Members of the Hamnett Place Community Group and Grandma’s Touch Contracting working together on Radio Way | |
Hamnett Place: Preserving the Community’s Treasures While Building Community
By Michael Jehn
There’s an indelible charm about Hamnett Place, the Wilkinsburg neighborhood bounded by Rebecca Avenue, East Swissvale Avenue, Walnut Street, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. East Busway. Hamnett Place contains so much of the character that helps to define Wilkinsburg: from expertly restored apartment buildings containing affordable units and historic single-family homes (some in need of substantial love, to be fair) to an array of community-sustaining green spaces including Hamnett Place Community Garden (where the Regency Apartments stood until 2008) and Grow Pittsburgh’s Garden Dreams Urban Farm & Nursery. The Hamnett Historic District, a specially designated 114-acre portion of the neighborhood, was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
Pam Panchak and Deb Rose, dedicated residents and community volunteers, have been championing the needs of Hamnett Place’s people (and properties) for more than 20 years, promoting public safety and blight reduction, attractive public spaces and home ownership, and unification against predatory development that could have harmful consequences for the neighborhood. They described a walking tour of the Jeanette Street area around 2004 that attracted attention from local government as well as zoning, code enforcement, and the press, prompting a tremendous response from public officials and the public. A transition toward home ownership began to take place, and properties in the neighborhood were comprehensively mapped to collect data on the conditions of structures and their viability. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation joined forces with neighborhood organizers including Panchak and Rose in 2004, providing substantial funding to begin preserving historic structures and helping to mobilize residents, including church congregations, through community meetings.
| | Members of the Hamnett Place community group | | |
In October 2019, when Whitney Avenue east of the busway resembled what Jeanette Street had been like twenty years earlier, a similar process of community organizing, planning a walking tour, and property mapping took place there; once again, a focus was placed on determining which buildings could be saved and which could not. Elected officials, the general public, and the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh all became involved in the effort. In 2020, the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation (WCDC) asked Rose and Panchak to cochair the WCDC’s Strong Neighborhoods Committee. A comprehensive plan was created, assembling all proposed projects in anticipation of eventual funding; this process brought neighbors together and reinforced protection against possible nefarious actions by developers not personally invested in Hamnett Place as a community. The WCDC secured $100,000 in funding through the Allegheny Foundation for work in Hamnett Place. (The Park Triangle and Singer Place neighborhoods, also designated Strong Neighborhoods target locations, also received this funding.)
Panchak and Rose cite three significant successes that arose from these efforts. First, six properties were selected for conservatorship under Rising Tide Partners, focusing on structural stabilization in the short term and eventually leading to property sale. Second, a direct purchase was made of an additional property by a family working in construction with plans to rehabilitate the home for their own use. Third, a public space named Radio Way—a passthrough rather than an official borough park—was created after 703 Whitney Avenue was demolished. Rising Tide Partners assisted with acquiring this property, assumed conservatorship (which leans heavily in favor of nonprofits and local stakeholders), and facilitated demolition. The space, which features a path including a bike repair station / air pump kiosk, trees, and wildflowers, is cared for by the Hamnett Place community group and pays homage to Frank Conrad, a Westinghouse engineer who is credited as the father of modern radio.
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Says Panchak, “The WCDC’s decision in 2020 to do an in-depth look at blight and vacancy in Wilkinsburg with the Strong Neighborhoods initiative provided the focus for residents to air their concerns and to truly define the problem borough-wide. And their continued support and funding of neighborhood projects to repurpose blighted properties has enabled the three participating neighborhoods [Singer Place, Park Triangle, and Hamnett Place] to transform blighted properties.”
Matthew Craig, CEO of the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh (YPA), speaks highly of Wilkinsburg’s Hamnett Historic District and the extraordinary work that has been done there in partnership with organizations such as the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) to protect notable examples of historic architecture including the Falconhurst and Crescent buildings (both built in 1904)—structures whose preservation guarantees that they will continue to help tell the story of the borough’s history as well as its future.
