The South Side Flats is a
neighborhood in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
's
South Side area. It is located just south of the
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-cen ...
. The neighborhood has one of the City of Pittsburgh's largest concentrations of 19th-century homes, which has prompted outsiders to call the neighborhood the City's
Georgetown. It includes many bars and restaurants as well as residences. The main throughway in the South Side Flats is
East Carson Street. The street is home to a significant portion of Pittsburgh's nightlife.
History
The South Side was once composed of a number of smaller communities. These included Birmingham and East Birmingham, both named for the
English Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
industrial center,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
; Ormsby, originally a part of East Birmingham, incorporated as a borough in 1866; South Pittsburgh, the area immediately adjacent to the
Smithfield Street Bridge
The Smithfield Street Bridge is a lenticular truss bridge crossing the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
The bridge was designed by Gustav Lindenthal, the engineer who later designed the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City. The ...
, and Monongahela, named for the adjacent
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-cen ...
. These boroughs were collectively annexed to the city in 1872.
The South Side and much of the hillsides to its south had been granted to Major
John Ormsby in 1763, in recognition his assistance in the building of
Fort Pitt. By the 1770s, Ormsby had built an estate on these lands and established a ferry for connecting his home with the community in Pittsburgh.
In 1811, Ormsby's son-in-law, Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, laid out a town on the flats, naming it Birmingham in tribute to his native city. Bedford had come to Pittsburgh around 1770 and was the first practicing physician in the district known as Allegheny County.
He named the streets after his Ormsby's children; names which the South Side streets still bear—Mary, Jane, Sarah, Sidney. Carson St. was named after a sea captain who lived in Philadelphia and was a friend of Dr. Bedford. In the early days it was part of the Washington Pike, the main road to
Washington, Pennsylvania
Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Pennsylvania. A part of the Greater Pittsburgh area in the southwestern part of the state, the city is home to Washington & Jefferson College and Pony League baseball. The populat ...
. The nearby municipality of
Mount Oliver would be named for John Ormsby's son
Oliver Ormsby. The two areas were once connected by a coal incline run by the
Keeling Coal Company, now the site of
South Side Park
South Side Park was the name used for three different baseball parks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois, at different times, and whose sites were all just a few blocks away from each other.
South Side Park I (1884)
The first South Side ...
. Birmingham quickly became a sizable industrial center because of the easy access to river and rail transport. The region would first become a center of glass production, followed by a concentration of iron and steel manufacturing. In 1850,
Benjamin Franklin Jones invested in a South Side iron works. During the depression of 1873, he formed a partnership with a banker,
James H. Laughlin. The firm of
Jones and Laughlin Steel Company
The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by Bernard Lauth and Benjamin Franklin Jones, a few miles (c 4 km) south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in ...
would eventually become the South Side's largest employer. By 1910, it would employ over 15,000 workers. The expansion of the plant in 1950 would require the demolition of residential homes between 31st and 33rd streets.
The majority of workers who had settled in the area were immigrants of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
. They found home throughout the Flats and Slopes of South Side and had brought much of their culture and traditions to the area. Many of the Eastern European churches, clubs and bars are still present in the South Side.
The decline of the steel industry was a major blow to the neighborhood. In addition to layoffs at the J&L Plant, the Levinson Steel Company which had been located on the South Side closed in 1981. The facility had been located along the river between 19th to 21st streets, and was later converted into a
strip mall
A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...
.
A series of
arsons hit the South Side neighborhood in the early 1980s. Prominent buildings on the corner of 18th and Carson Streets and the Arcade Theater on Carson St. were also demolished by fire. The Arcade Theater had opened in 1929 and was the first theatre outside of
Downtown Pittsburgh
Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River who ...
to have sound and air-conditioning. A
Rite Aid
Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. The company ranked No. 148 in the Fortune 500 l ...
pharmacy sits on the site of the theater.
