Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
You hip, you hop, you don’t stop
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
About an hour and change in for this particular scuttle, and your humble narrator could be observably noticed as loping along the steep streets of Polish Hill, here in Pittsburgh.
Along the way, several sets of ‘City Steps’ manifested themselves, and photography was committed, but the steps were passed by. Future walks in this ‘zone’ will be somewhat granular, and likely involve these pathways, but this time around the goal was to keep moving.
Gosh, what it must look like to normal people… a decrepit and gray haired thing, encased in a swirling amalgamation of black sackcloth… lurching along in some herky jerky impression of human locomotion… with a camera and flash orange ball cap sticking out of the ebon maelstrom clothing it. Children cry, dogs screech, old ladies clutch at their purses. Men are gathered by Priests to form posses, they gather and light torches, arming themselves with pitch forks… all I can do about it is wave my arms about and snarl.
I have to be careful not to end up trapped at some old mill, lest I be contained within, while the surrounding mob of villagers sets it alight.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The old mill thing is a problem, because… Pittsburgh. About 40% of the building stock here is basically an old mill. I’m so screwed.
Another set of steps popped up, but other than mentally noting where they are, one stayed in motion. Drapes and Venetian blinds would energetically close as I approached residential areas.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The landmark for Polish Hill is the 1905 vintage Immaculate Heart of Mary RC church. Visible from large swaths of turf in Pittsburgh, it’s not quite the navigational aid that the Empire State Building back in NYC is, but it’ll do as far something to measure your geographic position against.
The plan for the rest of my day revolved around ‘leaning into it.’
The sections which I was headed for offered a bit of novelty, but within a half hour I’d be pounding pavement which has been described several times over the last few weeks, so it was less of a photowalk and more of ‘just a walk’ for a bit.
That all plays out here next week, so get ready. Whew.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One giggled out loud, due to this randomly encountered topiary.
If my pre-planning for this scuttle worked out correctly, I’d soon be encountering a cross street which would deposit me at the border of Bloomfield and Lawrenceville.
As described many times, I use Google Maps’ Street View feature to figure and plan out the ‘where’s’ and ‘how’s’ of moving around in parts of Pittsburgh that are unfamiliar. I don’t ‘tie my hands’ by religiously sticking to a predetermined route, as you’ve got to factor in ‘serendipity,’ which is what I call it when something unexpected just pops up in front of you begging to be photographed.
Back in 2010, for instance, I accidentally wandered past an Andean Passion Play being performed in Blissville, while on my way to Newtown Creek. In 2016, I spotted the nose section of a submarine being transported down the East River. Serendipity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another set of City Steps were encountered, which in addition to going up and down also went around the hill. They connect up at the other end with another staircase. One stayed the course. Plenty of time to come back for a closer look.
This is right about when I started seeing the actual horizon again, as one was looking northwards and towards the Allegheny River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Famously, homes found on this sort of terrain display one or two stories on the street side, where the mail gets delivered, but the back of the structure will reveal three, four, sometimes five levels. Amazing.
Back next week with more from this long and productive scuttle – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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DUBBO?
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the second of its name, 1986 vintage, Bloomfield Bridge which is flying about in today’s post. The area I was moving through at this point of a quite long walk is called ‘Skunk Hollow.’
Imagine my surprise – incidentally – when leaning into my old standard of a ‘Down Under’ joke for obscure areas surrounding bridges, that somebody had beaten me to the punch on “DUBBO” or Down Under the Bloomfield Bridge Onramp.
Going to have to go check out Skunk Hollow in the future – from down below – I think.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At some unknown spot along the path, the alley street I was scuttling on which is called ‘Gold Way,’ accessed via a ‘Melwood Avenue,’ transmogrified back into being ‘Melwood Avenue’ again. It’s all very confusing out here.
This long walk is part of my larger effort to scuttle through several of the areas found on the central ‘Golden Triangle’ of Pittsburgh that has been playing out for a bit. I try to focus my efforts, and some attention has been paid to the areas directly surrounding Skunk Hollow over these last few months.
Bloomfield got mention and photographs in this series, and the only post which has any connection to Skunk Hollow was this one (and I had no real idea what I was looking at, it should be mentioned). I’ve been working my way inland, from the Allegheny River, on both its northern and southern shores in recent months. I’m the curious type, see.
If it weren’t for the orthopedic incident, actually, you would have seen many of these explorations playing out last year.
I have absolutely not been doing any sort of historic research, at all
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was a protected path for pedestrians, noticed behind the guard rail on one side of the road, which was paved in the same asphalt as this roadway. It was covered in vegetative detritus from the hillsides, the pedestrian lane. This ground cover hid a bit of black ice, but that wasn’t any sort of real obstacle.
