WASHINGTON ROAD, 1920 s 37 ....... Businesses Mt. Lebanon Public Library 38 ....... Paul Dudjak llection R. C. Dear Co THE STEVENSON BUILDING The Stevenson Williams building, built in 1927, was an anchor in the early business district. FLASH AND DASH An early Stevenson Williams postcard Business in Mt. Lebanon: Beginning with a stage- coach inn on Washington Road opened in 1904. Downtown Pittsburgh is a short nap away by light rail transit. Lining Washington Road are the basics of any suburb that considers itself a town: shops and offices, churches and schools, Trace the commercial life of Mt. Lebanon—from benches and sidewalks. unhurried days around a general store’s pot-bellied MT. LEBANON BECOMES A TOWNSHIP, 1912 stove to the rushed pace of in-and-out errand—and The Friday, February 9, 1912 edition of the HillTop Record, which The threads connecting Then to Now are sturdier in Mt. Lebanon than in many communities where you get a sense of the community itself. served Carrick and Brentwood, declares Mt. Lebanon’s coming historically significant structures have been bull- Picture this: it’s a weekday morning in 1870, and into legal existence. dozed out of memory. the traffic on Washington Road is still light. The In growing from a village with a stagecoach stop commuters—mostly cattle, sheep and hogs—are being driven from the farms in to a trolley town to an automobile suburb, Mt. Lebanon managed to pre- southwestern Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh markets. Sharing the muddy highway are farmers’ produce wagons heading for city markets and wagons heavy with serve—partly by plan, partly by accident—remnants of the architecture and atmosphere of small-town life. hay and straw to be used in urban glass factories. A stagecoach bouncing between city and country stops at Five Mile House—the Joe Kushner, owner of an office supplies store on Washington Road since 1986, area’s first and only inn—at the ridge-top corner of Washington and Cochran attributes that atmosphere to the way local business is conducted. “Most folks roads. Here weary passengers receive the hospitality of the affable Alderson like being part of a hometown. It feels better to walk into a store where the family, which has fed and refreshed farmers, their livestock and other travelers owner knows your name. That’s not what you get in a big chain operation.” since mid­century. Though the main streets of Mt. Lebanon are far from the picture-perfect Nor- In this, the fifth year since the end of the Civil War, what was once known as man Rockwell or Disney versions, they clearly are different from the climate- Upper St. Clair Turnpike has been renamed Washington Road for Washington, controlled malls that Kushner quips were “invented yesterday.” Pa., its southern destination. Washington Road has become a real thorough- You can see a few of Mt. Lebanon’s original landmarks in photos from albums fare—carved by hoofs and wagon wheels—linking rural and urban life. cherished by families with ties to early Mt. Lebanon or in the Mt. Lebanon Fast forward to the year 2000, the dawn of a new century. The journey that once Public Library archives. However, Mt. Lebanon’s commercial past comes to life took two hours to Pittsburgh was reduced to an hour when the trolley tunnel most vividly as oral history passed down through generations. 39 ....... Mention a specific location to local history enthusiasts and, if you’re lucky, you’ll get a genealogical tour through the incarnations of a particular corner or mid-block site. Jim Harrod, Mt. Lebanon’s retired director of public works, is one of those buffs. Having worked in or for Mt. Lebanon nearly four decades, Harrod offers insight into the development of business activity along the area’s maturing roadways. “Those early farmers went to Pittsburgh by way of Bower Hill, Beverly, Wash- ington and Cochran Roads,” says Harrod. “It makes sense that the blacksmith 40 shops and stables and general stores would be established along those routes.” ....... Birth of the Business District If you want to put a date on the birth of Mt. Lebanon’s business district, consider 1876. That’s when the first general store went up at the crossroads of Washington and Bower Hill roads, a simple frame building providing essentials to the cluster of homes and farms nearby. In 1883, business grew brisker when the first post office opened in the store. The name “Mt. Lebanon Post Office” laid an early, albeit unofficial, claim to the name 29 years before Mt. Lebanon officially became a township. Little