Lawrenceville Antique Shop More Like History Museum

Large collection of old beer bottles

Al Stidle opened Scavenger's Antique Shop in Lawrenceville in 2003 when his collectibles threatened to overrun his Mt. Oliver house. His wife happily approved.  Though most antique shops resemble boutiques with their high prices and occasionally highbrow staff, Scavenger's is more rustic, more unpredictable -- kind of like a scene from the popular television show "American Pickers" on the History Channel.  Stidle's father, who raised his family in a brick Troy Hill home the family still owns, got him started as a picker.

Antique pickers -- like "American Pickers" stars Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz -- travel dusty back roads in search of valuable items stashed in barns or forgotten in dark attics. They pick the most collectible pieces, negotiate a price, and then sell them to antique store owners at a profit.  Stidle takes a different tack: He finds pieces he likes -- at flea markets, yard sales, following tips from friends -- then adds them to his personal collection.  Less than 15 percent of his picked items are in the store, he said. The rest sits in storage units and garages.  He focuses on Pittsburgh-region memorabilia.

A personal favorite of Stidle's, an old Duquesne Pilsener sign, hangs on the wall behind the counter at Scavenger's, but it is not for sale at any price. However the shop is full of other things that are.  Stacks of lumber and stairway banisters ripped out of homes built in the 1800s occupy dusty corners; old, obscure sports memorabilia cover walls; creaky furniture is piled to the rafters. Store hours are fluid, and most prices are unlisted and negotiable. However some items, particularly Pittsburgh beer memorabilia, might never leave the store.

Al has many other "favorites" that he will sell.  Like a montage of Homestead relics with an asking price of $300. The 4-foot-long, 2-foot-wide picture meshes old matchbooks and union stickers with a panoramic photo of steel mills.  There is also a beer bottle Al views as a piece of history.  It was brewed at St. Vincent Brewery, which closed in 1898, and bottled in the South Side at the old Lascheid Bottling, owned by the family of former Pens and Pirates organist Vincent Lascheid, who died in 2009. The bottle is still full.

Stidle was lured into a life as a picker by his father who repaired washers.  His dad always found himself in people's basements and always ended up coming home with something.  One day, he brought home a small slot machine, buy instead of cherries and lemons, its images were of cigarette brands, including Camel and Lucky Strike. If the same brand matched up three in a row, a token dropped out, good for a free pack of smokes at the bar.  "It fascinated me," Stidle said. "When I moved out, I took it with me."

And the rest is history.  Pittsburgh history that is.  Which can be found in abundance at Scavenger's Antique Shop,  3533 Butler St, in Lawrenceville.


Lawrenceville
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

New Businesses To Open At Air Mall

Pittsburgh International Airport

 
A sports bar will open two locations in Pittsburgh International Airport's Airmall later this year.  The Burgh Sportz Pub will open a 1,300-square-foot bar in Concourse B and a 530-square-foot bar in Concourse D.

Airmall USA has also signed leases with two other companies for space in Concourse A: Auntie Anne's will open a 400-square-foot pretzel shop and Cinnabon will open a 400-square-foot bakery.  Both are expected to open this spring/summer.

Auntie Anne's
Cinnabon
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Pittsburgh International Airport

County Redevelopment Authority OKs $1M In Grants

Allegheny County Map

Allegheny County's Redevelopment Authority has approved almost $1 million in grants to help cultural, educational and recreational institutions carry out major projects.  Those monies will go to:


-  Improvements at the Jewish Community Center in Scott. ($250,000)
   Carpeting and locker room equipment will be replaced.

-  Modernization at the Teamster Temple in Lawrenceville. ($250,000)
   Upgrading of the building's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.  Other changes will help make the structure more accessible to people with disabilities.\

-  Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.  ($200,000)
   Part of a $6 million expansion project for the dance company and its ballet school in Pittsburgh's Strip District.

-  Great Allegheny Passage improvements in McKeesport. ($100,000)
   The new on-street trail will have marked bike lanes along Fifth Avenue, Locust Street and Strawberry Alley.

-  A community center in Penn Hills. ($50,000)
   Improve basketball courts, a playground and sidewalks

-  USS Requin docked outside the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore. ($125,000)
    Restore the outside of the submarine.


