Check out a new beta version of this site

Guide to the Gateway Center (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Photographs, 1950

Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Gateway Center (Pittsburgh, Pa) Photographs
Creator
Gateway Center
Collection Number
MSP130
Extent
2 linear feet (4 boxes)
Date
1950
Abstract
The Gateway Center was a comprehensive urban renewal project that used eminent domain to repossess and designate for demolition four blocks of the city beginning in 1950. The Collection primarily contains photographs of buildings that were selected for demolition and were used in conjunction with the survey reports.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
The guide to this collection was written by Rachel Balliet.
Publisher
Heinz History Center
Address
1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

History

Gateway Center is a 23-acre commercial development adjacent to Point State Park in Pittsburgh's downtown area. The plan for Gateway Center was part of a comprehensive urban renewal project, known as the Point Park Project, or Renaissance I, that included the development of Point State Park and commercial and corporate investment in the surrounding area. City and County officials had been attempting to devise a civic improvement plan as early as 1910, but it was not until 1943, with support from Richard King Mellon, that the overall Point Park Project was defined. In 1943, Mellon and other local corporate leaders dedicated to Pittsburgh's post-war development and renewal established the Allegheny Conference on Community Development which served as a non-profit, non-partisan civic and community development group. Soon after its establishment, the Allegheny Conference formed the Point Park Committee to devise an overall redevelopment plan for a targeted 59 acre site - 36 acres devoted to a national or state historic park and 23 acres devoted to new commericial development.

Concurrently, the city of Pittsburgh, under the guidance of Mayor David L. Lawrence, was also planning for a comprehensive Point Park Project. In 1945, the Allegheny Conference suggested to Mayor Lawrence that a Pittsburgh Redevelopment Authority be established to implement the urban redevelopment law (or the city's power of eminent domain) to acquire the privately owned land designated for the 23 acre commercially developed portion of the Point Park Project. The Urban Redevelopent Authority was approved, and Mayor Lawrence served as its first chairman. The Point Park Committee, now with members from both the Allegheny Conference and the city of Pittsburgh, sought a primary investor for the proposed area. In 1946, The Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York agreed to negotiations for developing what was to become Gateway Center.

In order to develop the 23 acre site, eminent domain was imposed on many private property owners whose businesses and office space occupied the area. Some of the property owners questioned the designation of their property as "blighted" (which was one component necessary for imposing eminent domain) and the authority of the city to seize private property for the purpose of commercial, rather than public, development. In 1950, several of the displaced property owners took their case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but it was ruled in favor of the development and the Gateway Center Project soon began buying property and issuing condemnation bonds.

Several property owners continued their resistance to the project and organized the Property Owners and Tenants Protective Committee, headed by Andrew L. Gamble, which appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. The Equitable Life Assurance Society retained legal services from the local firm of Reed, Smith, Shaw, and McClay who assisted with the litigation and who, with a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court pending, began keeping exact records of each property including detailed construction and mechanical notes, blueprints, and photographs. "Personality Reports" were also taken which documented the reaction and resistance, if any, of the property owners.

The firm of Ludgate, Lear and Company was contracted for the detailed survey which would serve in court as evidence to the condition of buildings designated as blighted. In addition, these surveys would also be used in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the state's decision and determined the development by eminent domain unconstitutional. In that case, the Urban Redevelopment Authority would be required to rebuild those structures it was already beginning to demolish as of June 1950. By October of the same year, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case, and the development of Gateway Center was well underway.

Pittsburgh was the first city to utilize its power of eminent domain for such a large scale urban renewal project. The completion of the Point Park Project, which includes Point State Park and Gateway Center, became known as the Pittsburgh Renaissance and, despite resistance from some community members, was considered one of the first and most successful urban renewal projects in the country.

Scope and Content Notes

The Gateway Center Photographs are housed in four archival boxes and are arranged numerically by block and property number. The photographs are a component of the property surveys for the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The photographs document buildings that were considered "blighted" and the demolition required to allow the construction of the Gateway Center. The photographs include interior and exterior images. An index is included for each group of property photographs. It should be noted that Duff's Iron City College (Block 1, No. 14) is only documented by photograph and not a survey report; all others include a corresponding survey report within the manuscript materials. Also included in this collection are the photographs of the subsequent damage reports for property numbers 17, 20, and 21 (Block 1). All of these photographs were taken in 1950.

