{"id":1477,"date":"2013-08-21T11:28:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T11:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1477"},"modified":"2015-01-08T18:08:19","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T23:08:19","slug":"lawrenceville-and-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/08\/21\/lawrenceville-and-its-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawrenceville and its roots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Lawrenceville may never have had its name if its founder Col. William B. Foster, father of the famed folk composer, Stephen Foster, had been driven by glory, vanity and fame. It could have been called \u201cFosterville.\u201d Instead, the elder Foster chose to honor Capt. James Lawrence, commander of the frigate Chesapeake in the War of 1812, whose dying words, \u201cDon\u2019t give up the ship!\u201d became legendary.<\/p>\n

These days, Lawrenceville is deemed an up-and-coming neighborhood, a hip place for the young to live in the \u2018Burgh. Although, it lived through waves of development and crises, the neighborhood\u2019s pride remains deeply anchored in its history.<\/p>\n

Lawrenceville was founded in 1814. Back in the day, it was a place where a lot of things got their start. Andrew Carnegie began his industrial empire in Lawrenceville; the Pittsburgh Reduction Co., a predecessor of Alcoa, started there. Immigrants from all over the world planted the seeds of their American lives in Lawrenceville. They worked in the mills, went to churches and grew their social networks in the community. A great deal of tradition was centered around churches and fraternity houses maintained by the Poles, Croatians, Slovenes, Slovaks and Italians. Ethnic grocery stores carried samples of the most exquisite cuisine: kielbasa, kapusta, kruszk, halushki, gnocchi, makovnik.<\/p>\n

In 1977, the Post-Gazette ran special series about Lawrenceville with a title \u201cLawrenceville Retains its Roots.\u201d Post-Gazette photographer Paul Slantis, whom his colleagues often called \u201cthe local historian,\u201d took photos for the series. His photos really captured how \u201cLawrenceville was one of several Pittsburgh neighborhood that have not lost their ethnic heritage.\u201d Busy and lively Butler Street with small, locally owned stores; workers of the American Bridge Shiffler plant heading home at the end of the shift, the Allegheny Cemetery, the World War I Memorial at the entrance to Lawrenceville. Slantis had the talent of capturing the vibe and mood, the sense of place and perspective\u2026 all of it in his still photographs of the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawrenceville could have been called “Fosterville.”<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesLawrenceville and its roots<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[945],"tags":[1254],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/tumblr_mrulwcz5bs1rr5swxo2_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C852&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2515,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/17\/entrance-to-the-allegheny-arsenal-in-lawrenceville\/","url_meta":{"origin":1477,"position":0},"title":"Entrance to the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville","date":"September 17, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"The arsenal was decommissioned in 1926. Today, little evidence of the facility remains.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_magffkwvoP1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2484,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/26\/duncan-park-at-54th-and-duncan-streets\/","url_meta":{"origin":1477,"position":1},"title":"Duncan Park at 54th and Duncan streets","date":"September 26, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Want to see how this section of Lawrenceville has changed in the past 60 years?","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_mawvtkRC8O1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C964&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2455,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/10\/03\/nov-1-1968-ringling-bros-clown-frankie\/","url_meta":{"origin":1477,"position":2},"title":"Ringling Bros. Clown, Frankie Saluto, visits Holy Family School","date":"October 3, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Meet Frankie Saluto, a midget clown with the Ringling Bros.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/tumblr_mbaijffEpm1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C966&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9218,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2018\/11\/12\/pittsburghs-past-vs-present\/","url_meta":{"origin":1477,"position":3},"title":"Pittsburgh’s Past vs Present","date":"November 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Using photographs from the Pittsburgh City Photographer archive, compare Pittsburgh's decades-long transition from an early-20th century industrial city to its modern day culture.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/north_side_then.jpg?fit=1200%2C790&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":871,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/03\/12\/breakout-at-western-penitentiary-of-pennsylvania\/","url_meta":{"origin":1477,"position":4},"title":"Breakout at Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania","date":"March 12, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"For his four weeks of freedom, Andrew Kazcynski drew 10 to 20 years.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n234agPzH51rr5swxo3_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C1078&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1469,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/08\/23\/fritzie-zivic-and-jake-lamotta-at-forbes-field\/","url_meta":{"origin":1477,"position":5},"title":"Fritzie Zivic and Jake LaMotta at Forbes Field","date":"August 23, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Ferdinand Henry John Zivic was one of the genuine characters to come out of Pittsburgh.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/tumblr_mrxrov5Ob31rr5swxo5_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C829&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4115,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477\/revisions\/4115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}