Allegheny County
Carnegie Science Center
Great Allegheny Passage
Jewish Community Center
Lawrenceville
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Penn Hills
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre

North Side Redevelopment Well On Its Way

North Side's Garden Theater

Throughout the 1990s, one building after another on the Federal Street and North Avenue corridors of the Central Northside (Mexican War Streets) went dark because of the Garden Theater's then-status as a porn movie house.  Now, 23 years after the first effort to declare the corridor blighted for redevelopment, the wheels are starting to turn.   It was almost five years ago that the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority bought the theater for $1.1 million and six years ago that the Supreme Court made its long-awaited decision that exonerated the URA for trying to seize it.

Nakama, a chain of Japanese restaurants, recently completed a lease agreement to open a second Pittsburgh location in the former Masonic Hall beside the Garden Theater.  Between eight and 12 apartments are planned for the upper three floors.  There are arched windows reminiscent of Moorish architecture overlooking Allegheny Commons Park.  This type of building should prove to be premier living space with occupancy expected by summer of 2013.

Franjo Construction Co. has begun to stabilize two small late-19th century buildings at 1113 and 1115 Federal.  The basement beams and floor joists need to be shored up and new roofs need to be installed.
Big beautiful cast iron columns and tin ceiling panels were discovered when the buildings were first cleaned out.

Across the street, Lawrenceville developer Bill Barron has been stabilizing a former hot dog shop for its redevelopment as a proposed taqueria.  Lease agreements for two other restaurants along North Avenue have been signed by owners of the Round Corner Cantina in Lawrenceville and the former Firehouse Lounge in the Strip. There's also interest from a yoga studio and photography studio for the upstairs of the theater itself.

The best-case scenario is there are shovels in the ground by early summer on redevelopment of the adjacent Masonic Hall, Garden Theater and former Apache Lounge.  Philadelphia-based Zukin Realty is redeveloping about a dozen blighted buildings the URA spent more than $5 million amassing since 1994. The buildings are all in the block within Federal, North, Eloise and Reddour streets.
The facade and front half of the Garden Theater, the last nickelodeon-style specimen in the city and one of the last in the country, will be saved.

Parking for 25-30 cars will be carved out behind what remains of the theater. The developers are working on an agreement for additional parking for residents of the Masonic Hall in a 500-space parking garage on Federal.

The first rehabbed retail property in the two corridors was a formerly blighted bar that had been vacant for at least two decades.  As that rehab progressed, a stunning building with iron doorway columns and arched side windows was revealed.  That building is now a Crazy Mocha coffeehouse.  And beside that, an empty building was turned into the Deli on North.

Those two and the ongoing rehabilitation of the former Toula's Hot Dog Shop on Federal have received funds from the URA's Streetface Program.  The momentum began with completion of a new Carnegie Library branch late in 2009 and the rapid sale of 23 Federal Hill townhouses, with 19 more to follow.

The redevelopment of the neighborhood is long-awaited but extremely exciting.  And it is definitely now in high gear.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Mexican War Streets
North Side

New Wal-Mart In North Huntingdon

A new Walmart Supercenter will open Wednesday in North Huntingdon. The store is set to open at 7am and will be especially good for senior citizens who favor having the low-cost giant in the area.  The store will also strengthen the local tax base so the local pols are pleased as well.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
North Huntingdon
Wal-Mart

Help With Your Property Reassessments

LHRC Workshop: Allegheny County Property Reassessments

If you own a house or other real estate in the City of Pittsburgh or in Mt. Oliver, chances are you have already received a notice of your new property assessment from Allegheny County. (Notices to property owners outside the City are due in your mailboxes sometime in 2012.)

The filing deadline for an informal review of your new property valuation is Jan 13 and the deadline for a request of a formal appeal on your new property assessment is due to the Allegheny County Board of Property Assessment Appeals & Review on Feb 10.

To learn more about this process and the Allegheny County Reassessment of 2012, come for an informational session by Pittsburgh attorney Greg Biernacki of Real Estate Tax Consultants, Inc.

When: Saturday, Jan 7
Time: 10:00 — 11:30am
Where: Landmarks Housing Resource Center
744 Rebecca Ave, Wilkinsburg, PA 15221
Click here for a map and driving directions.

RSVPs are appreciated. Contact Mary Lu Denny at 412-471-5808 ext. 527 or marylu@phlf.org

Please note that PHLF does not provide tax or legal advice. This session is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal or tax advice. Please consult your own tax and legal advisors with respect to questions or issues.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

 

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

Look for Pittsburgh scenes in the new trailer:


The Dark Knight Rises










Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Panello Boutique in Lawrenceville

Panello Boutique has opened on Butler Street in Lawrenceville, just in time for the holiday shopping season.  Located at 3703 Butler Street, the shop features women’s clothing from small and independent designers, including jackets, blazers, jeans, accessories, and handbags.