The early 1980s saw the beginnings of redevelopment on the South Side. The
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1964 to support the preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
In 1966, PHLF established the Revolving Fund fo ...
helped establish and partner with the South Side Local Development Company in 1982. In 1985, the South Side's East Carson Street was selected to participate in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street Urban Demonstration Program. Community involvement played a major role in the redevelopment of the former J&L site.
The Jones and Laughlin Company had merged with the
Ling-Temco-Vought
Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) was a large American conglomerate which existed from 1961 to 2000. At its peak, it was involved in aerospace, airlines, electronics, steel manufacturing, sporting goods, meat packing, car rentals, and pharmaceuticals, amo ...
(LTV) Corporation in 1974. The company would merge its J&L Steel subsidiary with
Republic Steel
Republic Steel is an American steel manufacturer that was once the country's third largest steel producer. It was founded as the Republic Iron and Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899. After rising to prominence during the early 20th Centu ...
to form LTV Steel in 1984. The South Side J&L/LTV plant shut down in 1986. Once closed, City of Pittsburgh Councilman Otis Lyon wanted the site's Bessemer converter building, an open hearth building, four smokestacks, and a J&L sign to be preserved. The plan fell through when it was determined that these structures posed a safety hazard, although the J&L sign is mothballed beneath the
Panhandle Bridge
The Panhandle Bridge (officially the Monongahela River Bridge) carries two rail lines of the Port Authority "T" line across the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The name comes from Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Pittsburgh, ...
for future use.
Riverboat gambling was considered for the site and in 1993, and the City of Pittsburgh Urban and Redevelopment Authority (URA) purchased the site with money loaned by a potential developer for $9.3 million. The URA eventually redeveloped the site to be the
Southside Works
SouthSide Works is an open-air retail, office, entertainment, and residential complex (often referred to as a lifestyle center) located on the South Side of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. and just across the Monongahela River from th ...
complex. The project has brought national retailers to the eastern end of the neighborhood.
Geography
The South Side Flats is located at 40°25′43.76″N 79°59′8.08″W and covers .
The South Side Riverfront Park runs the majority of the border of the Flats to the Monongahela River. It hosts a myriad of events, like the annual Pittsburgh
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival ( zh, s=端午节, t=端午節) is a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar.
Names
The Engl ...
. The
Three Rivers Heritage Trail
The Three Rivers Heritage Trail is an urban rail trail paralleling the riverbanks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Allegheny County for about , often on both sides of the rivers, and offering views of the city. The trail is promoted and maintained i ...
also runs through the park.
Surrounding and adjacent neighborhoods
The east-west section of the South Side Flats are bordered by the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of
South Shore to the west and
South Side Slopes to the south. The Flats then curve to follow a north-south direction; this segment is bordered by the Pittsburgh neighborhood of
Arlington to the west and a very small section of
Baldwin to the south.
The Flats run adjacent to three Pittsburgh neighborhoods across the Monongahela River and are directly linked via bridges. The Birmingham Bridge connects the Flats with the
Bluff
Bluff or The Bluff may refer to:
Places Australia
* Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town
* The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich
* The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality
* Bluff River (New ...
to the west. The north end of the Hot Metal Bridge connects the Flats with
South Oakland to the northeast (left turn at end of bridge) and
Hazelwood to the east (right turn).
map of South Side Flats. Retrieved 2010-11-21
Demographics
According to the 2000
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
,
there were 5,726 people living in the neighborhood and 3,613 total housing units within its boundaries. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 95.2%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, 2.6%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.2%
Native American, 0.7%
Asian, 0.1%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 0.2% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 1.0% from
two or more races
2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...
.
Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 1.3% of the population.
Out of the total number of housing units, 86.7% were occupied. There were 9.2% of households with those under the age of 18 and 31.0% with those over the age of 65.
The population of the South Side Flats increased from 2000 to 2010, and much of the demographics did as well as a result of gentrification. Households with those over the age of 65 decreased from 31% in 2000 to just 11.8% in 2010.
