LAWRENCEVILLE

Carly, Josh, Bendriel

Our group visited Lawrenceville on a Friday afternoon. The bus ride there was easy enough and a little exciting as the address we had used was for the MatuRoll ice cream shop. We took the 93 Port Authority bus towards Northside, but the 54 or 91 can also be used to get there. After squeezing into a three-seater for 30 minutes, we reached Lawrenceville, picked an arbitrary stop around our Googled destination, and exited the bus.

Once there, we whipped out our phones and began taking pictures of the quaint little town. The street we had gotten off on (Butler) looked like it had been plucked out of some old timey movie. It was very calm and quiet, which fascinated us as the University of Pittsburgh is busy and nosy at almost all hours. But, as we walked further along, we began to see the true personalities of its residents. Some, with more rebellious tendencies- as evidenced by the many motorcycles we spotted (pictured above)- and the more modern amenities like Wendy’s and the vape shop.

    Soon after arriving we walked into the local pizza parlor to get our first interview. Lucky for us the locals don’t hold grudges as the owners still answered our questions even though we didn’t patronize them. When asked what, “cool things” are in Lawrenceville to do on a Friday or Saturday night we were met with a list that seemed somewhat odd to us. Looking back and keeping in mind the fact that we were in a little town, the weekend activities make a lot of sense. The owners told us that there’s a pinball and coffee shop along with a lot of bars because “college kids like to get wasted.” We were also informed of the local Row House movie theater, taco shop, and bowling alley, and told that once you go past 40th St. you're considered to be Downtown.

As for more family-oriented activity spots, there’s also a candle making shop, history center, and Paint Monkey where you sit around and make cute paintings with other people.

    Talking to the two men was nice, but seeing as we also wanted to know what the kids in the neighborhood would do from their perspective, we sought some out. Unfortunately for us, the group of kids we ran into ended up not even being Lawrenceville residents. One of the middle school boys did used to live there though and he informed us that if we wanted to have some real fun, we should hit the Wendy’s.

Now, for the more real stuff. It appears that Lawrenceville combines very historic sections with much more modern ones. Gentrified areas have chain restaurants, stores, and shops that cater to high-earning buyers, and support a much more modern architectural style. Historic districts, such as the one which has the PNC bank constructed in 1903, sports a much more conventional and traditional style - exposed brick structures, open-windowed restaurants, a lack of chain stores, and many local businesses flood these areas.

    One topic that was consistently covered through art was the progressive nature of the district. Lawrenceville seems to be a very open and inviting place, as indicated by the anti-racist neighborhood watch labeled graffiti on an object on the side of the street. Businesses showed this same dedication to social justice, supporting women in business, as shown by the woman at work sign outside of certain businesses, indicating their support for gender equality in the workplace.

After a while, we began to notice many different pieces of street art on walls and windows in the area. Unlike how it is typically regarded as vandalism, public artwork such as graffiti or murals in Lawrenceville is highly encouraged by the city of Pittsburgh, and numerous public funds, such as the Laurel Foundation and the PNC foundation, both of which funded the mural titled, Squirrel Convergence. Multiple murals showed websites where artists could meet and collaborate on different projects throughout the city. Lawrencevilleart.com is one such website, showing a large listing of both artists who are active members of the public art community and areas that are open and available to be used as canvasses for new pieces. Below are some of the many pieces we saw.

   

Something surprising that happened while we were there was that we actually got to hear the local clock tower earning its pay. We happened to be walking right past it when it started to ring and got it on video. This was really cool because it really solidified for us that although Lawrenceville was indeed being gentrified, the residents were still working hard to keep the real essence of the place there, which we also saw in before-mentioned PNC Bank.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2U1JQBf9oBycGp1X2tMSEtFUlE (Clock Tower Video)

    As we were waiting for the bus home, we saw a WWI and WWII statue honoring local patriots. As interesting as this was- yes, we did deeply appreciate the statue’s importance after getting close enough to read it- prior to this, we spent 15 minutes trying to take those perfectly lined up photos that make it look like someone is holding up the sun or the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

It turns out that Josh is great at taking them, which is why the ones of us, the girls, are really good. His secret is to “really lean into the photo.” Who knew, right?