Pittsburgh

August 20, 2009:  The last stop on this journey, Pittsburgh, proved to be one full of surprises.  First, I did not realize Pittsburgh was so hilly.  Earlier in the year I was in San Francisco and the topography in Pittsburgh was a surprise.  It was my second visit to the downtown area, and thanks to the kindness of a fellow couchsurfer it was my first visit to the suburbs outside of the city.  The city is a storehouse of so much history (the steel mills, many foundations with legacies), so much culture (multiple layers of immigrants).  A visit to the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh was the main purpose in stopping in Pittsburgh, but I found myself in the Strip, which provided an inspiration for thesis - Stan's Market.

Inside the fish market

Inside Stan's Market

 

Downtown Pittsburgh

The Strip ... A place with indoor food markets and various kinds of food representing different ethnic groups (For example:  Chinese, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican)

Unfortunately, this picture is skewed, but it is a sandwich that contains tuna, french fries, and coleslaw.  The sandwich is from Primanti Brothers, a restaurant on the Strip.  My host told me that during the times of the steel mill, the workers would come in to this place and order a sandwich with fries and slaw.  They did not have enough time to eat the entire meal, so they combined everything into one sandwich.

 

Small state, big heart

 En route to Providence via Amtrak

17 Aug 09:  I switched hostels to one in Manhattan.  I figured it would be easier to get to Penn Station for my 8:30am train departure to Providence if I were closer to the station.  I planned on visiting the Guggenheim on Saturday, but didn't make it (maybe next time). While waiting I met someone from Bed-Stuy who is working with his neighbors to start a Green Market in their neighborhood.

In Providence I stayed with friends, James and Laura.  James loaned me a bike for my time there.  Having a bike to zip around town made things a lot easier for me.  It was a hot, hot day in Providence, but a beautiful day nonetheless.  This was my first time riding a bike in a city that is new to me - if the opportunity presents itself to you, I highly recommend it. 

My first stop was to the Providence Revolving Fund.  This nonprofit provides technical assistance and loans to individuals and organizations who are rehabbing property.  I met with the executive director who spent the early days of his preservation career as a Main Street manager in Galesburg, IL!  As I learned earlier in the summer at the National Trust, the key to providing affordable housing in historic buildings is creative financing - the process is not linear and one must be aware of all of the tools and resources (people, especially, included) available to them to make it happen.  Understand the rules and regulations attached to historic tax credits, loans, and grants, use them to their greatest potential and seek out funding that match not just the preservation aspect of the project, but the program as well (ie green technology grants and tax credits, funding for foster care children, etc.).  For example, the Revolving Fund receives loans from the federal government that stipulate low-income status of the property owner for 15 years.  In order to maintain the property's status as affordable, the Revolving Fund requires that the owner resell the property to a low-income residents.  In essence, you have to be very entrepreneurial in your approach.

WBNA

Before I left the Revolvinvg Fund, I asked for recommendations on some of their projects to see.  Clark prepared a map of locations in the West Broadway neighborhood, so I biked over there.  On my way to the neighborhood I stopped by the West Broadway Neighborhood Association headquarters.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a "This Place Matters" poster in the window.  That place definitely matters for the community uses the former Texaco gas station as a community center/temporary office for the Urban Greens food co-op.

This is affordable housing

This is too

I was amazed to see the quality of work in each house.  It was difficult to determine which house was affordable and which was not.  The images above represent the housing in the neighborhood.  Not sure if these exact buildings contain affordable units, but in general the area is affordable and is economically diverse.

After biking around West Broadway, I met James and Laura at the City Farm.  I wanted to see a community garden while in the city and this is a grand farm.  On this day the Southside Community Land Trust who owns the land held a City Festival at the garden for the youth in the nieghborhood.  The City Farm is 0.75 acres of farm that provides fresh flowers and produce to the local farmers' markets, restaurants, and local food pantries. 

Images from the City Farm:

 

 

It's the oldest building in NYC

16 Aug 09: Still in Brooklyn : ), after partaking in the delicious complimentary breakfast at the hostel, I made my way via the bus to the southern part of the borough to the Wyckoff House. Unknown to me before arriving, I later learned on the tour that the house is the oldest building in New York City!  

Pieter Claesen Wyckoff (1625-1694) built the house in c.1652 and it was originally a Dutch West India Company bowerie or farm.  The fact that the land became a Dutch territory following the subsequent removal of the Native people (and all of New York City) will resurface later in an interesting way.

