Greater Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh
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The place to explore the rich history of Greater Hazelwood, including Glenwood and Glen Hazel.
03/17/2025
LYTLE LOOKING TOWARD LONGWORTH
May 14, 1940
"Scotch Bottom"
The J&L Steel Company would soon provide
Grade E (for Excellence) steel-related products
for World War II. By the time Pearl Harbor was
attacked on December 7, 1941, production
kicked in to high gear making munitions for
military weapons, armaments and equipment.
Hazelwood Avenue is behind the photographer, with a view of "Scotch Bottom" and J&L's mill.
By the next decade, the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company would expand expand even further in this area, from Longworth Street to Hazelwood Avenue with a variety of "urban renewal" and "slum clearance" projects between 1952-1958.
This was around the time that Mill 19 was built in 1952, during increased Korean War conflict.
On Wednesday March 19, join JaQuay Edward Carter from the Greater Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s (R.I.C.) Robotics Innovation Center for a Neighborhood Memoir Workshop, which will be focused on the former SCOTCH BOTTOM neighborhood. All of the workshop materials will serve as artifacts for the Greater Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh's Collections, being preserved and documented for benefit of future generations.
*Wednesday March 19, 2025 from 10am-12pm
*Wednesday March 26, 2025 from 4pm-6pm
•Bring old photos, memorabilia and stories of Scotch Bottom’s heyday
•Share memories about family, home and the Hazelwood community that once was
CMU will be displaying a public exhibit in the Robotics Innovation Center to acknowledge and honor the surrounding area's heritage entitled "Life & Livelihood: A History of the Site. Submissions to the Greater Hazelwood Historical Society within the designated area may be considered for inclusion in the design.
Pennsylvania Room
📸 Department of Public Works
Carnegie Library Main - Oakland
03/17/2025
Join JaQuay Edward Carter, Historian from the award-winning Greater Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s (R.I.C.) Robotics Innovation Center for a Neighborhood Memoir Workshop focused on the former SCOTCH BOTTOM neighborhood, which was demolished in the 1950s to make way for the J&L Steel Company’s expansion. All of the workshop materials will serve as artifacts for the Greater Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh's Collections, being preserved and documented for benefit of future generations in Hazelwood.
*Wednesday March 19, 2025 from 10am-12pm
*Wednesday March 26, 2025 from 4pm-6pm
•Bring old photos, memorabilia and stories of Scotch Bottom’s heyday
•Share memories about family, home and the Hazelwood community that once was
CMU will launch a public exhibit in the Robotics Innovation Center to honor and acknowledge the surrounding area's history. Submissions to the Greater Hazelwood Historical Society within the designated area (pictured) may be considered for inclusion in the final design.
Greater Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh "Honoring Our Past...
Inventing Our Future" ✨️
HAZELWOOD BABY CLINIC
Bureau of Child Welfare
Dept. of Public Health
May 6, 1930
In the basement of the Hazelwood School, area mothers and their children went to see a doctor at the free health clinic, Second Avenue at Tecumseh.
Today, this site is home to the Carnegie Library.
05/03/2024
SECOND AVENUE MEMORIES, c. 1990s
Focusing on the former Pentagon Bar
5000 Block
05/03/2024
2ND AVENUE AT VESPUCIUS STREET, c. 1932
An Iron City Beer advertisement hangs above the Chernotowich Bar, which sits near where Dylamato's Market is today. An old Henry Harris grocery store sits across Vespucius Street from the bar. On the right side of the bar was the Glenwood Poultry and Egg Market.
05/03/2024
A 1930s GLENWOOD STREET SCENE...
5452 2nd Avenue at Vespucius Street
July 2 ,1936
Looking toward the Glenwood Bridge with the "Mayapple Street" steps across from Iron City Beer sign in front the Chernotowich Bar, which sits near where Dylamato's Market is today.
An old Henry Harris grocery location sits across Vespucius from the bar. On the right side of the bar is the Glenwood Poultry and Egg Market.
Entitled "SECOND AVENUE"
📸 Pittsburgh City Photographer
Heinz History Center
05/03/2024
A GLIMPSE OF GLENWOOD'S PAST
A June 1921 view of the "Mayapple Street" steps from 2nd Avenue looking southeast to Sunnyside Street. Across from Vespucius St.
The two buildings have not survived, however, the steps leading up to Cust are still there.
📸 Pittsburgh City Photographer (Colorized)
Heinz History Center Archives
05/02/2024
DAIRY MART MEMORIES
Formerly Lawson's
Most recently S&R
Corner of Glen Caladh and Second Avenue, where Hazelwood Theater was once located.
