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June 14, 2018 / Places and landmarks

Jenkins Arcade, a victim of ‘Renaissance II’

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Jenkins Arcade in 1982. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade in 1982. (Post-Gazette)
Audrey Munhall with the arcade's historic landmark designation on April 16, 1981. (John Heller/Post-Gazette)
Audrey Munhall with the arcade’s historic landmark designation on April 16, 1981. (John Heller/Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade of Nov 11, 1983. It was still open, though many stores and offices were closed. (Tony Tye/Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade of Nov 11, 1983. It was still open, though many stores and offices were closed. (Tony Tye/Post-Gazette)
"Wagons, streetcars and horse-carts crowded Liberty Avenue before turn of century when Thomas Jenkins ran 'Largest Flour and Grocery House in World,' at far end of street," reads the caption for this undated photo that appeared in The Pittsburgh Press in 1981.
“Wagons, streetcars and horse-carts crowded Liberty Avenue before turn of century when Thomas Jenkins ran ‘Largest Flour and Grocery House in World,’ at far end of street,” reads the caption for this undated photo that appeared in The Pittsburgh Press in 1981.
The Jenkins Arcade building after it was purchased in 1979 by First Federal. (Bill Levis/Post-Gazette)
The Jenkins Arcade building after it was purchased in 1979 by First Federal. (Bill Levis/Post-Gazette)

“Sharpen your pencil,” Cliff Sutton told Pittsburgh Press reporter Pete Bishop at the Jenkins Arcade in 1982.

It was early November. Sutton and the arcade’s 214 other tenants had received eviction notices just days before — and the Collectors Cabinet shopkeeper had something to say.

“As an individual and native Pittsburgher, I’m very chagrined to see the arcade going because of its historical significance to the community,” Sutton said. “Great effort is being taken to restore other, less historical buildings while what should be the jewel of Renaissance II is being thrown to the wrecking ball.”

“Renaissance II,” a phrase Mayor Richard Caliguiri concocted in 1977, refers to the period in the late 1970s and early 1980s that saw a revitalization of Downtown. New skyscrapers popped up, the city built the T and repaved Grant Street. The era saw the construction — and demolition — that produced many hallmarks of today’s Downtown.

And the Jenkins Arcade — a 70-year-old, seven-story building where Pittsburghers could get their wisdom teeth removed at Dr. William Hall’s oral surgery practice or buy a campaign button from Parker Button Co. — was a casualty of this redevelopment.

In a letter to the editor published in the Post-Gazette on Nov. 12, 1982, Timothy Ward Murphy remembered his days spent at the arcade — getting his first pair of glasses as an “apprehensive boy of seven” and spending time with his father wandering around the arcade during his college years. For Murphy, the arcade’s destruction was when Renaissance II “lost its innocence.”

“[The arcade’s] high ornate ceiling, multiplicity of shops, marble walls and inviting warmth will be replaced by another stark, unimaginative edifice devoid of character.”

Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)
Jenkins Arcade shop signs on Nov. 31, 1983. (Post-Gazette)

A week before Murphy’s letter appeared in the Post-Gazette, the Hillman Co. and the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Pittsburgh announced plans to build a skyscraper in place of the Jenkins Arcade and the neighboring Jenkins and Empire buildings. The resulting 36-story building is known today as Fifth Avenue Place, and Murphy’s letter wasn’t the only negative publicity the skyscraper plans received in the pages of Pittsburgh’s newspapers.

“The Jenkins Arcade went under the wreckers’ fiat yesterday, soon to make way for another glistening pile of concrete and glass,” Pittsburgh Press columnist Phil Musick wrote on Nov. 2, 1983, a few days after the building was permanently closed. “Some of the town’s roots went with it.”

In Pittsburgh Press photos taken after the demolition, captions say the former arcade site looked like a war zone. “Resembling a scene out of war-torn Beirut is the destruction wrought by demolition men as they raze the Jenkins Arcade, Downtown, to make way for an addition to the city’s skyline.”

Leandrew Williams of West Mifflin rolls up a burning hose, used for cutting steel, on the site of the former Jenkins Arcade on March 23, 1984. (Tony Tye/Post-Gazette)
Leandrew Williams of West Mifflin rolls up a burning hose, used for cutting steel, on the site of the former Jenkins Arcade on March 23, 1984. (Tony Tye/Post-Gazette)
John Kesler walks through the rubble of the Empire Building, which neighbored the Jenkins Arcade, in 1984. (Andy Sternes/Post-Gazette)
John Kesler walks through the rubble of the Empire Building, which neighbored the Jenkins Arcade, in 1984. (Andy Sternes/Post-Gazette)

Even the people writing captions at the Pittsburgh Press seemed distraught about losing the arcade. And in Musick’s writing, it’s easy to understand why.