Appendix: Buildings and corresponding addresses

  1. Block 1
  2. #9, Eppy's Parking Garage, 400 Duquesne Way
  3. #12, Stanwix Parking Lot, 410 Duquesne Way
  4. #13, General Electric Supply Co., 420 Duquesne Way
  5. #14, Duff's Iron City College, 424-6 Duquesne Way #15
  6. #14, Association for the Improvement of the Poor, 428 Duquesne Way
  7. #17, Lichti Enterprises, 437 Penn Ave., and 124-26-28-30-32-34-36 Stanwix St.
  8. #18, Women's Industrial Exchange, 435 Penn Ave.
  9. #19, Professional Building, 429-31-33 Penn Ave.
  10. #20, B.P.O. Elks #11, 425 Penn Ave.
  11. #21, Mayfair Hotel, 419-21 Penn Ave.
  12. #22-23, Pittsburgh Parking Garage, 409-17 Penn Ave.
  13. #24, Crafts Building, 401-03-05 Penn Ave.
  14. #25, Terminal Coal and Coke Building, 129 Fancourt St.
  15. #26, Bartley-O'Neill Building, 125-27 Fancourt St
  16. #27, H.H. Seiferth Building, 121-123 Fancourt St.
  17. Block 2
  18. #45 and #46, A.L. Braum Building, 404-6 Penn Ave.
  19. #47, Congress of Women's Clubs, 408-10 Penn Ave.
  20. #50, A.L. Gamble Building, 416-418 Penn Ave.
  21. #51, Wunderly-Dewar Building, 420-422 Penn Ave.
  22. #52 Smithfield Paint Company, 424-26 Penn Ave.
  23. #53, F.F. Thorpe Building, 428-30 Penn Ave.
  24. #54, Demmler-Schenck Building, 432-34 Penn Ave.
  25. #55, Green Mill Restaurant, 436 Penn Ave.
  26. #56, Stanwix Hall, 438-40-42 Penn Ave.
  27. #62, Robbins Building, 433 Liberty Ave.
  28. #63, Buchholz and Maus Building, 431 Liberty Ave.
  29. #64, Sleep-Well Products, 429 Liberty Ave.
  30. #65, Baskin Building, 427 Liberty Ave.
  31. #66, State Liquor Store, 425 Liberty Ave.
  32. #67, Commonwealth Heating Company
  33. Block 3
  34. #2, Pittsburgh Pump Corporation, 120-122 Fancourt St.
  35. #4 and #5 Manufacturers Distributing Company, 325 Penn Ave.
  36. #7, Blaw-Knox Company, 319-21 Penn Ave.
  37. #31, Joseph Hoover Building, 316 Penn Ave.
  38. #32, Hirsch Building, 318-20 Penn Ave.
  39. #35, Hotel Carr, 326-28 Penn Ave.
  40. #36 Nicholas-Mitchell Inc., 206 Fancourt St.
  41. #37, Pittsburgh Case Sales Company, 212-14-16 Fancourt St.
  42. #40, Sacks Store Fixture Company, 319-21-23 Liberty Ave.
  43. Block 4
  44. #73, American Oil Company, 320 Liberty Ave.
  45. #76, Cena's Oil Company, 326 Liberty Ave.
  46. #77, G and W Leach Company, 328 Libertyt Ave.
  47. #78, Point Cafe, 330 Liberty Ave.
  48. #79, Point Bar, 332 Liberty Ave.
  49. #86, Gordon Plumbing and Heating, 8 Third Ave.
  50. #95 and #96, Wonder-Lite Manufacturing, 19-21 Blvd. of the Allies
  51. #108 and #109, Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad Powerhouse, First Avenue

Conditions Governing Access

No restrictions.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Ralph Demmler, an associate for the firm Reed, Smith, Shaw, and McClay in 1993.

Preferred Citation

Gateway Center (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Photographs, 1950, MSP#130, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center

Processing Information

This collection was originally processed by Rachel Balliet in June 1994, and was revised by Dane Flansburgh in September 2011.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Separated Materials

The Gateway Center Records have been separated, arranged, and described with the catalog designation of MSS#130.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Gateway Center
    • American Oil Company
    • Elks Club (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • Ludgate, Lear and Company
    • Mayfair Hotel (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • Urban Redevelopment Authority (Pittsburgh, Pa)

    Other Subjects

    • Architecture -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Eminent domain -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Interior decoration -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Urban renewal -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Point Park Project

Container List