Hazelwood at intersection of excited, wary

expected to open between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The other locations are in Lawrenceville and Mt. Lebanon.

A French bakery can be a wonderful thing. And it can deliver a strong message. Jean-Marc Chatellier’s French bakery opened in Millvale in 1992, an early ripple in Millvale’s revitalization.

Hazelwood finds itself at the intersection of excited and wary. There’s the bakery under construction, and a building beside it under construction -— for retail and apartments. Further along Second Avenue, the old G.C. Murphy store is being turned into a new location for Pittsburgh Community Kitchens, a food-career training center and commissary.

Hazelwood had been without a market since 2008, when Dimperio’s closed, but Dianne Shenk, who had operated a farm stand for several years, obtained a lease indoors for an expansion of her Dylamato’s Market, offering produce, meat and other limited groceries.

Deana Whetstone Gamrat, a classroom assistant at Greenfield K-8, said she is encouraged and feels positive. The Almono development abuts the street she lives on.

One of Mr. Muldoon’s portrait subjects, she is a third-generation Hazelwood resident, living in the house her grandmother lived in. Her 87-year-old mother lives next door.

“Other families down the street are third-generation, too,” she said. “A lot of people did move. It was always the threat of the [Mon-Fayette Expressway] coming through, or the mill closing. I’m not saying people don’t have a right to move. But they don’t have the right to drive through now and say how crummy it is. There are many people whose upkeep of property is very important.”

Ms. Gamrat said many people have a bad view of Hazelwood, but that she has never had a bad experience there.

“I have two sons, 20 and 22, and I told them there are bad people everywhere,” she said. “One of my sons was involved with a girl from Mt. Lebanon who was addicted to heroin.”

Like Ms. Gamrat, Mr. Muldoon recalled a happy childhood in Hazelwood.

“I grew up in the house at 5112 Second Ave. right across from St. Stephen’s,” he said. “On one of the most memorable visits back home, in 2012, I took my daughter Katie. I wanted her to see where I had grown up and we walked around Hazelwood. St. Stephen’s was unlocked and we walked into the school and into my first-grade classroom.

“The wonderful thing about that trip was that I got to see Hazelwood through Katie’s eyes. She had never been there. She said ‘Dad, this is really cool.’ ”