Boutique items are offered at a lower, more affordable price point than many other boutiques. Most clothing items are under $100, and jewelry, both new and vintage, ranges between $14 and $75.  In addition to clothing and jewelry, Panello is currently carrying screen-printed iPad cases, and Pittsburgh-themed t-shirts designed by Julie Dinardo.


Lawrenceville
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Summer 2012 Groundbreaking For Gardens At Market Square

Artist's rendition of Gardens At Market Square

Washington County developer, Millcraft Industries, plans to break ground on a $76.6 million office and hotel project by midsummer, marking its fourth major redevelopment Downtown.  Millcraft's chief operating officer says the company hopes to have the Gardens at Market Square completed in the first quarter of 2014. The project, located on the south end of Forbes Avenue between Wood Street and Market Square, will feature 95,000 square feet of office space, a 175-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel, 23,000 square feet of retail space, and a 325-space parking garage.

Office and retail portions will hopefully open by December 2013 and the hotel by March 2014.  Two unnamed tenants have already signed up to take half the office space.  Millcraft also will be looking for "destination" type retail, as well as entertainment and restaurants, to fill the retail space.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership

Ross Park Mall Gets Mini Face-Lift

Five Ross Park Mall stores were completely remodeled in recent months.  The stores are Gymboree, which had the most recent reopening on Nov. 22, along with Swarovski Crystal, Bath & Body Works, New York & Company and Pottery Barn.

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Ross Park Mall

Mellon Arena Christmas Ornaments!

The Civic Arena will probably be coming down after much dispute and arguments by those on both sides of the issue.  But whether you are pro or con, the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation has come up with a very cool use for the arena's famous steel roof.  They are offering two Christmas ornaments, hand-hammered from pieces of the steel roof.

The pieces were designed and produced by Wendell August Forge in Grove City. One side depicts either the Civic Arena with a Downtown backdrop or the logo of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who played there from 1967 to 2010. The back of each ornament bears an authenticity stamp and the initials of the artisan who made the piece. They weigh about a pound and a half each, and measure roughly 4 by 5 inches.   They are priced at $29 each plus shipping and can be purchased at the foundation's web site. Proceeds will fund a new sports program in Allegheny County schools.

If you do plan on ordering, you'd better do it quick!  1000 were sold in the first 3 hours after the press release went out on Tuesday. 



Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate
Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation

Bike Racks On ALL Buses

 

Port Authority Transit buses have had a face lift. The entire fleet of buses had been outfitted with mounted bike racks. The installation of the bike racks should open up a wide variety of recreational opportunities for cyclists. For example, city dwelling mountain bikers will now have easier access to urban trails such as those at Frick Park which are considered the best mountain biking trails available inside the city limits.  You could ride to the trail, but a lot of times mountain bikes aren't suitable for riding on city streets.  So being able to jump on a bus and take your bike to the trail is pretty huge.


Conversely, city cyclists can now easily head to the suburbs and ride beautiful country trails or experience portions of the Montour Trail that may not have been easily accessible before. The buses can also transport those looking to pedal the Great Allegheny Passage to trailheads in McKeesport and Duquesne.
 
For suburban cyclists who may fear city meter readers or shy away from the high price of a city parking garage, the bus bike racks make it easy to access the city trails.  A lot of people come into the city on the weekends to ride the trails.  Every bus goes to Downtown and the trail system starts there, so that just makes life very easy for all biking enthusiasts. 

MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

PAT Transit

2011 Dirty Dozen Bike Race

Steve Cummings, overall winner of the Saturday's "2011 Dirty Dozen Bike Race"

It started out in 1983 with a quirky idea among 5 friends .... Outrageous bike rides where they could challenge themselves and hang out with their buddies.  They decided on a "Dirty Dozen" Bike race where they would take on twelve of the area's steepest hills.  Why not celebrate one of our biggest "natural resources" ...... our hills.

The friendly, low-key, quirky race for five has grown over the years to a friendly, low-key, quirky race with over 300 participants this year.  Even with increases to these numbers, organizer Danny Chew, one of the original co-founders, still resists making the event more formally organized.  Even though there is now a $15 registration fee, the grass-roots race which is now Pittsburgh's biggest bike race, still doesn't take out permits with the cities it runs through, there's no title sponsor, and all finish lines are hand-drawn orange chalk lines on the streets.

