Lawrenceville added to U. S. historic places list
After a yearslong nomination and authorization process, the U. S. Department of the Interior added Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood to the National Register of Historic Places this week.
The city announced Tuesday that Lawrenceville had been added to the list, which is overseen by the National Parks Service and is described online as “the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation.”
Lawrenceville joins several other districts in the city on the list, including the Mexican War Streets Historic District on the North Side and the Penn- Liberty Historic District in Downtown, according to Sarah Quinn, city historic preservation planner.
The designated area of Lawrenceville encompasses most of its residential, commercial and industrial districts, including its main drag on Butler Street between Doughboy Square and 55th Street and its many 19th century row houses.
The benefits of the designation are not just honorific, Lawrenceville Historical Society vice president Brian Mendelssohn said in an interview Tuesday.
Property owners within the historic district who restore their properties to comply with federal guidelines for historic preservation can receive a 20% tax credit on the money they invest in that property.
“It’s an encouragement program, and it works really well,” he said. “The fact that it’s sort of a whole neighborhood [ means] it’s going to have a really good impact.”
Features of the district cited as particularly significant include Allegheny Cemetery, the resting place of notable Pittsburgh mayors, industrialists and military heroes, and the former site and remains of Allegheny Arsenal, where a series of explosions in 1862 constituted the largest civilian disaster of the Civil War.
“A lot of the homes from that time period, especially in the 1850s and 1860s, still exist in our neighborhood,” Mr. Mendelssohn said. “That’s incredibly unique for Pittsburgh.”
Unlike sites with a historic designation from the city of Pittsburgh, inclusion on the national register is not tied to city code and thus will have no effect on private property owners in the district, according to Ms. Quinn.
Lawrenceville resident Mark Wagner — whose family business, Wagner Quality Shoes, has operated on Butler Street for nearly a century — lauded the designation as the latest in a series of accolades that have reinvigorated the neighborhood in the past decade.
“In terms of notoriety, it feels like Lawrenceville has just been picking up a lot of steam, not even just locally,” Mr. Wagner said.
“It seems like something people would take pride in. There’s a lot of character in Lawrenceville, and it’s one more notch under the belt.
“I definitely think it would be good for business,” he added.