is known about the store’s owners before 1898, when Kate and Park Algeo bought the frame emporium. In the history of local trade, it is Algeo’s general store that is remembered for containing “everything from the needle to the haystack.” By the time the Algeos hung their sign, the customer base was on the rise and so was the neighborhood. Having a school, churches and new homes within walking distance brought pedestrian traffic and an incentive for the Algeos to expand the store and its inventory. From groceries (bread, 5 cents; a dozen eggs, 22 cents) to farm equipment, the Algeo family addressed customers’ basic housekeeping needs. Basic socialization needs were similarly met, as farmers gathered around the pot-bellied stove while Parke Algeo sliced smoked meats at the butcher-block counter. As the 19th century eased into the 20th, the area’s first telephone office was set up on Algeo’s second floor. By 1906, Algeo’s—offering postal and phone service, food and fraternization—had become a town center for the walk-in, ride-in Mt. Lebanon Magazine THE FIRST TELEPHONE POLE Putting up utility poles near the Schreiner home at Bower Hill and Washington roads, circa 1900 Jane Little and call-in trades. Theirs was an equal-opportunity substantial houses near his own stately manse on business serving both humans and horses. While Washington Road—one which, years later, would Junior bought penny candy and Mother bought be leveled by his grandson, Scotti Mulert, to make yarn, Father might be behind the store, renting a way for a contemporary condominium complex at buggy for his horse (or the other way around). 900 Washington Road. Mulert was the first of many developers who transformed farmland into small- Other businesses scattered here and there in the early town neighborhoods, attracting a wave of residents 1900s included the pharmacy owned by William willing to invest not only in the commercial pos- Lowe and John Taylor’s grocery, sharing space at 680 sibilities of a young community but in every aspect 41 Washington Road. Lowe later sold the building to of community life. ....... L.B. Finley who also ran a pharmacy in the build- ing and opened Mt. Lebanon’s second post office. Among those who saw reason to invest in Mt. Lebanon’s future were Samuel and Mary Haller. They Local business was defined by the times: a black- came to 616 Washington Road early in the 1900s smith shop at the corner of Washington and Scott by way of the West End and Crafton, bringing with roads; Charles Puhlman’s greenhouse at Cochran them six children and the prosperity of an earlier gen- and Osage; Couch’s Wagon Shop on McFarland L. B. FINLEY, DRUGGIST Road; John McCormick’s cabinet-making shop on Leusden B. Finley, owner of a drug store at 677 Washington Road, eration’s salt works and their own successful whiskey Central Square, and an ice business at Cochran and married Kathryn Algeo, member of one of the first families to live business. But if the Haller grain spirits sustained the Academy operated by brothers George and Elmer in Mt. Lebanon. Following his death in 1910, Finley was described family’s livelihood, it was Mary Haller’s remarkable Clatty. Before the advent of electric refrigerators, as “one of the progressive businessmen of the district.” L.B. Finley’s human spirit that sustained the family’s life. blocks of ice were used to keep food at safe storage name and sign can still be seen on the side of 677 from the apart- temperatures. As a bonus, children of those days ment window next door. Cars and houses broke summer boredom sucking ice chips provided by the friendly ice men. When Samuel Haller died in 1919, he left an energetic widow with five sons, Sparse business records from that time suggest that the commercial district’s a daughter and a personal mission to move both family and community to- early businesses were punctuated by long stretches of undeveloped land. New ward far-reaching goals. Mary Haller was successful. When she died at 83, her businesses were destined to spring up along with housing developments, how- Pittsburgh Press obituary declared that “all Mt. Lebanon mourns the passing ever, when the first streetcar clattered out from Pittsburgh in 1901. of its first lady.” The brand-new houses in and near the central area extended a welcome to In an age when women’s work was confined almost exclusively to the home, middle-class professionals, executives and tradesmen seeking a fresh and fash- this mother of six directed a wholesale business, developed neighborhoods (in- ionable kind of