Homewood (Pittsburgh) - History

History

Homewood was founded in 1832 by Judge William Wilkins (U.S. politician). It was later annexed by the city of Pittsburgh on December 1, 1884. Homewood in the beginning held mainly estates for the wealthy; Homewood was also the Pittsburgh residence of industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Thomas M. Carnegie until the late 1880s. Starting in the 1910’s, Irish, Italian, German, and upper middle class black families started moving in to 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 1950’s 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.. His death brought about riots in Homewood. The rioters caused great damage to business which ended up 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 and crack cocaine. 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.