This year, anticipating more riders, Mr. Chew rounded up more volunteer marshals to help control traffic and watch the cyclists at each of the 87 intersections they cross during the six hours they are out on the streets of Pittsburgh and several surrounding suburbs. He also asked his two supporters, Big Bank Bikes and Eat'n Park, to help out a bit more with funding and contributions.  Brooks Broadhurst, vice president of Eat'n Park and a cyclist, came out to help as a marshal and contributed Smiley Cookies, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and hot chocolate.

Two years ago, Pittsburgh Police let Chew know that the event was becoming "unwieldy." They asked him to not take the cyclists through the Liberty Tunnel on the way back into the city near the end of the race.  He stopped going through the tunnel because he wanted to remain on good terms with them.  Mr. Chew, a nationally renowned long-distance cyclist who has twice won the Race Across America, still resists the idea of making it an officially sanctioned race.

Many who have supported the race and spread the word of its insane beauty over the years believe that its current popularity means it will soon have to change.  300 cyclists simultaneously clambering to the top of hills with a MINIMUM 20 percent grade, on narrow streets designed two centuries ago, is at least a very good definition of "unweildy."

Only a couple dozen riders ever hope to score a point in the race -- the top 10 men and top five women up each hill get points in descending order.  The one with the most cumulative points at the end of the day is declared the overall winner.  The rest of the racers are merely trying to complete each hill, whether riding, walking or whatever.  Walking up the hills does not count as completing a hill, however.

 
Bob Stumph had just finished 4th in the race to the top of Canton Avenue, the steepest of this year's "Baker's Dozen" 13 hills.  Nearly 200 spectators lined both sides of the 100-yard-long cobblestone street to cheer on other cyclists trying -- many in vain -- to climb the 37 percent grade hill.

Ann-Marie Alderson of Etna won the women's race for the first time, one of only three women to finish every hill out of 13 women who competed. In the men's race, Steve Cummings from Lawrenceville, won the men's race for the eighth time in a row. Before the race he insisted he was "scared" because it was "so much pain" to contemplate doing the race again -- a sentiment he couldn't completely let go, even after winning.  "I don't want to come back," he said with a smile while leaning on his bike, still breathing heavily after completing the last hill on Tesla Street in Hazelwood. "I hope it snows a lot next year so we don't have to do it."

"Well, racing this is like hitting yourself with a hammer: When you stop, it feels real good," said Jim Switzer, 56, a high school automotive technology teacher from Dimock, Pa., who came out for his first race Saturday.

But with all of this year's success, the question remains, would Mr. Chew allow it to become more professionally run with a title sponsor and all that that means? He would, though he conceded, "It is a little upsetting, because it started so small, and it was kind of nice when I knew everybody in the race, but there's something nice about having hundreds of people trying all of these hills."

MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

New Boutique in Squirrel Hill

Jordanna Younger, owner of Chic Boutique

Jordanna's dad, Irv Younger, owned a real estate company on Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill.  So after returning to Pittsburgh from Los Angeles, Jordanna was very happy to find just the right spot for her new boutique ...... 2236 Murray Ave, a few doors away from where her dad's business used to be. 

The 24-year-old Squirrel Hill native has had a longtime interest in fashion and wanted to be able to offer Pittsburghers men and women's clothing from Los Angeles and New York.  The shop carries dress and casual clothes, accessories and women's shoes, all hand-picked by Jordanna.  The merchandise will most likely appeal to teens through 30-somethings and is largely priced below $150.

Chic Boutique is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. 

 

 

Chic Boutique

MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

Even Larimer Is Seeing New Development!

Community and Business Leaders (from left to right):  Scott Smith of
East End Brewing, Chris Koch of GTECH, Craig Marcus of
Marcus Studio, and Neil Stauffer of Penn's Corner Farm Alliance.

Lots of surprising developments in Larimer!  Equipment and supplies are being loaded into a warehouse in the 6500 block of Hamilton because Sweet Tammy's Baking Co. is moving in.  Just three months ago, GTECH Strategies moved into their new quarters next door and has already sublet space to Penn's Corner Farm Alliance, a Regional Sustainability Consulting firm.

Scott Smith had no idea when he finally found the right place to expand the East End Brewing Co. that he was getting in on a Larimer wave.  What seems like sudden synergy in Larimer is the payoff from years of tending one vacant lot after another. Nested against East Liberty and Shadyside, Larimer was ripe for a strategy in 2008 after residents, business owners and other advocates finished their neighborhood master plan.