life. Little by little, farmers and miners were replaced by a new cluding much of Hoodridge) and built one of Mt. Lebanon’s first apartments breed of settler—the Suburbanite—who not only presaged the extension of at 28 Academy Avenue. local business but created it as well. Her purchase of the Mt. Lebanon Garage in 1919 at the corner of Washington Sparking the flame of early suburbia, real estate developers played a critical role and Shady was a good move in a community that was beginning to swell with in the future growth of local business. In 1902, Justus Mulert began developing commuters. That repair shop eventually would expand to sell new cars, and many a first-car purchase took place on the block that today is occupied by Rol- lier’s. Mary the businesswoman would also exert a lasting influence on local religious life. Dan Haller tells how his grandmother bought land, at the bidding of Bishop J.F. Regis Canevin, to provide a place for construction of 42 St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church. ....... Her purchase of the property at 311 Washington Road, the church’s site today, was intended to circumvent any resistance to the establishment of the first Catholic church in what was at that time an overwhelm- ingly Protestant community. To local Catholics, Mt. Lebanon’s first mass, held in the Hallers’ carriage house August 31, 1919, was indeed a cause for celebration. Five years later, in 1924, a purely secular celebration heralded the opening of the Liberty Tunnels—with Mary Haller’s son, Fred, leading the first parade of cars through the tubes to the South Hills. The tunnels were a conduit for the new suburbanites, many driving their first cars. Not surprisingly, among the first businesses on Mt. Lebanon’s Beverly Road, which began to develop at about that time, were garages—Robert Roegge’s service station at the intersection of Beverly and McFarland Roads and Beverly City Service, at the intersection of Beverly Road and Ralston Place. Both garages remain. Murray’s garage, which eventually became Hudson Auto Body, took up residence in the Beverly busi- ness district, and over the next 10 years, more garages and gas stations sprang up along Washington Road, Cochran Road and Castle Shannon Boulevard. The automotive era clearly had arrived. Real estate was a prominent presence on Washington Road in the 1920s, when a spirited stock market fueled housing sales, and remained so for sev- Scotti Mulert THE MULERT HOUSE Justus Mulert, president of Mt. Lebanon Land and Trust, lived at 842 Washington Road. One of Mt. Lebanon’s early developers, Mulert came to America from Germany in 1879. The house remained in the family until the late 1960s, when his grandson, Scotti, developed a high-rise residential complex known as 900 Washington Road on the site. eral decades. Companies like William Hall and Stewart Broth-ers kept company with Stevenson Williams, a firm that has employed four gen- erations of Stevensons in residential and com- mercial devel-opment and sales. The Stevenson Williams office has long been a landmark at 666 Wash-ington Road with its distinctive marquee put up in the late 1940s, says Jim Stevenson III, “to protect people wait- ing for buses from the rain.” Corner stores and penny candy A dwindling number of residents remember the early days when people carried shopping bags to be filled with purchases from the butcher’s, the baker’s and stores in between. Many came from the apartment buildings in and around Central Square—buildings that went up in the 1920s and continue to blend the convenience of apartment living with the benefits of suburban life. Pharmacist Jack London remembers those days “when steady customers just dropped by to say ‘hello’ on their way to the shoemaker.” In contrast to the massive drug chains of the current era, London and his series of local stores epitomized the independent pharmacist who dispensed everything from drugs to sodas. London’s first was the Lebanon Hall Pharmacy near the corner of Washington and Bower Hill roads, an hour commute by bus and trolley from his Squirrel HALLER FAMILY Samuel and Mary Haller came to 616 Washington Road in the early 1900s with their six children. The family operated a successful whiskey business. After Samuel died in 1919, Mary directed a wholesale business, developed neighborhoods and built one of Mt. Lebanon’s first apartments on Academy Avenue. Mary Haller also played a role in founding St. Bernard’s, Mt. Lebanon’s first Roman Catholic church. Mt. Lebanon’s first mass was held in the Hallers’ carriage house in 1919. (Top) Haller house and carriage house, circa 1915. (Inset) Looking at Washington Road from Haller home are (from left) Haller grandchildren, Jack, Joe, Freddie, Grace and Leo (children of Joseph). Gretchen Haller (Bottom) Haller homestead, circa 1910 Hill home. When he bought his second store, Mead Pharmacy in Dormont (an easy walk from his first store), London had become a Mt. Lebanon resident. In 1950, Cedar Pharmacy opened at the corner of Cedar and Washington, 43 where the Cyclops Building was eventually built. Next was Sunset Pharmacy ....... in 1955 on Castle Shannon Boulevard, followed in 1960 by London’s Profes- sional Pharmacy, a prescription-only business, in the medical office building at 20 Cedar Boulevard. London and partner Marc Goldberg opened Beverly Pharmacy in the mid-1970s. The store closed in 1999. A 1984 Mt. Lebanon magazine article, “The View from Washington Road,” offers a snapshot of the pre­mall days: “the mix of retail stores with a personal touch satisfied a less sophisticated population with a simpler lifestyle. Everyone visited the library in the municipal building. Children watched “17 Cartoons” at the Denis, munched penny candy and ice balls from Mandell’s pharmacy, sneaked on the first self-service elevator at Mt. Lebanon Federal, and trudged home with turtles from Murphy’s 5 and 10.” “Those (1950s) were really good times for local business,” recalls Sally Lupovitz, who with her late husband Howard operated Lupovitz Furs at 632 Washington Road nearly 40 years, serving several generations of customers. At about this same time, Beverly Road offered convenience and friendly greet- ings at Whitman’s corner five and dime; at the bustling Burt’s Gift Shop, open 9 to 9 at the holidays; at Dickler’s market, and at two side­-by-side shoemak- ers shops. On Castle Shannon Boulevard, Sunset Pharmacy, Sunset Tavern, a Thorofare market and Delphini’s Pizza, later the Peacock Chinese restaurant, and the “White House” gas station served residents. And on Cochran Road, stores like Algeo’s Pharmacy, Dudt’s Bakery, Cochran Barber shop, Beverly Dry Cleaners and Marbett’s restaurant, later The Buttery, thrived. The names may have changed through the years, but the message of “neighborly service” remained consistent. Jane Little CENTRAL TROLLEY ROUTE Route 19, Washington Road and W. Liberty Avenue were central to trolley transportation that linked Mt. Lebanon residents to Dormont. 44 ....... Looking back before South Hills Village and other malls began to chip away at the vitality of Mt. Lebanon’s business districts, your recollections, depend- ing on your era, might include skyscraper cones from Isaly’s (on Beverly and Washington roads), 45 or 33 1/3 rpm discs from Gardner’s, white gloves from Horne’s, bowling in the Allderdice Building alleys at the corner of Cedar and Washington roads or jitterbugging, as Jeannie Vaux Mulert did, at tea dances in Washington School’s basement. But the good old days were not perfect. A look at municipal records suggests that memories, though fond, may be distorted. Business may have been better, but a 1960 study hints that Washington Road was never a boom town for small business. Until it moved to the new South Hills Village in the mid-sixties, the Joseph Horne’s department store did 85 percent of the retail business in the area. Traffic jams were common and a policeman did direct weekend traffic, but the congestion was in part because Washington Road was a narrow, two- lane highway until the 1950s when the Kress Oravitz House Moving Company moved the buildings from 657 to 685 several feet back to widen the road. Even old timers will admit on-street parking was never a breeze in Mt. Lebanon. In the 1960s, an attempt got underway to pump up local business—a beauti- fication project resulted in new bubble street lamps and brick sidewalks along Washington Road. Leafy trees and benches were an improvement, recalls Har- rod, who was involved in the project, but “some of the specifics were a disaster. Bubble lights kept getting broken, and people would trip on the brick pavers. We had to dig holes in the brick sidewalks to fix gas and water lines. That kept us broke and busy.” Mt. Lebanon Public Library R. C. Dear collection PARKER GARDEN SERVICE STATION William J. Roegge (proprietor) in 1927 at his service station located at Beverly and McFarland roads. It continued to be a service station through the rest of the 20th century. R. C. Dear collection BOWER HILL AT COCHRAN ROAD, 1926 Intersection of Bower Hill and Cochran roads heading west. Paul Dudjak KAUFMANN’S, 1960 s The Malls Move in Mt. Lebanon Magazine Mt. Lebanon Public Library MAIN STREET ARCHITECTURE The eagle on the Medical Arts Building at 701 Washington Road, left, and the giant aluminum light fixture, below, are architectural details that make so many Washington Road’s buildings landmarks. Designed by William H. King, Jr., the Mt. Lebanon Municipal Building debuted in 1930. In May 1928, the cost had risen to $200,000, well above the original estimate. The Mt. Lebanon Times called this figure “somewhat high” but defended the project as “no cheap john affair...