The Church Brew Works

As its name suggests, the building that houses Lawrenceville’s Church Brew Works began life as a house of worship—St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church. Now, like many of the church buildings that left empty around Pittsburgh, St. John the Baptist has found new life after transformation, open seven days a week to any congregants who want to sit at a repurposed pew and sample one of the brewery’s offerings.

Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain

Mary Schenley wasn’t a pagan, but she found plenty of other ways to shock the upper-class society into which she was born in the nineteenth century. Born Mary Elizabeth Croghan in 1826, she eloped with a British army captain three times her age when she was fifteen years old and divided the rest of her life between Pittsburgh and London. The Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain, also called “A Song to Nature,” was built near Schenley Plaza in her memory in 1918.

Mr. Smalls Theatre

In 2002, Mike Speranzo and Liz Berlin transformed a church Mr. Smalls Theatre. The venue includes a concert hall that can hold 800 people for concerts or other events, a smaller stage, and a restaurant. In the basement there is a small café. Mr. Smalls Theatre has hosted performances by both local and national artists. President Bill Clinton even visited once for a political rally. The building itself was also once a Catholic Church called St. Ann’s.

The Pittsburgh Platform

The Pittsburgh Platform, which was written and signed in Pittsburgh in 1885, is a document that outlines eight principles of Reform Judaism that were agreed upon by rabbis at the Pittsburgh Conference. The Reform Movement is a liberal denomination of Judaism and has a rich history in the city of Pittsburgh.

McKees Rocks Burial Mound

The mound was built by the Adena people, who are well known for mound building, and later used by the Hopewell people. It is thought to have accumulated over a period spanning 500 BCE- 1000 CE.

Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh

Take a quick stroll down Murray Avenue, one of the main roads in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, and you will see many beautiful knitted Jewish stars hanging all around you. They’re easy to miss at first, but if you really look, you’re sure to find one everywhere you turn. This project was a response to the horrific shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill in 2018. Communities around the world found creative and impactful ways to provide support and solidarity to Pittsburgh and the Jewish community as a whole.

Syria Mosque

The Syria Mosque and its members played a powerful role in shaping Oakland as a neighborhood and Pittsburgh as a city. Though fraught with cultural exploitation, its presence had a lasting impact.

Adat Shalom/B’Nai Israel Torah Scrolls

The story of the B’nai Israel Torah scrolls which have been adopted by Adat Shalom is representative of a larger narrative about Pittsburgh Jews. In the years after World War II, the suburbs offered middle-class Americans the opportunity to start a new life outside of the nation’s urban centers. Upwardly-mobile American Jews flocked to the suburbs in the middle of the twentieth century and faced the challenge of rebuilding their faith community outside of the urban core. The preservation of the B’nai Israel scrolls (as well as other Judaica) indicates the determination of the community to rebuild, and the dedication to their faith, tradition, and roots.