
• Preservation: Saved from demolition in the 1970s by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, many of these cottages have been meticulously restored from a state of disrepair into “refined beauties”.
• Layout: The district is known for its walkable, tree-lined streets and narrow alleyways like Eloise Street, which often house smaller carriage houses or modest cottages originally intended for workers or as auxiliary structures.

  Back tomorrow with more.

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