[but] the finest municipal building of any suburban town in Allegheny County.” By the time of its comple- tion, the price tag for the Art Deco landmark reached nearly a quarter-million dollars. Late in the decade, the signs that walk-in patrons were shrinking in numbers were clear enough for Jack London: “When Horne’s moved out and South Hills Village moved in, well, it was just a matter of time.” Although Beverly Pharmacy remained a community institution after London’s retirement and into the 45 ....... late ’90s, London eventually closed several of his local pharmacies, and other businesses that had depended on walk-in trade closed as well, including the five and dime, Isaly’s, Strut ‘n’ Stroll, The Book- worm, a gourmet market, the record store and small lunch counter-type restaurants. What had once been a street lined by storefronts seemed to be giving way to “destination” businesses that provide medical, financial or other personal services by appointment. Through the 1970s, however, efforts persisted to draw foot traffic to the central core. One of the more imaginative enterprises was the World’s Greatest Ga- rage Sale, an annual event that drew people from all over the region. The North Garage was transformed into booths, top to bottom, offering funnel cake, collectibles and “junque,” and merchant sidewalk sales lined Washington Road. Sally Lupovitz, whose late husband Howard had been one of the creative forces behind the popular extravaganza, remembers “there was great cooperation between the municipal- ity and the store owners, because we all wanted the same thing—a stronger business community.” A shot in the arm for the business districts was a 1975 change in the liquor laws permitting hard liquor to be sold in restaurants. In the late 1970s the Washington Square ADVERTISING BLOTTER condominium adjacent to the municipal building brought some excitement as the first upscale condo high rise in the community. By the early 1980s, some storefronts were empty and others underutilized, lending a shabby look to the central business district. However, the street was in better health in one way. Block after block of Washington Road was now owned not by absentee landlords, as in the recent past, but by residents. Property ownership by locals reflected an investment in both infrastructure and in the community’s economic future. Many thought the imminent arrival of a new light rail transit system would present officials and businessmen with a one-time chance to move things forward. Milan Liptak, an architect and one of the new property owners, was appointed in 1984 to head a Washington Road Revitalization Task Force. That group would be the first of many “think tank” efforts through the next decade that aimed at remaking the business district. Uptown Mt. Lebanon, a nonprofit economic development corporation formed in 1985 with support from the municipality, deployed a broad redevelopment armament of consultants, sur- veys, business school resources, tax deferments and federally funded financial incentives to spur economic vitality. Construction of Washington Road’s North Garage in 1993 eased parking problems some and brought with it attractive retail storefronts on Washington Road. The Galleria, the community’s first really upscale shopping complex, opened in 1989 on the former site of Kaufmann’s department store at Wash- ington and Gilkeson roads, a spot targeted to draw multi-community traffic. “Communities can’t just stay with the past,” architect Milan Liptak says today. R. C. Dear collection Looking Ahead R. C. Dear collection 46 ....... R. C. Dear collection Paul Dudjak BUSINESS CENTERS By the mid-1930s, Mt. Lebanon had thriving business centers. (Top) 713­-717, Washington Road, 1947. (Middle) Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. on McFarland Road near Beverly Road, 1935. (Bottom) Washington Road and Cedar Boulevard, 1947. BEVERLY ROAD Anticipating a new look for