An opportunity for a quick sit down was realized and undertaken here, which saw me resting the ole derrière upon that guard rail. After a quick minute I stood up and rekajiggered my garments, and the straps for both camera and bag, then leaned back into it. The ankle continued to play ball and not cause me any angst, grief, or pain.
Discussing the effort with a friend afterwards, I was told that after crossing under the Bloomfield Bridge, Skunk Hollow gives way to and is associated with being a part of Polish Hill. Polish Hill offers a couple of bridges to get down from its heights into a street grid dominated by a primary artery called ‘Penn Avenue,’ which is scribed into the mostly flat flood plain areas that are defined by the Strip, and Downtown.
As mentioned above, systematic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s part of the Bloomfield Bridge pictured above, and as you can see – it’s ‘DUBBO.’
While researching this walk, another path through Skunk Hollow emerged which I’ll be walking at some later point when the weather warms up a bit. This post is being written during the 3rd week of January, as a note, and a big winter storm is forecast to drop a Snowpocalypse on huge swaths of the country and that’s meant to be followed by some sort of Norse Apocalypse – a ‘Fimbulwinter.’
Given the spate of National and International news, it very much feels like Ragnarök is near. Listen for three roosters crowing simultaneously, that’s how it’s supposed to start.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Something which looks like paintball splatter adorns the pier of the bridge.
One continued on, scuttling along. Ever scuttling…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Residential structures signaled my arrival on Polish Hill proper. As the name would suggest, there’s a lot of Poles who live or lived here. The whole area smells like pierogis.
Just kidding… it’s actually quite lovely up on Polish Hill, with these tiny wood frame homes set along the walls of the Skunk Hollow ravine.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Gold Way, baby
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Peculiar. That’s how I’d describe the sensation of scuttling along ‘Gold Way’ here in Pittsburgh. As described previously, when you encounter a signed and maintained ‘on the map’ street hereabouts whose nomenclature includes the word ‘way,’ it’s functionally an alley.
As an aside, GPS navigation software seems entirely unaware of the nature of these alleys, and will often route you along them without a consideration as to their nature. Not too much of an issue here on Gold Way, which is obviously maintained as an actual street, but in several sections of Pittsburgh the ‘ways’ are where deliveries happen, garbage is stored for pick up, or the roadway itself is semi private and maintained by neighborhood home owners. In the latter cases and because obviously no home owner is willingly going to be bringing in a paving crew, the pavement on these way streets seems to be a lot like driving down some Iraqi road which the Americans had bombed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This path was fascinating. No sidewalks, but there wasn’t an abundance of vehicle traffic so no biggie. The dumbass bike people got the city to drop in speed humps and paint bike lane iconography on the pavement, but there’s no concrete separation between bike riders and automobiles. What’s missing here are freaking sidewalks, actually, but the bicycle people don’t care about that. They’re involved in ‘the war on cars.’
I wasn’t really sure what neighborhood I was moving through for the next mile or so, but conversation with a friend who’s a local suggests that I was moving alongside the steep section of Polish Hill. I later would find out it was called ‘Skunk Hollow.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along the way, City Steps were observed. At some unknown point along this path, Gold Way transmogrifies into Melwood Avenue. That’s all I can tell you, as this was an exploratory experience.
To be honest, I was really enjoying the sensation of being ‘backstage.’
Spent my time observing and waving the camera about, but remained cognizant that I was essentially looking into someone’s back yard everytime I was gazing over a fence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve mentioned the ‘germanity’ which you might notice in the design and decorative motifs of the older housing stock here in Pittsburgh.
Back in Queens, specifically Astoria and LIC, the German immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were largely skilled laborers who specialized in cabinetry, and general carpentry. At first these skilled laborers were drawn in to work for Steinway or Sohmer to work on pianos, but an enormous number of these German wood workers persisted in Western Queens. Cabinetry and furniture manufacturing used to be a ‘thing’ in Astoria and its neighboring communities. Astoria is associated in modernity with Greeks and Slavs, but historically speaking it was catholic Germans who built the place. I used to live across the street from the Chian Federation Building on 44th street, for instance, which was once the LIC Turn Verein.
As is usually the case in the Northeastern United States, when one ethnic group reaches critical mass, its population begins to move away and leave the old neighborhood behind. Just like Astoria and North Brooklyn, when the Germans moved out, the Slavs moved in. In the case of Pittsburgh, the ‘new’ people also seem to have largely been Slovaks, Serbs, and especially Poles.
I absolutely have not been doing any sort of historic research at all. None, not a bit. Gave all that up, me. I’ve cultivated becoming ‘incurious.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve often thought that it must just suck having an abandoned building pop up next to your home. Got to imagine that eating a monthly bill for pest control just becomes a new line item on your monthly nut.