Dairy Mart was owned by the Stewart-Gombas family (Steve and Tina) from 1992 until closing.
The building was demolished in 2019, with plans for a new retail space in the future...
05/01/2024
RUSH STARTS FOR HAZELWOOD HOMES 📰
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 2, 1941
Two hundred families, 75 percent of them from the open-roofed Homestead demolition area, applied for homes in the 1,001-unit Glen Hazel Heights defense housing project in Hazelwood yesterday when the tenant selection office was opened in the Burgwin Recreation Center, Johnston Avenue. First choice on 300 of the 1,001 dwellings will go to Homestead "defense-worker" evacuees. Among the early applicants was Mrs. Louis Pleszko of Vespucius Street, Glenwood, whose husband works at the Mesta Machine Company in West Homestead. She was accompanied by Irene, one of their four children, as Jeanette Ehrman, Pittsburgh Authority interviewer, filled out their card.
05/01/2024
IRVINE STREET VS. SECOND AVENUE
Prior to September 30, 1929, Irvine Street was basically just an alley way, not a main entrance into Hazelwood. Really, there was only one way to get in and out of the neighborhood coming from Downtown Pittsburgh - SECOND AVENUE.
To enter Hazelwood from the West, you would keep straight at Greenfield Avenue, eventually passing Rutherglen and Longworth Streets in the Scotch Bottom section of town. At Minden Street and the Lewis Playground area, the road shifted from one side of the tracks to another.
The vehicles in the distance are on what is now known as "Old Second Avenue," which sits below the tracks. After crossing the tracks, Second Avenue continued on past Hazelwood Avenue to Glenwood and ultimately to Turtle Creek. It had been a previous Native American pathway between the Point and Braddock, used during the times of the French and Indian Wars.
In fact, Second Avenue was first named the "Braddocksfield Plank Road" in the 1790s.
By 1929, Irvine Street was widened and opened up to eliminate 2 dangerous railroad crossings.
The 1939 map (right) shows the remnants of "Old Second Avenue," which no longer was the only way to get in and out of the neighborhood.
Technically, on today's maps, Irvine Street does not begin until reaching Berwick Street. The section leading up to Berwick, from Hazelwood Avenue, and past Minden is still Second Ave. Irvine runs from Greenfield Avenue to Berwick.
05/01/2024
A stained glass window dedicated to Andrew Eszlary at the former First Hungarian Lutheran Church, which is now home to Center of Life.
On December 20, 1925, a time capsule was enclosed inside of the church's cornerstone. Eszlary, the congregation's Vice President, was holding the metal box in which were deposited church documents, various coins, a Hungarian Bible and a brief history of the blossoming church's progress over the past eight months.
Photo by JaQuay for Historic Hazelwood
04/29/2024
GREENFIELD AVENUE AT
SYLVAN AVENUE BRIDGE (Now Swinburne)
A picturesque pencil drawing with views of J&L's Eliza Blast Furnaces, the Monongahela River, the Four Mile Run neighborhood, and
the Penn-Lincoln Parkway (Interstate 376).
Today, Sylvan stops at Greenfield Ave., where Swinburne Avenue begins and crosses over Saline Street in "the Run," a.k.a. "Ruska Dolina"
The movement started when I began researching my own family roots in Glen Hazel (1942) and Hazelwood (1970) respectively, uncovering not only the story of my ancestors, but all the other people, places, and things that once made the communities of Hazelwood, Glenwood, and Glen Hazel beautifully vibrant.
It really was like hopping into a time machine, beginning with the Stanwix Treaty of 1758, through the 1784 establishment of the Hazel Hill Estate and building of John Woods' house in 1792, traveling back to June 30, 1868, when Peebles Township was dissolved - leading to the founding of Hazelwood by 1869.
I grew up in Glen Hazel and Hazelwood in the late 1980s and early 1990s, at a time when Second Avenue was known as the "Depression Corridor," far from the glory days I always hear about, but wasn't alive to see for myself.
You've heard the stories too or lived to see it for yourself...
"We were a complete little town here, with Murphy's 5 &10, 2 or 3 bakeries and banks, the A&P and Giant Eagle, The Grand Theatre, the Hazelwood Theater, 3 drug stores, Mayor Caliguiri's father running bowling alleys, the more than 30 bars, the ethnic clubs and other attractions that are now long gone." I began sharing some of what I found in the Facebook group, Growing up in Hazelwood, started by Denise Perris Provident. In late 2017, the interest in my historically-centered posts began to grow exponentially, with so many people demanding me to "keep them coming!