Rob Stephany of the Urban Redevelopment Authority says they ahve been working for the last four to five years on a housing plan for Larimar which will help that neighborhood get a shot at a piece of the new economy that seems to be unfolding in Pittsburgh.  As proposed, it will bring 70-100 units of mixed-income rental to a chunk of land along East Liberty Boulevard to Larimer Avenue and then into the heart of Larimer Avenue to Meadow. There seems to be a market for young new people who aren't afraid of places like Larimer.

Nearby developments in East Liberty and infrastructure improvements, including the $7 million Penn Circle conversion, should have a domino effect in Larimer.

Furniture maker Craig Marcus moved his studio into a Hamilton Avenue warehouse seven years ago and purchased a second warehouse down the street in October. GTECH moved in as the first tenant in April.  GTECH, or Growth Through Energy and Community Health, had filled a large lot on Larimer Avenue with sunflowers to decontaminate the land several years ago. That land is now a community garden a block long. Across Larimer Avenue, another large vacant lot will become an expansion of the "Village Green" that the Larimer Consensus Group conceived during the planning process.


The mayor's office insists that "Larimer's day will come."  Maybe this is the official start.


Larimer
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Aspinwall Marina To Be Part of River Park And Trail

Aspinwall Marina

Friends of the Riverfront received a $200,000 donation from Highmark making its Aspinwall Riverfront Park a go.  That was the last piece needed to buy the $2.3 million Aspinwall Marina including it in a park and trail project.  The purchase is expected to close before Sept 30th.


Friends of the Riverfront plans to retain the marina while creating a 10-acre community park to include a one-mile trail through it.  Highmark's donation assures it the right to name the trail.  A spokesperson for Highmark said they made the donation because the project seemed very important to the area and they felt the development of the new trail would promote health and wellness.


Aspinwall
Aspinwall Marina
MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

Bridgewater BookFest Sept 10th

Back after a one-year absence, the Bridgewater BookFest on Sept. 10 promises to be as strong as ever. About 30 authors -- some traveling from Maryland, New York and Virginia -- will sign and sell books, and talk about their work.  Founded by local author Valentine J. Brkich, the festival drew thousands of people in 2008 and 2009, its first two years. With a move from Bridgewater to Beaver and two young kids, Brkich didn't have time to run the festival last year but plans on making it a biennial event in the future.

Besides the authors' appearances, engineering students from Robert Morris University will conduct children's activities. And vendors -- including a woman who makes purses out of book covers -- will sell food and book-related items. Drawings for two e-readers also will be held.

The event will be held on Bridge St in Bridgewater, PA from 10am to 3pm on Sept 10th.  Admission is free.

Bridgewater BookFest
Bridgewater, PA
MetroPittsburghRealEstate.com

Hill Disctrict: Then & Now

Silver Bar at 1911 Centre Ave circa 1930

The Post Gazette has launched a multi-media project called the "Storefront Project".   Storefront photos and information from various neighborhoods throughout time will be displayed.  The first street scenes are from the Hill District.  In this particular case, because of the deterioration, the photos are sad.  Interesting but sad.  Lets hope the current redevelopment projects in that neighborhood are successful.

Other neighborhoods are cued up for display soon.  I will post them as they come!

Link to Post Gazette Article
Hill District Then & Now

Fountain At The Point To Be Repaired

Fountain at The Point

Pittsburgh's iconic fountain at The Point draws its water from a fourth "underground" river which runs beneath the Ohio River.  The fountain, which opened in 1974, has worked only sporadically since 2009 because of mechanical problems and general disrepair. It is scheduled for complete rehabilitation starting in fall and ending sometime in 2012.

The fountain stopped running last July when officials decided it needed extensive repairs and added it as the fourth phase of a $42 million, five-year park renovation that is mostly state-funded, with donations from Riverlife specifically for the fountain.  Some of the original design elements of the 1970s were never completed because of lack of money at the time.  The current restoration will revive some of those elements, including a raised plaza that would make it easier for people to sit along the fountain's granite edges.  Additions will include a waterfall inside the fountain base and energy-efficient lighting to permit nighttime illumination in colors.

Downtown

Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate

Pittsburgh's Underground River

Hampton July 4th Festivities Biggest Yet

 

As part of the township's 150th anniversary this year, Hampton is gearing up for the biggest 4th of July celebration in the community's history. They expect 20,000 people this year-- double the amount they normally get.

Fireworks displays will be held July 3rd and 4th, although the July 3rd show will be only a warm-up for events on Independence Day.  Festivities will start at noon on July 4th, featuring family-friendly activities like a petting zoo, hay rides, booths, bouncy castles and a rock concert planned for 7 p.m.

Hampton Township
Metro Pittsburgh Real Estate