Chatham Village is a community within the larger Mount Washington neighborhood of the city of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 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 ...

, and an internationally acclaimed model of community design. It is roughly bounded by Virginia Avenue, Bigham Street, Woodruff Street, Saw Mill Run Boulevard, and Olympia Road, and was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 2005 as a remarkably well-preserved example of

Garden City Movement The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with Green belt, greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, i ...

design. The village is owned and operated as a cooperative by its residents.

History

Chatham Village was built 1932–1936, and was designed by

Clarence Stein Clarence Samuel Stein (June 19, 1882 – February 7, 1975) was an American urban planner, architect, and writer, a major proponent of the garden city movement in the United States known for the Radburn concept. Biography Stein was born in Roche ...

and Henry Wright on the principles of the

of the early 20th century. It was created in the Georgian

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

style, and was built to show that affordable housing for the

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

could be attractive and safe. It quickly became a middle- and upper-class neighborhood, however, because it was so attractive. The funding was provided by Pittsburgh's Buhl Foundation.

Relevance

In 2007, Chatham Village was included in the

American Planning Association The American Planning Association (APA) is a professional organization representing the field of urban planning in the United States. APA was formed in 1978, when two separate professional planning organizations, the American Institute of Pla ...

's list of Great Neighborhoods as part of its Great Places in America program, which recognized ten neighborhoods from across the nation for good design, function, sustainability, and community involvement. In ''

The Death and Life of Great American Cities ''The Death and Life of Great American Cities'' is a 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs. The book is a critique of 1950s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the urban decay, decline of many city neighborhoods in the U ...

'', writer

Jane Jacobs Jane Isabel Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book ''The Death and Life of Great American Ci ...

criticizes Chatham Village as an example of how Garden City planning created islands of class homogeneity, thus fostering economic and social distance within Pittsburgh and other cities. Jacobs cites Chatham Village residents' inabilities to cooperate with other parents once their children entered the more economically and socially diverse local junior high school, which drew lower-class and lower-middle-class students from outside of Chatham Village. In Jacobs' view, the success of Chatham Village as an urban community in a park-like setting depended upon the residents' tendencies to trust one another due to the similarities in their professional, economic, and social status. The ideals of city planning expressed in the

, Jacobs argues, are only suitable for upper-middle-class lifestyles and, thus, fail to engage the endemic economic and social diversity of cities.

The homes

The homes are red-brick-and-slate-roof townhomes. They are situated in clusters toward interior courtyards with their rears facing the loop roads around the property. The homes do have rear-access integral garages in the basements, but these are recessed several feet to greatly reduce the visual impact. The community is regarded as one of the best-preserved examples of the Garden City concept by city planners, architects, and landscape architects. It is also a

, on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, and is on the List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks.

Chatham Hall

The complex includes the

Bigham House Bigham House located at 655 Pennridge Road in Chatham Village, in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was built in 1849. This was the former house of abolitionist lawyer Thomas James Bigham (1810–1884), and was "pur ...

(former home of Thomas Bigham), originally built in 1849, and renovated for use as a community clubhouse, known as Chatham Hall. Thomas James Bigham (1810–1884) was an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

lawyer, and his house was "purportedly a station on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

".
African American historic sites survey of Allegheny County
', Eliza Smith Brown, Daniel Holland, et al., page 173 (1994,

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Pennsylvania's heritage. The commission cares for hist ...

, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania )

Gallery

File:BighamHouse.jpg,

, built in 1849, now known as Chatham Hall File:ChathamVillage3.jpg, The garage side of some townhouses in Chatham Village File:ChathamVillage4.jpg, View of shared green space in front of some homes File:ChathamVillageParkingArea.jpg, A garage area for those whose townhouses don't have built-in garages File:ChathamVillageWallAroundParkingArea.jpg, A castle-like wall around a parking area File:ChathamVillageGardenBuilding.jpg, A garden folly with an overhead trellis around part of it

References

External links

* Chatham Village Websit

2005 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on the community
{{Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks Buildings and structures completed in 1936 Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh Geography of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh