Crawford Square
Crawford Square is a New Urbanist style housing development located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a project of the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Location
The development is part of the larger Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh and is directly adjacent to Downtown Pittsburgh. Its boundaries are generally Crawford Street to the west, Centre Avenue to the south, Roberts Street to the east, and Webster Avenue to the north. The Hill District's famed Wylie Avenue runs through the development.
Housing Types
Crawford Square is a mix of rental and for-sale apartments, townhomes and single-family homes. Additionally, the homes can either be market-rate or subsidized.
Racially diverse residents
Crawford Square is a sort of crows' nest where racially diverse strains of human beings have found homes. There are only about 100 units of housing in Crawford Square, but it is inhabited by people of various ethnic mixes. It is perhaps the most ethnically and socially diverse new housing development in the city of Pittsburgh.
Musicmakers died
Crawford Square replaced some noteworthy local establishments which had at one time fulfilled the needs or desires of people who lived in the city. Visitors to the city also patronized some of the establishments. All of the buildings have been obliterated and turned into dust.
- St. Joseph's House of Hospitality, founded by the Catholic Radical Alliance, provided a home for men who were in need. The organization has been relocated to 1635 Bedford Avenue, nearby.
- The Vann Hotel was a flimsy 19th-century building located proximally to Webster Avenue. It served as a home to poor colored men. Mr. Vann was a Negro.
- The Hurricane was a popular place located on Centre Avenue. Music lovers gathered at the Hurricane which was owned by a woman named "Birdie." About ten city blocks further to the east stood the Crawford Grill, a more elite establishment.
- Lou's Ringside Bar on Centre Avenue was a tavern that was well furnished and well attended by its patrons. It was an early establishment which could have been described as being a sports bar. A building called "Williams Square" has been constructed on the site. That structure may not be a part of "Crawford Square."
- Stokes' Tavern and a grocery store were above on Wylie Avenue at the level part of the street.
- A small church had existed on Arthur Street near Wylie Avenue.
- In the 1970s, a man sold live chickens from a storeroom in the lower part of Wylie Avenue between Crawford Street and Protectory Place.
- Located on the corner of Wylie Avenue and Protectory Place, the Foreside Inn (a tavern) was among the last establishments to serve its customers. It was conducting business as late as the early 1990s.
Other establishments such as small stores and taverns with apartments above them existed on Centre Avenue and on nearby streets. Residential homes were located on some of the streets, but only a handful of them still exist next to the new homes on Roberts Street.
Brief history
The location which is now "Crawford Square" was an elevated slope about one mile (1.6 km) east of the original city of Pittsburgh. In 1800, only 1565 people lived in Pittsburgh.[1] Separate annexations occurred in 1837, 1847, 1868, 1874, and 1906. In 1900, 321,616 residents were counted, including a group of Jews who had constructed the first synagogue (now demolished and replaced) near Elm Street. At that time, a local term for the large general area was "Jews Hill." Despite that name, other sorts of people lived there, including Italians, Negroes, Russians, and more.
Changing area
The number of Jews who had established businesses within the large general area that was at one time called "Jews Hill" by other residents of the city of Pittsburgh has declined by at least 90 percent, but a paltry number of Jews still exists there. In 2007, buildings which had served as locations from which Jews conducted businesses are being razed and turned into dust. The place that is now called "Crawford Square" is centrally located within the large general area formerly called "Jews Hill" by earlier residents of the city of Pittsburgh.
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