Werner Building: (124 S Highland Ave)

Oswald Werner opened the first dry cleaning establishment in Pittsburgh in 1864. The business had expanded by 1890 so his sons moved a pickup site to this building on Highland Avenue. The price of dry cleaning and pressing a sack suit in 1912 was $1 (about $25 today). The East Liberty Chamber of Commerce occupied the building for many decades.

Between 2001 and 2013 this location was home to the Shadow Lounge, a performance and art space for local musicians. The Lounge was a rare inclusive space where people of diverse ages, race and backgrounds came together. This community performance space opened right at the beginning of East Liberty’s most recent phase of development in 2001. After closing the Lounge was replaced by a succession of high end restaurants. This highlights the downside of the most recent development phase. Much of the development is focused on high-end retail and luxury apartments, which doesn’t serve the existing community. In some cases it has come at a cost to some local businesses that were fixtures in the neighborhood.

In 2018 a piece of public art above the Werner Building was removed. Since 2013 The Last Billboard was a rotating art installation where local artists would post messages on top of the building. But when one artist posted the message “There Are Black People In The Future” the building’s landlord had it removed. The removal of this art piece is symbolic of how the ownership of East Liberty is being contested on different levels, through commercial and residential spaces as well as through public art.

Sources:

Collins, John Fulton Stuart. Stringtown on the Pike: Tales and History of East Liberty and the East Liberty Valley of Pennsylvania. East Liberty Chamber of Commerce, Pittsburgh, 1966.

Gordon, Alex. “Updated: “There Are Black People In The Future” text removed from East Liberty public-art project at behest of landlord.” Pittsburgh City Paper. April 5, 2018. Available at https://www.pghcitypaper.com/Blogh/archives/2018/04/05/there-are-black-people-in-the-future-text-removed-from-east-liberty-public-art-project-at-behest-of-landlord

Magoc, Kate and Rory D. Webb. “Shadow Lounge prepares to close after over a decade in a changing neighborhood.” Pittsburgh City Paper. March 27, 2013. Available at https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/shadow-lounge-prepares-to-close-after-over-a-decade-in-a-changing-neighborhood/Content?oid=1632528

“Up-town, Greater Pittsburgh’s Classic Section: East End, the World’s Most Beautiful Suburb.” Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh Board of Trade, 1907. Retrieved from Historic Pittsburgh Book Collection, University of Pittsburgh at https://www.historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A00aah6674m