Craig recounted connecting with the PHLF over coffee and learning that there would be a Hamnett Place walking tour, which occurred in October 2019; this was followed by a well-attended meeting Deb Rose’s house—so well-attended, in fact, that not everyone could fit in one room. Whitney Avenue and greater Hamnett Place were subsequently added to the YPA’s “Top Ten list” and began to receive widespread attention. A $25,000 grant from the county subsequently helped to fund an in-depth study of the neighborhood and its needs, including a comprehensive assessment of the condition of properties and recommendations for preservation or demolition. Money from a $500,000 Environmental Protection Agency planning assessment grant initially slated solely for McKeesport was extended to support Wilkinsburg, and the YPA is providing additional resources from the EPA grant to support work in the community. Civic leaders including Mayor Ed Gainey, Representative Mike Doyle, and Senator Jay Costa have provided significant support to these efforts in Wilkinsburg.
Craig emphasizes that the Young Preservationists Association, which has also been doing consulting work with Hosanna House in Wilkinsburg, is committed to communities in the region and to preserving our built treasures while ensuring that our historical identities are not lost. “If people ask for help, we will do anything that we can to help.”
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For Amanda Barber, Wilkinsburg School Board member since 2022 and acting School Board President since 2023 as well as Hamnett Place homeowner, the experience of living in the neighborhood and working together with her neighbors exemplifies many of the things that make a community great. Amanda started attending Strong Neighborhoods meetings to become more involved in the important work already being done in Hamnett Place. With a strong interest in governance, budgeting, community resources, and taxes and millage, Barber explains that her niche involves trying to figure out how much can be done with existing resources; building relationships and trust among residents (and between residents and decision makers); encouraging people to listen to one another; and fostering conversations in which people of varying beliefs may meet intellectually and emotionally where their ideas and priorities intersect. (She emphasizes that we often have more in common than we think.)
As President of the Wilkinsburg School Board, Barber enjoys listening to and observing residents’ conversations and ideas, assisting in translating priorities into actionable work for our local government, and supplying feedback to Strong Neighborhoods about the process—all while improving transparency.
Reflecting on Hamnett Place, Barber says that she and her family love the walkability to parks, schools, coffee shops, and the children’s library (having explored the neighborhood even before her family bought their house). She is grateful for all the work that Pam Panchak, Deb Rose, and others have done for the community in partnership with organizations like the WCDC’s Strong Neighborhoods Committee, Rising Tide Partners, Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, and the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh.
Says Deb Rose of Hamnett Place, “the transformation over the thirty years that I've lived here is remarkable. We're full of folks who care for one another, care about this neighborhood and are forward thinking. We have a bumper crop of little kids coming up and, because of them, working to fight blight has to be our priority. Our work with WCDC's Strong Neighborhoods Committee and our affiliation with Rising Tide Partners has resulted in obtaining problem properties and turning them into healthy, usable space. Hammett Place is home to so many interesting people. We have young professionals, young radicals and everything in between.”
To learn more about our Strong Neighborhoods work visit https://wilkinsburgcdc.org/what-we-do/strong-neighborhoods/
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Learn more about our Strong Neighborhoods work and get valuable resources plus family fun on October 11th at the Train Station! We hope to see you there.
RSVP's not required but appreciated - RSVP here.
| | The Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation (WCDC) is a non-profit organization declared tax-exempt by the United Stated Federal Government (under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code) and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A copy of our official registration may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free from within Pennsylvania 800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement. All donation to the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. | | |
The Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation (WCDC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to drive economic development in Wilkinsburg with an emphasis on strengthening the Central Business District.
Learn more about our mission, vision, and values.
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WCDC | 412-727-7855 | 729 Wood St. Wilkinsburg, PA 15221 | wilkinsburgcdc.org
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