Some real charm lived in the Jenkins Arcade. On the floors of the shiniest marble and under a canopy of ceilings trimmed with gilded filigree, the town conducted a sizable bit of its business.

“It’s like a little city all its own,” a dentist once observed.

So it was for 72 years, as much as anyplace Pittsburgh’s commercial pulse, squatting there in dignity and splendor on Stanwix between Liberty and Penn, home to 215 tenants and ceaseless bustle. A workable if not geometric marriage of the Arcade and the Jenkins and Empire buildings.

Some shopkeepers, while still disappointed, understood the reasoning behind the demolition. “It’s a valuable piece of property to have an antiquated building with bad plumbing and bad electricity,” shoe store owner Bill Nofsinger noted in a Nov. 5, 1982 Pittsburgh Press article.

Destruction of Jenkins Arcade and neighboring buildings in February of 1984. (Mark Murphy/Post-Gazette)
Destruction of Jenkins Arcade and neighboring buildings in February of 1984. (Mark Murphy/Post-Gazette)
A mannequin in a window at Hornes casts a reflection on the ruins of a demolished store in Jenkins Arcade. (Bill Levis/Post-Gazette)
A mannequin in a window at Hornes casts a reflection on the ruins of a demolished store in Jenkins Arcade. (Bill Levis/Post-Gazette)
A view of the wrecking ball hitting the Jenkins Arcade taken from Oppenheimer Boulevard. (Kent Badger/Pittsburgh Press)
A view of the wrecking ball hitting the Jenkins Arcade taken from Oppenheimer Boulevard. (Kent Badger/Pittsburgh Press)
Jenkins Arcade being demolished. (Jim Fetters/Pittsburgh Press)
Jenkins Arcade being demolished. (Jim Fetters/Pittsburgh Press)
The Empire Building and Jenkins Arcade being town down in February of 1984. (Post-Gazette)
The Empire Building and Jenkins Arcade being town down in February of 1984. (Post-Gazette)

Part of the success of the arcade was due to the relative affordability of the store fronts compared to a suburban mall, for example. That affordability resulted in an abundance of local shops — just six chains filled the 215 spots in the building, according to a Nov. 21, 1984 article in the Post-Gazette.

But many of these local businesses failed after Jenkins closed. Post-Gazette reporter Barry Paris found that 40 percent of the shopkeepers closed permanently or failed to relocate.

Even leading up to its closure, the arcade brought 17,000 daily visitors. Some shopkeepers attributed its success to its accessibility. A Downtown worker could book appointments or shop in the arcade during lunch or after work. Dr. Owen Cantor, a dentist active in trying to save the building, summed up the feeling many shopkeepers and shoppers seemed to have when it was inevitable that the Hillman and First Federal plans would go through.

“They’re murdering a live building,” he said.

Mayor Richard Caliguiri operates a pink bulldozer to break ground for the new tower on the site of the old Jenkins Arcade on Aug. 29, 1985. (Post-Gazette)
Mayor Richard Caliguiri operates a pink bulldozer to break ground for the new tower on the site of the old Jenkins Arcade on Aug. 29, 1985. (Post-Gazette)
From left, John Hasenkoph of Brookline, Kenny Rudden of Whitehall and John Hunchar of Latroke set up concrete barriers ahead of construction for Fifth Avenue Place on Aug. 21, 1985. (Tony Tye/Post-Gazette)
From left, John Hasenkoph of Brookline, Kenny Rudden of Whitehall and John Hunchar of Latroke set up concrete barriers ahead of construction for Fifth Avenue Place on Aug. 21, 1985. (Tony Tye/Post-Gazette)
Cranes starting construction for Fifth Avenue Place in May of 1986. (Andy Starnes/Pittsburgh Press)
Cranes starting construction for Fifth Avenue Place in May of 1986. (Andy Starnes/Pittsburgh Press)

 

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Topics related to this:downtown historic jenkins arcade pittsburgh Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pittsburgh press renaissance II

John Hamilton

John is a photo editor at the Post-Gazette interested in Pittsburgh history and old photos. You can find him on Twitter @jham1496and send ideas for future Digs posts to jhamilton@post-gazette.com.

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