Homewood is a predominantly

African-American neighborhood African-American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. Generally, an African American neighborhood is one where the majority of the people who live there are African American ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, officially divided into three neighborhoods: Homewood North, Homewood South and Homewood West. Homewood is bordered on the southwest by the

Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway The Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway is a two-lane bus rapid transit, bus-only highway serving the city of Pittsburgh and many of its eastern neighborhoods and suburbs. It was named after Martin Luther King Jr. in recognition of the eastern ...

which follows the old

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

line toward

downtown Pittsburgh Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River an ...

Geography

Homewood is located in the easternmost part of

. Parts of Homewood's Northern and Eastern border are shared with Penn Hills Township. Within the city of Pittsburgh, Homewood is bordered by the following neighborhoods: on the east by East Hills; on the west by Larimer; on the North by Lincoln-Lemington Belmar; and on the south by

North Point Breeze North Point Breeze (or Point Breeze North) is a mostly residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It has a zip code of 15208, and representation on Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for Distr ...

History

Homewood was founded in 1832 by Judge William Wilkins. The earliest black residents moved into the sparsely populated area in the aftermath of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. Homewood was annexed by the city of Pittsburgh on December 1, 1884 and held in those years mainly estates for the wealthy, being the Pittsburgh residence of industrialists

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

and Thomas M. Carnegie until the late 1880s. Starting in the 1910s, Irish, Italian, German, and upper middle class black families started moving into Homewood due to the low cost of housing. This caused Homewood to become more diverse. At first relations between the white and black residents of Homewood were quite good, it was not until later that tensions between the different ethnic groups became more strained. In the 1950s the city claimed land in the Lower Hill District for the Civic Arena, and in the process, displaced 8,000 people. Most of them were less affluent blacks who then settled in rental apartments in Homewood, creating a large disparity in the number of blacks to whites in the region. This sudden influx of black residents caused a lot of the white middle class to move away from Homewood, creating a population shift from 22% black in 1950 to 66% black in 1960. As a result of the area being predominantly African-American, it was greatly affected by the assassination of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

on 4 April 1968, whose murder caused riots in Homewood. The riots caused great damage to local businesses, severely crippling the business district there. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Homewood's identity and reputation were further degraded by the proliferation of gangs dealing in illegal drugs. The Homewood-Brushton Revitalization and the Development Corporation put together a strong effort to rebuild the area, it accomplished this by building homes and helping to open new businesses.

Demographics

The 2000 Census demographics of the neighborhood are 98.3%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.6%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.3% Asian, 0.0% American Indian, and 0.8% from 2 or more races

The 2010 Census demographics of Homewood are 97.8% African American, 1.2% White, 0.3% American Indian, 0.15% Asian, 0.04% Native Hawaiian, and 0.37% other.

Neighborhoods

Homewood is officially divided into three

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

s: Homewood North, Homewood South and Homewood West. *Homewood North is a

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

's east city area. It has zip codes of both 15221 and 15208, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by both the council members for District 9 (Northeast Neighborhoods). *Homewood South is a

's east city area. It has ZIP Codes of both 15208 and 15221, and has representation on

Pittsburgh City Council The Pittsburgh City Council serves as the legislative body in the City of Pittsburgh. It consists of nine members. City council members are chosen by plurality elections in each of nine districts. The city operates under a mayor-council sys ...

by the council member for District 9 (Northeast Neighborhoods). *Homewood West is a

's east city area. It has ZIP Codes of both 15206 and 15208, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 9 (Northeast Neighborhoods). **Notable: Charles 'Teenie' Harris, photographer **

Mary Cardwell Dawson Mary Lucinda Cardwell Dawson (1894–1962) was an American opera singer and voice teacher. She was the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC). In 1961, Dawson was appointed to the National Music Committee by President John F ...

, founder of the

National Negro Opera Company The National Negro Opera Company (1941–1962) was the most successful African-American opera company in the United States. Although often mistakenly called the first due to its enormous successes, other African American opera companies (such as t ...

Education

Homewood is located in the

Pittsburgh Public Schools Pittsburgh Public Schools is the public school district serving the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and adjacent Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania. As of the 2021–2022 school year, the district operates 54 schools with 4,192 employees (2,070 teach ...

district. The area offers a mix of neighborhood schools as well as specialized magnet schools. The public schools are Pittsburgh Lincoln School (K-5), Pittsburgh Faison School (K-5), and Westinghouse High School (6-12). Higher education includes the Community College of Allegheny County's Homewood Brushton Center.

Employment

Homewood's unemployment rate is higher than in most other parts of Pittsburgh. Consequently, Homewood's income per capita and

median household income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...

are lower than both the Pittsburgh average as well as the Pennsylvania average. Of the employed population, men earn more per person on average than women; however, there are more employed women in Homewood than men.

Transportation

Homewood is served by the Homewood station on the

City Steps

The Homewood neighborhood has 8 distinct flights of city steps – many of which are open and in a safe condition. In Homewood, the

Steps of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh has nearly 800 sets of city-owned steps. Many steps parallel existing roads, but others exist on their own and are classified as city streets and are commonly referred to as "paper streets". Nearly two-thirds of the steps are in lo ...

quickly connect pedestrians to public transportation and provide an easy way to travel through this hilly area.

Points of interest

* Afro-American Music Institute * Carnegie Library

Notable people

Martell Covington Martell Covington is an American politician serving as a Democratic member in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 24th district in Allegheny County. He won a 2022 special election to succeed Ed Gainey, who was elected Mayo ...

, Pennsylvania State Representative

References

External links

*
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh HomewoodThe Housing Authority of The City of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette My Homewood BlogHomewood Nation, a community news website
{{Authority control African-American history in Pittsburgh Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh Populated places in Pennsylvania established by African Americans