Point Breeze, or South Point Breeze, is a largely residential
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
,
USA
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
. The community was named after a tavern once located there.
Like nearby
Squirrel Hill
Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated ...
, it contains a large
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
population, but is still majority
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and contributes to a high percentage of students enrolled in
Taylor Allderdice High School
Taylor Allderdice High School is a public high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school was established in 1927 and is part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. It was named for industrialist and S ...
,
Oakland Catholic High School
Oakland Catholic High School is a private, Roman Catholic college preparatory school for girls, located in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, ...
, and
Central Catholic High School.
The most prominent feature of Point Breeze is
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company and played a major ...
's Clayton, which is a part of the
Frick Art & Historical Center
The Frick Pittsburgh is a cluster of museums and historical buildings located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, and formed around the Frick family's nineteenth-century residence known as "Clayton". It focuses on the interpretation o ...
. Nearby is
St. Bede School, a Catholic school, and the Pittsburgh New Church School. It is also the home to two
Pittsburgh Public Schools
Pittsburgh Public Schools is the public school district serving the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and adjacent Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania. As of the 2021–2022 school year, the district operates 54 schools with 4,192 employees (2,070 teach ...
,
Linden Academy elementary school and
Sterrett Middle School, and the
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) is a Reformed Presbyterian seminary in Point Breeze, Pennsylvania. RPTS is a ministry of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and was founded in 1810, making it the fifth old ...
. The neighborhood also hosts much open space, with
Westinghouse Park
Westinghouse Park is a city-block sized municipal park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The park land is the former estate of George Westinghouse, an American entrepreneur and engineer, and his wife Marguerite. With an area of about 10 acres, it wa ...
,
Mellon Park, the scenic
Homewood Cemetery, as well as the northern edge of
Frick Park
Frick Park is the largest municipal park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, covering . It is one of Pittsburgh's four historic large parks.
History
The park began when the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, upon his death in 1919, bequeat ...
within its borders.
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
winner
Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard (née Doak; born April 30, 1945) is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and nonfiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memo ...
's popular
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...
, ''
An American Childhood'', is set in Point Breeze during the 1950s. As a child she attended
Park Place Elementary. Both of
John Edgar Wideman
John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, and essayist. He was the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. His writing is known for experimental techniques and a focus o ...
's memoirs, ''Brothers and Keepers'' and ''Hoop Roots'', use North Point Breeze's
Westinghouse Park
Westinghouse Park is a city-block sized municipal park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The park land is the former estate of George Westinghouse, an American entrepreneur and engineer, and his wife Marguerite. With an area of about 10 acres, it wa ...
as a setting, as well as in his fictional ''Homewood Trilogy''.
Although officially distinct neighborhoods separated by
Penn Avenue
Penn Avenue is a major arterial street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, Wilkinsburg, in Pennsylvania, United States. Its western terminus lies at Gateway Center (Pittsburgh), Gateway Center in Downtown Pi ...
, "Point Breeze" is also frequently taken to include
North Point Breeze.
Surrounding neighborhoods
Point Breeze has six borders, five with the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of
North Point Breeze to the north,
Regent Square to the southeast,
Squirrel Hill South to the south and southwest,
Squirrel Hill North to the west, and
Shadyside to the northwest. The other border is with the borough of
Wilkinsburg to the east. Point Breeze also runs catty-corner (without a direct border) with the Pittsburgh neighborhood of
Larimer to the north at the intersection of Penn and Fifth Avenues (This intersection also serves as an east–west "diagonal" for the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of Shadyside and North Point Breeze).
Park Place
The eastern edge of the neighborhood, north of
Regent Square and east of
Frick Park
Frick Park is the largest municipal park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, covering . It is one of Pittsburgh's four historic large parks.
History
The park began when the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, upon his death in 1919, bequeat ...
, comprises the neighborhood of Park Place. The
Shady Side Academy
}
Shady Side Academy is an independent preparatory school in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania in Greater Pittsburgh. Founded in 1883 as an all-male night school in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, the academy now offers a secular coeducation ...
Junior School sits here, as does
Environmental Charter School, a
Pittsburgh Public School that operates as a
charter school
A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...
in the building originally known as
Park Place School
The Park Place School in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was built in 1903 at the then-extravagant cost of $100,000, with 9 classrooms and a basement play area.
The school closed in 1979 and was listed on the National ...
.
Notable residents
*
Malcolm James McCormick (January 19, 1992 – September 7, 2018), known professionally as Mac Miller.
*
Jesse Andrews
Jesse Andrews (born September 15, 1982) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He co-wrote the screenplay for the Pixar film '' Luca'' and wrote both the novel and the feature-film adaptation of ''Me and Earl and the Dying Girl''.
Personal ...
(born September 15, 1982), novelist and screenwriter.
*
David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United S ...
(July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022), noted historian and author, two-time winner of the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
, was born and raised in Point Breeze.
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 neighb ...
Gallery
File:TheFrickArtMuseumatClayton.jpg, The Frick Art Museum, part of the Frick Art & Historical Center
The Frick Pittsburgh is a cluster of museums and historical buildings located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, and formed around the Frick family's nineteenth-century residence known as "Clayton". It focuses on the interpretation o ...
at "Clayton".
File:FrickGreenhouse.jpg, The greenhouse at the Frick Art & Historical Center.
File:FrickParkGate.jpg, The Frick Park
Frick Park is the largest municipal park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, covering . It is one of Pittsburgh's four historic large parks.
History
The park began when the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, upon his death in 1919, bequeat ...
gate near the corner of Reynolds Street and S. Homewood Avenue.
File:MellonParkFountain.jpg, Mellon Park, established in 1943 (gardens designed in 1912), at the corner of Fifth and Shady Avenues.
File:Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary.jpg, The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary is located on Penn Avenue.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Frick Art & Historical Center
{{Authority control
Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh