FINAL DAYS OF FORBES FIELD
HOME REVITALIZATION
The Allegheny Housing Rehabilitation Corporation (AHRCO) revitalized homes in Pittsburgh neighborhoods during the late 1960s and early 1970s. AHRCO was founded in 1968
by Action Housing. As a for-profit organization, it gained its finances from forty Pittsburgh-based corporations who wanted to provide decent housing for low and moderate-income
families in the Pittsburgh region. In 1975 Action Housing sold the company, which was later purchased by the president of the company, Milton Washington, who became the sole
stockholder.
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Pittsburgh
1960's
ALL THINGS PITTSBURGH
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
PHOTO RESTORATION DONE BY THE STEELCACTUS FOUNDATION

ADDITIONAL VERBIAGE BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN PITTSBURGH
President John F. Kennedy speaking to the public during the early sixties. Citizens, reporters, and policemen surround the stage. Behind him are the important public figures from the
region, including Mayor David Lawrence to Kennedy's left. The banner above reads: Welcome Mr. President. Banners with the seals of the state of Pennsylvania and of the United
States decorate the platform.
ANOTHER PITTSBURGH FLOOD!
In the early 1960s, the neighborhood of East Liberty was also included in Renaissance I Urban Renewal plans, with over 125 acres of the neighborhood being demolished
and replaced with garden apartments, three 20-story public housing apartments, and a convoluted road-way system that circled a pedestrianized shopping district. In the
span of just a few years during the mid-1960s, East Liberty became a blighted neighborhood. There were some 575 businesses in East Liberty in 1959, but only 292 in 1970,
and just 98 in 1979. The businesses that remained tended not to serve the majority of nearby Pittsburghers, but only the captive audience that remained in what was now an
urban ghetto.

Preservation efforts by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, along with community neighborhood groups, resisted the demolition plans. The neighborhoods
containing rich architectural heritage, including the Mexican War Streets, Allegheny West, and Manchester, were spared. The center of Allegheny City, with its culturally and
socially important buildings, was not as lucky. All of the buildings, with the exception of the Old U.S. Post Office, the Carnegie Library, and Buhl Planetarium were destroyed
and replaced with the "pedestrianized" Allegheny Center Mall and apartments.

