Posted July 23, 200816 yr mrnyc: Do not use Firefox to view this thread :wink: Squirrel Hill is the city of Pittsburgh's largest neighborhood, and is located in the southeastern part of the city in "The East End". This thread will focus on the southern half of the neighborhood, south of Forbes Ave. and including the business district. The northern half of Squirrel Hill was featured here. Squirrel Hill is a large, leafy, affluent neighborhood tucked in between the city's two largest parks: the attraction-filled Schenley and the sylvan Frick. Carnegie Mellon University's campus is split amongst Squirrel Hill and adjacent Oakland to the west. Chatham University, a liberal arts girls college of 1,900 students, has a lush arboretum campus in the northern part of the neighborhood. Squirrel Hill's main period of development was as a "streetcar suburb" from 1890-1930, and its homes feature a wide variety of architectural styles. Squirrel Hill is well known for its strong Jewish community, with almost half of Greater Pittsburgh's Jewish population living in Squirrel Hill and surrounding neighborhoods. There are many synagogues, day schools, kosher restaurants, and other Jewish accoutrement . While the neighborhood certainly has a strong Jewish flavor, Squirrel Hill is quite diverse and international. It is popular destination amongst immigrants, college students and urban-minded people moving into the region. Its business district is one of the best and most extensive in Pittsburgh, catering to a wide range of needs, luxuries and tastes. There are restaurants featuring almost every cuisine, Kosher delis and eateries, full-scale grocer, cupcakery, coffeehouses, hardware stores, movie theaters, bike shops, ice creameries, etc. Southern Squirrel Hill has a wider range of housing options than the mansion-dominated northern half. While there are still many mansions in the southern half, there is also a lot of modest middle-class housing, duplexes and apartment buildings. The area is popular with college students, young professionals and young families. I-376 burrows underneath the neighborhood via the Squirrel Hill Tunnel. Also known as the Parkway East, this highway connects Downtown Pittsburgh with the eastern suburbs. near Schenley Park Downtown from the Schenley Park Golf Course business district yes... the building to the left of this photo is cow-print Rita's is euphoria Biketek and Charles Spiegel for Men our political messiah in chocolate form! believe it or not... this corner was a gas station a few years ago... today it's home of Clusty Urban Cupcake Phenomenon I love this building... houses Squirrel Hill's independent movie theater Taza21 is a shawarma cafe that just opened last week... fantastic! one of Pittsburgh's legendary coffeehouses the only urban Eat N Park (a regional 24-hour restaurant similar to Denny's and Perkins) you know you're living in a special neighborhood when you have a gluten-free bakery a row of architecturally bland commercial spaces descending Murray Ave. house a wide variety of ethnic restaurants this just opened up across the street from a vegetarian restaurant this building has everything you need such convenient housing the Morrowfield is a behemoth of an apartment building... with commercial spaces at street level... representing the southern terminus of the business district ah hell yeah Squirrel Hill's mainstream movie theater... which may be demolished in the near future for a 9-story mixed-use complex at the corner of Forward and Murray another versatile structure... bowling, Russian cuisine and an excellent pub some of Pittsburgh's most highly regarded pizzarerias are located here Norka is Akron backwards! Bangkok Balcony upstairs is fantastic Beechwood Boulevaurd, a very long and curvy residential street in the East End it's like walking through a dream condos there's like 25 of these apartment buildings here one of the many residential streets leading into Schenley Park Schenley Park... a day later this area would be the site of the Vintage Grand Prix the southern edge of Squirrel Hill... Homestead in the distance houses in the jungle the eastern portal of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel I-376 heading east towards Regent Square and Swissvale ... Now we feature a portion of Squirrel Hill known as Summerset at Frick Park... located in the southeastern part of the neighborhood Summerset at Frick Park is a new urbanist brownfield redevelopment... it is built on a 25-story slag heap that accumulated during the days of steel... there are currently about 200 single-family houses plus condos and duplexes... Phase II is under way with a projected total build-out of about 700 homes. It features a diversity in architecture, neighborhood swimming pool and alleyways in the back. There is no commercial component, but Squirrel Hill's business district is not far. climbing the slag heap the Nine Mile Run valley typical house multi-family it was a brilliant day recreation center Homestead's fascinating architecture through the dense haze looking down at Duck Hollow... a hidden sub-neighborhood more Homestead here's a really interesting view... the hulking blue structure in the distance emerging from the hillside... is Pittsburgh's first... and last remaining... blast furnace steel mill... the Edgar S. Thomson Works in Braddock... a few miles up the Monongahela River from Summerset. Built by Carnegie, it started production in 1875... and today its two blast furnaces account for 28% of U.S. Steel's domestic production. In the foreground are the big box stores of "The Waterfront"... a brownfield redevelopment across the river in Homestead... it was once the Homestead Works steel mill... where a famous labor riot occured in 1892. back to Summerset condos another view of Braddock's steel mill from higher up the hill Swissvale hillsides "aerial" shots of Summerset
July 23, 200816 yr Do NOT compare that barnyard bootleg Big Boy (Eat N' Park) to PERKINS!!! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 23, 200816 yr Beautiful neighborhood. I forgot just how wonderful some parts of Pittsburgh are. Thanks for the great pics.
July 23, 200816 yr I saw a documentary on Summerset at Frick Park on PBS years ago when it was a brownfield and plans were underway to develop it into what it is today. Very interesting.
July 23, 200816 yr The commercial offerings/mix looks wonderful. Looks like a stellar neighborhood. Yeah and I loved the movie theatre. :wink:
July 23, 200816 yr haha -- i prayed hard and the pope fixed it. i'll be damned if anything is going to keep me from my long pittsburgh neighborhood threads! very nice as always. bonus points for including the steel plant -- that made me feel right at home.
July 24, 200816 yr What a great neighborhood! Pittsburgh is awesome. The business district looks huge and in tact. I love the fact that Cincinnati has cool NBD's, but none of them are very large, and I have always wished that Cincy could have one business disrict that was very large and linear...maybe OTR in a few years?
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