By Christmas, I was urged by lifetime resident, Terri McCarthy Dillon, to "start my own page," adding that I have so much to share. She was reffering to the fact that my posts were getting lost amongst so many of the non-historical postings. It was clear that there was a great need to reflect on the rich legacy and contributions of Hazelwood, which is highly underserved compared to neighboring communities. I realized that we must take a celebratory look back on how Hazelwood came to be, with a strong emphasis on preserving the pillars of the past, before we can focus on its future progress. Out of this realization and celebration, I founded the Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh on January 1, 2018.
I started a Facebook group on Jan 8th to support my work in collaboration with Growing up in Hazelwood, which started out with 51 members the first day, growing to over 450.
I've held 3 meetings thus far, between January 24th and February 10th. Teri McCarthy-Dillon, Patti Gerhauser of Hazelwood Initiative, Matt Peters of Hazelwood Urban AG, Geraldine Massey of Center of Life, Jourdan Hicks, of Hazelwood Initiative, and Edith Abeyta, artist-in-residence at the Hazelwood Library, have all been in attendance.
Our regular meetings will begin Wednesday February 28th at 6-8pm, continuing at this time slot every 4th Wednesday through December 26th, 2018 at the Hazelwood Library.
I will be working closely with Edith Abeyta on some upcoming arts/history projects. I have been asked to accompany Edith and the Hazelwood Library Branch Manager, Mary Ann McHarg, with the Arts Excursion Unlimited, to Heinz History Center, uncovering what artifacts they may possess related to Hazelwood.
I have been invited on behalf of the Society to join the committee for Center of Life's "I lived, We live: What did we miss?" street-violence exhibit, providing historical commentary on their upcoming podcasts.
I have also been in negotiations with J. Banks Smither since early January, Acquisitions Editor from Arcadia Publishing and the History Press to publish an "Images of America" Hazelwood history book. The Society will be hosting a "Hazelwood Memoir" project with Hazelwood Initiative, collecting, scanning, and digitizing family photos, which will then be preserved and used in public art installations
On February 1, I was blessed to receive a vision to restore and preserve the original 120 year-old Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Hazelwood Branch building, announcing my plans to repurpose it as the Hazelwood Historical Society of Pittsburgh and Cultural Center - a place of inclusion to create change, celebrate diversity, educate folklore, and collaborate together!
I started an online petition and a fundraising campaign to encourage community involvement and gain financial support. In two weeks, the efforts of these initiatives have resulted in over 500 signatures and $310 in donations.
I would like to give the utmost gratitude and sincere appreciation to Shannon Kuc ($5), Gwen Pechan ($10), Karen Fowler ($20), Helen Connelly ($40), Lynne Wingard ($5), Mary Ann Kidd ($25), and Maralee Murray ($25), Melissa Kaczorowski ($10), Missy and John Anobile ($50) Tara Terlecki ($10), Sharon Slobodnyak ($10), Donna Iannone ($50), and Patti Melodini ($50), Nancy Kruljac ($20), and Denise Carter ($25), which were made with such benevolence and selflessness!
The aforementioned donations have promoted these founding members to the level of Trustee. This is a great jump start to the fundraising drive of $750 by June 30, 2018, the 150th Anniversary of Hazelwood's founding.
I cannot begin to tell you all how meaningful these very generous gifts of charity are to me and my mission of preservation and service in Hazelwood, which is so near and dear to my heart.
I have contacted Claren Healey, Development Officer for the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh to check on the status of the building and how to go about securing the location for the Society. She referred me to Hazelwood Initiative's Real Estate Director, Dave Brewton, and Executive Director, Sonya Tilghman. Luckily, I had already been in close contact with HI from the very beginning, when I was granted a dedicated historical column in the Homepage by Alfred DiRosa, Outreach Coordinator.
As a result of the momentum I've been building towards the Hazelwood Historical movement, I was offered a meeting with Dave Brewton and HI to discuss my plans for the historic library on February 12th. At the meeting, there was a great sense of mutuality and partnership being shared in an overlapping of restoration and preservation.
Things are definitely looking up in Hazelwood! We owe our future to those pioneering trailblazers who paved the way - especially those first inhabitants, the Native Americans, who built their ancient burial grounds on what would later become John Woods' Hazel Hill Estate, the derivative of Hazelwood's name.
Please join us as we continue on this journey of discovery with your membership and support to restore pride and joy in our beloved Hazelwood and its environs...
03/17/2025
03/17/2025
05/04/2024
05/03/2024
05/03/2024
05/03/2024
05/03/2024
05/02/2024
05/01/2024
05/01/2024
05/01/2024
04/29/2024