Interesting Tidbits

 

• Charles Bartberger, a famous 20th Century architect, designed the Friendship School, now Pittsburgh Montessori. He lived in the neighborhood at 408 S. Pacific Ave.

• Once mayor of Pittsburgh and then Governor of PA, David Lawrence lived in the stone house at the corner of Harriet St. and S. Aiken Ave.

• From 1914 to 1921, The Pittsburgh College of Chiropractic, which was one of the nation’s first chiropractic institutes, resided in Friendship at 130 S. Fairmount Ave. It has the only historic marker found in Friendship.

• The brown brick house at 5465 Coral St. has only two bedrooms. It’s a “Hully House,” built in the 1920s by a developer named Elkanah Bunce Hully, as a “modern” alternative to all the neighborhood’s big houses with servants.

• One of the Negley family mansions is located at 238 S. Negley Ave. It was built by a Negley who had been a Civil War general.

• One of the oldest homes in Friendship is the 1870s farmhouse at 5302 Coral St. When Friendship was converted from farmland to grid streets, the home was repositioned to face the street.

• The Wonder Boys, Smart People, The Next Three Days, One for the Money, and The Piano Lesson are movies that were filmed in Friendship.

• The hemlock tree on Winebiddle St. is one of the oldest trees in Pittsburgh.

• The Rite-Aid at the corner of Roup St. and Baum Blvd. was a former Firestone Rubber and Tire facility. In the early 2000s, the structure was scheduled to be demolished, but concerned Friendship neighbors worked with the pharmacy to keep it intact.

• 5430 Penn Avenue, which currently houses the restaurant, 'SPORK', was once a nuisance bar. With persistent calls to the police, Friendship residents helped close the bar, and Friendship Development Associates acquired the property. A nearby neighbor approached FDA with the idea of a coffee shop, and the space was converted into a family-friendly neighborhood gathering place called Quiet Storm.

• The Baum family once lived at the corner of S. Aiken Ave. and Friendship Ave. There was another Baum family mansion at the corner of Harriet St. and Roup Ave.

• Many houses used to have mounting stones out front in order to mount a horse. There are at least two remaining mounting stones in Friendship: one on the 200 block of S. Pacific Ave. and one on Fredericka Alley.

• TV shows filmed in Friendship include the NBC miniseries The Temptations and the Netflix original series Mindhunter.

• Danny Narella, the former organ player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, used to live at the southeast corner of Coral St. and Fairmont Ave. He and his wife also used to sing the National Anthem for the Pirates.

• The first Friendship House Tour was held in 1988.

• The famous actress, Lillian Russell, grew up on Negley Ave. between Friendship Ave. and Baum Blvd.