[http://ucsur.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/UCSUR_SF1_NeighborhoodProfiles_July2011.pdf ]
According to the 2010
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
,
there were 6,597 people living in the neighborhood and 4,326 total housing units within its boundaries. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 93.0%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, 3.0%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.1%
Native American, 2.2%
Asian, 0.0%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 0.4% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 1.2% from
two or more races
2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...
.
Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 2.5% of the population.
Out of the total number of housing units, 87.3% were occupied. 66.8% were renter occupied units, while nearly half of the vacant properties were listed for rent or rented but not occupied.
Trivia
Kaufmanns Department Store was founded as a tailor shop on Carson St. on the South Side in 1871.
The South Side had the first electric railway in the City of Pittsburgh. The line started at 13th and Carson and traveled to Mount Oliver Borough.
The base of the
Knoxville Incline was at 12th Street on the South Side. The incline was built in 1890, had an 18-degree curve, and was the longest incline ever built in Pittsburgh.
Gallery
File:BuildingExt-editWiki.jpg, Bedford School, built in 1850, at 910 Bingham Street.
File:FirstAssociatedReformedChurch.jpg, Former First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (now Gypsy Café), built 1854, at 20 South 14th Street.
File:CityTheatreSouthSidePittsburgh.jpg, City Theatre, built in 1859, at 1300 Bingham Street.
File:BirminghamPublicSchool.jpg, Birmingham Public School, built circa 1870, at 118–128 South 15th Street.
File:EastCarsonStreetHistoricDistrict.jpg, East Carson Street Historic District in the South Side Flats neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA.
File:SamuelF.B.MorseSchool.jpg, Samuel F.B. Morse School, built in 1874, at 2418 Sarah Street.
File:St.AdalbertChurch.jpg, St. Adalbert Church, built in 1889, at 160 South Fifteenth Street.
File:St.JohntheBaptistUkranianCatholicChurch.jpg, St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, built in 1895, at 109 South Carson Street.
File:FormerGarrisonFoundry-MackintoshHemphillCo.jpg, Former Garrison Foundry-Mackintosh Hemphill Company Offices, built in 1895 and 1902, at 901-911 Bingham Street.
File:SouthSideHighSchool.jpg, South Side High School, built in 1898, and then added to in 1924, at the corner of East Carson and South 10th Streets.
File:DuquesneBreweryBuilding1899.jpg, The old Duquesne Brewing Company
The Duquesne Brewing Company was a major brewery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from its founding in 1899 until its dissolution in 1972. The brand was revived under the name Duquesne Brewing Company in 2008, in order to re-establish the beer in West ...
Building, built in 1899, at Mary and 21st Streets.
File:SouthSideCarnegieLibraryPittsburgh.jpg, South Side Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, built in 1909, at 2205 East Carson Street.
File:SouthSideMarketBuilding.jpg, South Side Market Building (aka the "South Side Market House"), built in 1915, at South 12th and Bingham Streets (Bedford Square).
File:PolishFalconsBuildingPittsburgh.jpg, Polish Army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...
site at 97 S. 18th Street.
File:DuquesneBrewingClockPittsburgh.jpg, The Duquesne Brewing Company Clock (with AT&T logo on the face), built in 1933, at Mary and 21st Streets.
References
External links
Interactive Pittsburgh Neighborhoods MapBrashear AssociationCity of Pittsburgh Council District 3South Pittsburgh ReporterSouth Side Community CouncilSouth Side Local Development Company
See also
*
List of Pittsburgh neighborhoods
This is a list of 90 neighborhoods in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Generally neighborhood development followed ward boundaries, although the City Planning Commission has defined some neighborhood areas. The map of neighbor ...
*
History of Pittsburgh's South Side
{{Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Italianate architecture in Pennsylvania
Romanesque Revival architecture in Pennsylvania
Second Empire architecture in Pennsylvania
Economy of Pittsburgh
Entertainment districts in the United States
City of Pittsburgh historic designations
Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh