Walking

There is much to admire on this relatively short walk along Penn and Liberty avenues between Ninth and Tenth streets in Downtown Pittsburgh, including the August Wilson Cultural Center, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and Pennsylvanian (formerly, Union Station). You’ll hear about the unique role of Liberty Avenue in the City’s Downtown street grid and about the importance of the railroad. You’ll see how commercial architecture evolved in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how contemporary sculpture and public art enliven the area now. Many of the historic commercial buildings have been repurposed for new restaurants, schools, apartments, […]

Saturday, May 25 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Explore the heart of the East Liberty Commercial Historic District with a PHLF docent. On this tour you’ll learn the history of the neighborhood that was once considered Pittsburgh’s “second downtown.” You’ll see sites such as the sole surviving historic theater in what used to be an entertainment district with seven movie houses. You’ll find traces of the city’s largest urban renewal project during the Pittsburgh Renaissance in the 1960s, when almost a third of the commercial core was demolished to make way for an outdoor pedestrian mall. This tour will show […]