The original Canarsie Lane

The bus ride from Williamsburg to the House was approximately 50 minutes.  The house resides on the corner of Clarendon RD and Ralph Ave.  After deboarding the bus I was pleasantly greeted with another garden/park-like oasis in the middle of the city, just like Weeksville.  The house sits in its original location.  Even parts of the original street, Canarsie Lane, remain on the site.  It is difficult to imagine that an area so densely populated was once a farm.  

Block club member picking vegetables

The entry to the site immediately pulled me in to the Community Demonstration Garden.  Each item is visibly labeled - cucumbers, Swiss chard, tomatoes.  It is a smaller version of its former farm self, yet still communicates the essence of community.  The local block club members maintain the garden plots on the front of the property.  Lucy, the tour guide, gave me a tour of the herb garden located in the rear of the house.  Like the rest of the garden, they use this herb garden as a teaching tool for area youth.  After the tour, I walked through the front garden and met a member of the block club.  Before we parted ways, she offered me a tomato (see pic above).  This tomato will reappear later in this journey ...

For the past five years the Wyckoff House has held a farmer's market in front of the wrought iron fence (see pic above).  This year they canceled the market due to excessive rain.  Something interesting that I learned in the power of community ... on some occasions the staff at Wyckoff would ask for surplus produce from the Weeksville Market to sell at their market.  You see, the Weeksville Market is on Saturdays and the Wyckoff Market was on Sundays.  The two historic sites engage in a network of sharing food resources to serve their communities.  

Exposed wall (cobs in the bottom)

The house tour provided some eye opening fodder.  First, what you see in the photograph of the house is a building's full evolution.  Taking a look at the second image from the top, the first section of the house built by Pieter Wyckoff is located on the left-hand side.  This he built in 1652.  He expands the house in c. 1740.  The house is an example of Dutch colonial vernacular style with an H-frame.  It is also an example of the early influence Native people had on what we term vernacular style architecture.  The house contains an exposed wall section where visitors are able to see the anatomy of the building (yay!).  Guess what is inside the wall?  Maize (corn) cobs. Insulating the walls with corn cobs is something the colonists learned from the Native inhabitants of the region.  I couldn't help but think about the cob structures I learned about last summer in Portland, OR.  Yet, that kind of cob construction involves a mud compound made of straw, clay, sand, water, and soil - forming a building material similar to adobe.



Also of note is the fact that the windows did not contain glass when originally built.  So, imagine sitting around the fireplace in the winter with multiple layers of clothing, getting very comfy and cozy with family.  Prior to the 18th C., the original American colonies relied on Britain for pretty much everything they needed ... like tea : )  And it took months to receive goods.  By the 18th C. glass was produced in Williamsburg, Virginia and the Wyckoffs were able to install the present-day windows.  (Yes, the windows are original.  One of the things I like to do when visiting older buildings such as this one is move my head from side to side in front of the windows : )  If I see waviness in the glass, then I know that the windows are original.)

 

Lucy in the herb garden

So one of the questions I asked Lucy as we sat in the herb garden was how they involved the community in the activities at the house.  I assumed that they did not have direct ties to the Dutch origins of the house.  I learned from Lucy that the community residents did in fact have a connection.  One day, the staff at the house held a cookout on the front lawn.  They have a fire pit out front equipped with an old Dutch oven.  Lucy said an older gentleman at least 100 years old came to the cookout and said that his grandfather (or grandmother) had an oven just like that one!  You see, this gentleman was from the Caribbean ... a former Dutch colony!  Fascinating!  Much of the food they prepared that night also resonated with their neighbors and through the use of food two seemingly different cultures were united.


The visit to Weeksville and the visit to the Wyckoff House has inspired me to consider the sustainability of historic sites.  I love visiting historic house museums, yet, I wonder, as visits to historic house museums and similar sites are dwindling, how we can maintain the relevancy of these relics of the past?  (Even Lucy noted the unexpectedly high foot traffic on the day of my visit - 6 visitors including me.)  How can a site remain an integral part of the surrounding community?  How can it be a good neighbor?  One way is by sharing its land resource and contributing to the food security of the community.

.............

A side note about the last name Wyckoff ... it's not a "real" last name ... when Pieter arrived in present day Brooklyn, he did not have a surname.  It is not a Dutch custom to have a surname.  When the English took over New Amsterdam (Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands) and named it New York (York, being a city in England) they made all of the Dutch take surnames.  Pieter created the name Wyckoff.  According to the tour guide, Wyckoff is a combination of two words, both creating a rough Dutch translation of "lover of land and community."  Also, Wikipedia defines the two Dutch roots as "Wyk" = parish and "Hof" = court.  Pieter was a judge.

