PENN-LIBERTY HISTORIC DISTRICT

National Register of Historic Places
Pittsburgh Historic District

The Penn-Liberty Historic District is one of the best-preserved and most nearly intact portions of Pittsburgh's turn-of-the-century retailing district. The character of the buildings demonstrates the vitality of Pittsburgh commerce after the Civil War, when much American trade passed through the city into the Midwest via the rivers and railroads that bordered the district to the north.

Pittsburgh's location connected Western Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. When the Pennsylvania Canal and later the Pennsylvania Railroad arrived at the Allegheny River Bank, the future of the region north of Liberty Avenue as a transportation-based retail and wholesale area was assured. In the late nineteenth century, Pittsburgh took pride in its role, labeling itself "the natural point of distribution for the most prosperous section of the United States." The Penn-Liberty Historic District is the enduring result of the forces which shaped Pittsburgh as a commercial center.

The District displays a range of late Victorian and early twentieth-century commercial architectural styles. Although shop fronts have been altered, most buildings have survived remarkably well.

The historic designation and restoration of the Penn-Liberty Historic District are part of the public/private program to revitalize Pittsburgh's downtown Cultural District.

1
Marker placed April 1993

THE
PITTSBURGH
CULTURAL
TRUST