{"id":1608,"date":"2013-07-10T05:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T09:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1608"},"modified":"2015-08-11T09:48:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T13:48:57","slug":"east-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/07\/10\/east-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"East Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor’s note:<\/strong> We first published this story on one of Pittsburgh’s hottest neighborhoods in 2013. In the\u00a0time since, the revitalization of East Liberty has continued, and we found more photos worth showing off of its up-and-down past. Take a look<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

It prospered. It failed. And now it\u2019s on a rocket trajectory again.<\/p>\n

Modern Pittsburgh dwellers recognize East Liberty as one of the city\u2019s neighborhoods, but back in 1780s it was an undeveloped grazing area situated east of the upcoming young Pittsburgh. \u2018Liberty\u2019 it was \u2014 a plot of common land on the outskirts of the town.<\/p>\n

In 1850 East Liberty started growing into a commercial center. Thomas Mellon, an ambitious lawyer, who married land owner Jacob Negley\u2019s daughter with a hefty endowment, was determined to make a transportation hub out of East Liberty. And he succeeded. Some of the first trolley lines in Pittsburgh passed through East Liberty.<\/p>\n

In 1868 East Liberty was annexed as part of Pittsburgh. It became a bustling market center for folks from Point Breeze, Friendship, Bloomfield and Shadyside, the shopping area, second only to Downtown in size and popularity.<\/p>\n

But in 1960s, urban redevelopers predicted East Liberty\u2019s demise caused by the growth of Pittsburgh\u2019s suburbs and saw an opportunity to transform the area before it went bust. They devised a plan which required the demolition of approximately\u00a0half of the 254 acres that comprised East Liberty; many small businesses abandoned the neighborhood for good. \u201cForced to wait through six years of construction work and unable to get much help with relocation costs, more than 280 merchants closed their doors, one study estimated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan was that some buildings would be rehabilitated, and some would be demolished. New apartments and townhomes would flank new department stores. A four-lane road would loop around a new pedestrian mall, and the new road would connect to a new highway, freeing the center of East Liberty from congestion and allowing drivers to park, walk and shop.<\/p>\n

The plan was a total flop. As one Post-Gazette reporter wrote: \u201cThe story of East Liberty\u2019s decline exposes the thin line separating good intentions from unintended consequences. Developers tried to do everything right in East Liberty. Yet, nearly everything went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before renewal the neighborhood was an attractive destination. The redevelopment scheme, however, caused a massive exodus from\u00a0 East Liberty, which drove the area, as the New York Times put it, \u201cinto a 40-year coma.\u201d\u00a0 In 1959, there were drug, liquor, hardware, department, clothing, shoe, jewelry and auto parts stores.\u00a0\u201dWe didn\u2019t have to go Downtown for anything,\u201d said Floyd Coles, who lived in the neighborhood during renewal.\u00a0 After renewal, things got worse before they got better. According to some reports there\u00a0 were some 575 businesses in East Liberty in 1959, only 292 of them were left in 1970 and just 98 in 1979.<\/p>\n

Recent commercial developments, however, are putting East Liberty back on its feet. Now, a converted Nabisco bakery space hosts Google. National retailers are also aplenty in East Liberty these days: Home Depot opened in 2000, Whole Foods on Center Avenue has been welcoming shoppers since 2002, Target opened its doors in 2011. There is a lot of interest in the district. As the Post-Gazette reporter Diana Nelson Jones wrote in 2009, \u201cEast Liberty has gone from being a neighborhood in need of someone to invest private money to being a beehive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It prospered. It failed. And now it\u2019s on a rocket trajectory again.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesEast Liberty<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1612,"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":[1167],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tumblr_mpoxw4BgNk1rr5swxo4_1280.jpg?fit=1235%2C1560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8952,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2018\/06\/27\/remembering-al-vento-and-francos-italian-army\/","url_meta":{"origin":1608,"position":0},"title":"Remembering Al Vento and Franco’s Italian Army","date":"June 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s not uncommon for Steelers players to become celebrities. 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