Beverly Road (from left) Rinaldo Mozzoni, owner of Rinaldo’s Salon; Emmy Lou Ducray of Ducray Interiors; Joe Kirk, then president of Uptown Mt. Lebanon, a nonprofit economic development corporation; and John Fernsler, president of the Mt. Lebanon Commission. ATRIA’S Atria’s, a neighborhood bar and restaurant on Beverly Road, started out as a grocery store and bar in 1931 after Joseph Atria purchased the building in 1930. The building was destroyed by fire in 1951 but reopened three months later. It continues to operate under new ownership in the 21st century. Mt. Lebanon Public Library WASHINGTON ROAD, ACROSS FROM ST. BERNARD SCHOOL, 1952 Mt. Lebanon was in the middle of a post-war growth spurt and planning to widen Washington Road. 47 ....... R. C. Dear collection “They need to look to the future.” Liptak in 1983 had invested substantially in renovations to the building he owns that houses his upstairs offices on Washington Road. Until recently the downstairs was occupied by Cafe La Place, operated by his wife, Rose, along with Carmel Connections, an art store operated by their daughter Laura. Early in the year 2000 both stores, with their range of colorful features—gourmet tea room, dinner theater, art and handcrafts—closed their doors, due to family priorities, to be replaced by an orthodontics office. “We put a lot of thought and effort into this space and would have preferred it to be a retail presence,” Liptak says. Although the pressure on small-town stores has been unflagging for the past 40 years, Mt. Lebanon in the year 2000 seems to have achieved a workable balance between retail and service businesses. Though visibly more weighted toward doctors, dentists and beauty shops than in the past, the Washington business district offers attractive and well patron- ized destination stores and restaurants. The success of these businesses seems attributable to the energy and insight of highly individualistic entrepreneurs. Beverly Road, on a smaller scale but in the same time frame as Washington Road, has been pursuing its own vision of what the compact business block should be. Emmy Lou Ducray and her husband, Lee, have for almost 40 years owned an interior decorating business on Beverly Road that is respected for its service and beloved for its artful window displays. Emmy Lou, known as the “mayor” of Beverly Road, attributes the block’s good health to the “goal orientation of 48 the Beverly Road Business Association.” She says today, “We wanted Beverly ....... Road to have a quality feel and a community feel and to reflect the commitment of the people who do business here. We think it does.” The Washington and Beverly business districts have both undergone appealing makeovers, thanks to investment in them by the business community and the municipality, which had helped secure several matching grants for facade and streetscape improvements. The facelifts have contributed to the prosperous look of the last decade. Shopfronts look cared for. New lighting gracefully evokes times past, and street furniture, plantings and holiday decorations are inviting. Coffee shop barristas have replaced soda jerks, gourmet pizzas eaten al fresco with a glass of Italian wine add a touch of cosmopolitanism, and the Denis’ art movies draw the East End crowd here, instead of the other way around. In the meantime, one goal of the current municipal economic development officer is to discover what residents seem to go elsewhere to find, and to bring those goods and services here. Mt. Lebanon’s Economic Development Council, formed in the late 1990s, is working hard to shape ordinances, processes and incentives that will draw more business—and more nearby residents to patronize them—to the community’s business districts. ROLLIERS, 1956 Rollier’s opened at McFarland and Beverly roads in October 1953. In 1976, a big red barn replaced the original Rollier’s, and in 1994, the hardware store relocated to Washington Road. Mt. Lebanon Public Library Mt. Lebanon Public Library BLOCK BETWEEN SHADY AND ALFRED, 1950 In a Mt. Lebanon magazine article, “The View from Washington Road,” Susan Stroyd offered a snapshot of the pre-mall days: “The mix of retail stores with a per- sonal touch satisfied a less sophisticated population with a simpler lifestyle. Everyone visited the library in the municipal building. Children watched “17 Cartoons” at the Denis, munched penny candy and ice balls from Mandell’s (pharmacy), sneaked on the first self-service elevator at Mt. Lebanon Federal, and trudged home with turtles from Murphy’s.”