In front of the Wyckoff House

About the hostel

The New York Loft Hostel is located in a neighborhood called Williamsburg. The hostel is located in the part of the neighborhood characterized by warehouses converted into artists lofts and galleries.

The exhibit in this gallery communicated angst for war and continued in the room to the left with a commentary on capitalism. I was pleasantly surprised to see a 24 hour natural food store next door to the gallery. This warehouse is one block from the hostel. My sincerest appreciation to the front desk staff at the hostel for their kindness.

Prospect Park

15 Aug 09: It was still sunny and Brooklyn so I charted a path to Prospect Park (built 19 Oct 1867). This was my fourth trip to NYC and my first time visiting this world-class park. Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux designed the park in addition to Central Park.

As I walked through this gem of a park, I saw couples enjoying an afternoon picnic, an Indian wedding (Indian bride + white American groom), and a huge photo shoot of wedding parties in front of a fountain adjacent to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch at Grand Army Plaza. The funniest thing occurred in Long Meadow, a 90-acre meadow thought to be the largest meadow in the US. The meadow contains a long slope. As I approached the top of the slope, a little boy hopped on his skateboard, stuck out his tongue, and down he went. It was an awesome moment of exhilaration.

A Tomato Grows in Brooklyn

Saturday, 15 Aug 09: I arrived in Brooklyn in the afternoon, just in time to meet with the Public Programs Curator at the Weeksville Heritage Center. She was kind enough to spend an hour with me answering my questions (thank you!). Unfortunately, I missed the farmers market which runs on Saturdays, 9am-2pm, on the grounds of the site. Weeksville is named for James Weeks who purchased the land in 1838. The land was originally settled by former enslaved Africans from the east coast, in the 1830s following the abolition of slavery in New York State. The site consists of the Hunterfly Road Houses, a collection of houses that were a part of the town, as well as a vegetable garden. The houses are designated as New York City landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


New York City has such an interesting blend of architectural styles - the past is juxtaposed with the present. Case in point, Weeksville is across the street from a housing development. It is also located in East Brooklyn, the most economically deprived area of NYC. Thus, having a farmers market and a site connected to the past is such a beautiful asset for the community. Wouldn't you like to walk across the street from your home to get fresh vegetables and see a tomato grow on a vine everyday?  Or look out your window and see a relic of the past?


As I took pictures of the site, I met the Farmers Market Manager. Earlier in the year I went to a farmers market workshop at the National Main Street Center National Conference in Chicago. During one of the workshops, I learned about how to start a farmers market and gained a new respect for the market manager. It was so nice meeting her. From our short meeting I gathered a sense of her pride and enthusiasm for what she does. As this trip proved to me, people of all walks of life are involved in so many things - never judge a book by its cover, eh? The manager looked just like me. As we said farewell, she hopped on her blue, vintage Schwinn and waved farewell.

After I saw Weeksville, I walked one block from the site to a park where I watched a basketball tournament. I enjoyed listening to the game, watching a proud mom root for her son, and watching kids playing in this amazing water sprayer : ) I admit, it was hot, and I enjoyed the mist too!

And so it begins ...

Next Monday I will begin the final year in graduate school. I am completing an architecture/urban planning dual degree program. Yesterday, I took a bus from Washington, DC, said farewell to the lovely friends who hosted me for the summer as I completed an internship at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and landed in ... Brooklyn, NY! After checking in to the hostel, I made my way via the subway to Weeksville.

(me on the roof of the New York Loft Hostel)







Back in April, my thesis advisors encouraged me to meet with professionals in the preservation field, to learn as much as possible about financing adaptive reuse projects and to gain exposure to preservation-based community development.  Their encouragement and repeated exposure to the importance of real estate development to preserving buildings piqued my interest.  And so, with the help of many friends, I set forth on a summer adventure. This blog documents Part Two (Aug 15-20: NYC, Providence, RI, and Pittsburgh). Part One took place in Durham, NC, and Raleigh, NC, July 23-26.



Thank you to the friends I met along the way ... the kind family who opened their home to me in Arlington, VA, for two months; the folks in Durham, NC, and Pittsburgh, PA, who let me surf their couch; and the lovely friends in Providence, RI, for a place to stay and a bike to get around town!