My next door neighbor here in Dormont is an asshole. Wasn’t terribly upset for him when his house burned down and left behind a windowless brick box, me. While the house was being rebuilt, a flock of sparrows decided to nest inside. I liked hearing them sing while I was sitting in that wheelchair last year, mind you, but still… luckily… it was only birds.
Unfortunately, they rebuilt the house and my asshole neighbors returned.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One continued on his lonely path.
Along the way, I was psychically carving myself a new butthole, while thinking about my many regrets and multitudinous mistakes. As is often described, my particular form of crazy involves a lack of acknowledgment for all the things that I’ve done successfully over the years. Instead, my inner dialogue is usually focused on something like failing a math test in the 4th grade.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Transient observer
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For once, I wasn’t suffering while walking. The gamey ankle was playing ball, it was neither too cold nor too hot, and I didn’t have to pee urgently. The ‘minimum kit’ camera bag wasn’t biting into my back. If anything, I was a bit peckish but you can’t walk for miles and miles with a full belly.
I like to analogize my physical state using certain Norse religious concepts, specifically the ones which revolve around the divine squirrel Ratatoskr running up and down the world tree Yggdrasil, except in my case it’s not a divine messenger that’s accidentally causing earthquakes, eruptions, and storms while moving about and it’s instead a ‘pain squirrel’ that is crawling about on my personal world tree. The bugger is found on a different branch of the tree each and every day, randomly and unpredictably.
It isn’t ’how did I hurt my shoulder while asleep,’ rather it’s ’what did that rascally squirrel Ratatoskr do while I was dreaming’?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another interesting religious building caught my eye.
They really love their gods in these parts. There’s a Hindu temple in nearby Monroeville, for instance, that’s incredible to behold but they forbid photography there. The Catholics of Pittsburgh weren’t shy when decorating their churches either, and they usually don’t mind photos if you ask nicely.
Shame about the Hindus, someday I’ll try and talk my way inside their temple with the camera. Maybe I’ll end up shooting an event there sometime.
‘Sacred Spaces’ is a project I’ve long talked about but haven’t truly started.
Basically, I want to take pictures of your church, or synagogue, or temple, or meeting room, or the open field where you gather around a fire with others and worship your gods. I’m not terribly interested in recording your rituals, joining your observances, getting evangelized, or doing any photography revolving about or of the humans your organization services. Just the masonry, architecture, and so on. In return, should you invite me in, you’ll get to use my photos until the pixels wear out and will get invited to any potential ‘openings’ and a free photo book of images associated with the effort.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yet another magnificent religious building is found along this path, this time the landmark First United Methodist Church.
Now… allow my ignorance to shine here, as I grew up Jewish. I can tell you what the finer points of difference are between the ultra orthodox and the ordinary orthodox, and what the beef between Conservative and Reformed Jewry is. My perspective is somewhat warped, as most of the ‘Christ worshippers’ I’ve known over the years were either Roman Catholic or some stripe of charismatic evangelical. My parents actually worked for the RC church at the NY Foundling Hospital, so in my mind Christianity is pretty much ‘Catholic’ and then ‘everybody else.’
What I know about Methodism or Presbyterianism wouldn’t fill a shot glass, and other than being able to offer odd historical anecdotes about heretics and apostates in the Dutch Reformed Church, dating back to the 17th century in Dutch owned New Amsterdam and Breuklyn…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This church sits at one of those invisible demarcation points in Pittsburgh where one neighborhood suddenly transforms into another.
So, we’re out of ‘East Liberty’ and will spend the next few blocks moving through (I think) the edge of ‘Shadyside.’ This is where pedestrians can be observed walking about in hospital scrubs, and there’s an enormous complex of hospitals and specialist medical offices found nearby.
‘Eds and Meds’ was Pittsburgh’s formula and plan for recovering from the abandoning of the City by manufacturing industries. The ‘Eds’ part revolves around giving the University of Pittsburgh and the other colleges most anything they want, and the ‘Meds’ part is based around an 800 pound gorilla in Western PA. that is called ‘UPMC.’
The ‘Eds’ provide a low cost work force who labor while training for their occupations, and the ‘Meds’ employ them. When literally everybody asks me ‘why Pittsburgh’ I have to answer that one of the reasons is that the medical system here is top notch, and comparatively well staffed. No lying on a gurney in the hallway of Brookdale Hospital’s ER for 28 hours out here, yo.
Hell, they cured Polio out here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The church sits on a bit of a prominence, and I walked around it a bit.
This was still just the ‘first mile’ of my day, after all, and didn’t want to bog down. Didn’t even try the door to this church, figuring that I’ll make it a point of visiting the interior when convenient or when I’ve secured an invitation.