Like most major cities, Pittsburgh experienced several days of rioting following the assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968.
There were no further major riots, although tension remained high in the inner-city black neighborhoods.
EAST LIBERTY...'SLIBERTY
A view at the intersection of Hamilton and Frankstown Avenues in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. The neighborhood became known as Pittsburgh’s “Classic East End”
shortly following its annexation by the City of Pittsburgh in 1868. One of the United State's finest horse racetracks was located in this neighborhood at Larimer and Paulson Streets.
By 1920 the area included seven movie theaters along Penn and Highland Avenues, grocery, drug, furniture, jewelry, and shoe stores making it a major retail center rivaling even
Pittsburgh. An influx of immigrants including Germans, Italians, Greeks, Jews, and African-Americans moved into the neighborhood contributing to its growth and success. In the
early 1960s many buildings were razed as part of a renewal program that invested about $100 million in public and private funds to build a pedestrian shopping mall. The shopping
mall project, designed to revitalize the local retail market, failed to meet its expectations and as a result East Liberty went into decline.
BEFORE
BEFORE
AFTER
AFTER
The Allegheny River at Fort Duquesne Boulevard, which is almost entirely underwater. The waters of the Allegheny River crested at 31.64 feet in the Pittsburgh region during
the 1964 flood. This was the worst flood to hit the Pittsburgh area since Hurricane Hazel caused the rivers to crest at 32.4 feet in 1954. The waters of the Ohio River, which
crested at 47 feet, continued to rise as the waters of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers began to dissipate. Areas hit hard in the Pittsburgh region included the Point and
the lower North Side along River Avenue to Federal Street. Several businesses were forced to move merchandise to higher levels. There were reports of sunken boats below
the West End Bridge, and the main channel of Brunot Island was blocked. Approximately 300 people statewide were forced to evacuate their homes as a result of the flood.
The severity of the flood prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson to conducted aerial surveys of the damage from his private jet. The Governor of Pennsylvania, William Warren
Scranton, declared a period of extreme emergency and Pittsburgh was designated a disaster area by the Small Business Administration. The heavy rains also caused
widespread flooding in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri. Floods remained an annual threat until the completion of the Kinzua flood control reservoirs on the upper
Allegheny River in 1965.
2004, September 19             31'0"
1996, January 20                 34'6"
1972, June 24                     35'8"
1964, March 11                   31'6"
1954, October 16                 32'4"
1945, March 7                     33'4"
1942, December 31             36'6"
1937, April 26                     35'1"
1937, January 23                32'4"
1936, March 19                  32'1"
1936, March 18               46'4"
1936, March 17                  34'0"
1924, January 4                 30'4"
1913, January 9                 31'0"
1907, March 15                         38'7"
1904, January 23                      32'0"
1902, March 1                          35'6"
1901, April 20                          36'3"
1884, February 6                      36'5"
1861, September 21                 30'9"
1852, August 19                      31'9"
1852, April 19                         35'1"
1832, February 10                   38'2"
1816, February 15                   36'2"
1810, November 9                   35'2"
1806, April 10                         37'1"
1763, March 9                         41'0"
1762, January 9                      39'2"
Record Floods Over the Past 250 Years in Pittsburgh
In 1960, the Pittsburgh skyline was dominated by the weather-predicting lighted ziggurat atop the Gulf Tower, the city’s tallest. That was a subtle but potent advertisement
in itself, back before companies attached their names to the skyscrapers where they resided. Closer to earth, billboards, some quite imaginative, vied for your attention,
and a section of Grant Street that later became the U.S. Steel Building plaza functioned like a mini Times Square. Neon was another way to catch the eye. (Anyone
remember the gaggle of charming geese near the Bloomfield Bridge that made you want to buy Drake’s Bread?) You also would have seen bread ads in newspapers,
which were a major medium for print advertising. The Press edition of Dec. 18, 1960, was packed with ads for Gimbels, Horne’s and Kaufmann’s department stores, May-
Stern’s, Kelly & Cohen, Dimling’s Candy, Wilkens Jewelry Co. and a great white way of movie theaters. And there were typewriter ads (an Olympia was $69.50 at Standard
Typewriter on Liberty Avenue). As for electronic advertising media—radio had been around for decades, and Pittsburghers also were pitched their products in black-and-
white between shows on a handful of local television stations. Cable TV? Computers? Internet? The stuff of science fiction. - See more at: http://www.pittsburghmagazine.
com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/February-2010/Those-Soaring-60s/#sthash.ep532ZAX.dpuf
The Allegheny River at Fort Duquesne Boulevard, which is almost entirely underwater. The waters of the Allegheny River crested at 31.64 feet in the Pittsburgh region during
the 1964 flood. This was the worst flood to hit the Pittsburgh area since Hurricane Hazel caused the rivers to crest at 32.4 feet in 1954. The waters of the Ohio River, which
crested at 47 feet, continued to rise as the waters of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers began to dissipate. Areas hit hard in the Pittsburgh region included the Point and
the lower North Side along River Avenue to Federal Street. Several businesses were forced to move merchandise to higher levels. There were reports of sunken boats below
the West End Bridge, and the main channel of Brunot Island was blocked. Approximately 300 people statewide were forced to evacuate their homes as a result of the flood.
The severity of the flood prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson to conducted aerial surveys of the damage from his private jet. The Governor of Pennsylvania, William Warren
Scranton, declared a period of extreme emergency and Pittsburgh was designated a disaster area by the Small Business Administration. The heavy rains also caused
widespread flooding in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri. Floods remained an annual threat until the completion of the Kinzua flood control reservoirs on the upper
Allegheny River in 1965.
SIGNS OF THINGS TO COME...
PHOTO BY TEENIE HARRIS