A good moment to police one’s personal area network was at hand. The bag and camera straps were adjusted, as was the relative position of my waist belt to the ground (I pulled my pants up.) A quick bit of camera maintenance saw me blowing some dust off the lens, and then off did I scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This house, which seems to have recently been used as a restaurant, was sporting a realtor’s signboard suggesting it as being an excellent development opportunity. Hard to argue against density in this area, to be honest. It’s a proper city here in East Liberty, with walkable streets and lots of sidewalk level shops and restaurants.
Leaving it behind, I have to offer one of my NYC analogies for this area – Bushwick, it’s a lot like 1990’s gentrified Bushwick.
Back next week with more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
B… B… Baum B… B… Boulevard
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As was intoned yesterday, your humble narrator had headed over to Pittsburgh’s East Liberty section to start a scuttle. After a brief distraction caused by a monumental church with a locked door, one set about his plan for the day.
Part of a larger project that involves walking several of the major streets in the central section of Pittsburgh, this scuttle was built around a consequential thoroughfare called Baum Boulevard.
From Google’s AI:
Early History & Naming
- Baum Family Roots: The street is named after the Baum family, wealthy merchants who owned large tracts of land in the area, including the homestead “Friendship”.
- Formalization: First appearing as Baum Street in 1872, it was officially established by ordinance in 1881 and later became Baum Avenue before merging with Atherton Avenue to form the current Baum Boulevard in 1913.
The Automobile Era
- “Automobile Row”: By the 1910s, Baum Boulevard became Pittsburgh’s hub for the auto industry, attracting many dealerships (Buick, Cadillac, Ford, etc.).
- Lincoln Highway Connection: When the Lincoln Highway route was established through Pittsburgh in 1913, it ran along Baum Boulevard, bringing cross-country travelers and further boosting auto-related businesses.
- Key Landmarks:
- First Drive-In Gas Station: Gulf Oil opened America’s first drive-in gas station at Baum & St. Clair in 1913.
- Ford Assembly Plant: A Ford assembly plant, built by Albert Kahn, still stands at Baum & Morewood.
- Motor Square Garden: The massive, domed building (once a market and later a Cadillac dealership) is a key architectural survivor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of my ‘little tricks’ when out and marching about is to take photos of street signs at intersections, so I can easily ‘place’ myself in the midst of what’s often hundreds of photos which will land on the computer back home. In the case of this walk, I had more than 700 shots on the camera card when arriving back at HQ.
Now, I didn’t see 700 individual things, rather I usually shot something three or four different ways, since I never really know how these posts are going to hang together until actually constructing them. There’s a lot of ‘pick and choose’ editing going on once the shots hit the hard drive.
Based on what Google’s AI is reporting (above), this carven ‘Baum Street’ cornice stone is likely to have been erected sometime between 1881 and 1913, when ‘Baum Street’ became a ‘boulevard.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The whole walk saw me doing my NYC ‘heel spin’ move, although I wasn’t feeling threatened or overly attracting insalubrious attention. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The church is visible for most of the roughly 1.5 miles of Baum Boulevard.
Apparently, Baum Blvd. is synonymous with shopping for a car to a certain generation of the Yinzers. East Liberty itself is also somewhat synonymous with the auto industry, I’m told. Mechanics, car lots, all that stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s attractive residential real estate visible here and there.
Behind me were public housing projects and a few high density apartment blocks. A significant number of institutions and buildings serving the medical industrial complex can be accessed nearby as well.
Personally, one of the top dogs amongst my team of Doctors can be found about a mile away from here, in Bloomfield.
I’ve driven through this section multiple times, but this is the first time on foot. The land here seems to be on the plateau where several steep hills meet. It’s relatively flat, by Pittsburgh standards.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Two things here. First off, while waiting for a traffic signal to change in order to get a ‘clean shot’ of what was clearly a monumental structure that the supermarket chain was housed in, conversation was struck up with some random guy who was also waiting for the light to change so he could go shop. Jeff, that was his name.
It was like meeting myself back in Long Island City, and the guy was actually the neighborhood historian who displays an amazing range of detail and recall. After about twenty minutes, I had to excuse myself from his fascinating conversation about the history of East Liberty and ‘Auto Row.’ Now I know what that’s like.
Unrelated to this fellow, a post from interestingpennsylvania.com discusses the history of this building, which was built as a Dodge automobiles dealership back in 1934. Truth be told, I wish that I had found that great site before the walk, but there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More of that fine residential housing stock along Baum Blvd. is above, but the green and white one seems to host a real estate agent’s offices. Baum Blvd. intersects with nearby Bigelow Boulevard.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 