As the Ohio River leaves the Point and turns northward from Pittsburgh, older towns line both banks. The City of Aliquippa, on the western bank, is one of the first major communities after crossing into Beaver County. Through most of last century, Aliquippa was one of the largest steel-producing areas in the Pittsburgh region. Due in part to the decline of big steel and the rise of suburban sprawl, the mills have disappeared and the Franklin Avenue business district has experienced an upshot in vacancies. Luckily, much of the memorable space in the commercial core continues to spark the interest of new tenants and community leaders.

Aliquippa tracks its historical roots to the late 1700s, long before the arrival of the mills. Logstown, the first village on the site, was a sleepy trading post along the Ohio River. In the first decade of the 20th century, Jones and Laughlin Steel (J&L) built a major works along the river and established a new company town, called Woodlawn. By 1928, Woodlawn had merged with the surrounding towns to form the current boundaries of Aliquippa. After World War II, the population of the 4.1 square mile town had grown to nearly 30,000 people, and the central business district had a complete range of shops and services.

Aliquippa has largely kept its unique, and sometimes divisive, planning features. The Franklin Avenue corridor, “downtown Aliquippa,” occupies a short east-to-west valley that connected the former mill with most housing, requiring most steelworkers in their day to pass through the business district. J&L constructed workers’ housing in numbered plans. Plant management took advantage of the regional topography and separated the incoming immigrants by their ethnicities, to both create solidarity within the plans and minimize conflict across them. Many residents still refer to specific neighborhoods by their plan numbers, such as Plans 6 and 7 for former mill managers, and Plans 11 and 12 for workers. Some neighborhoods have businesses interspersed within them, and a second, less pedestrian-oriented business district has developed in the New Sheffield neighborhood.

Although the downtown area slowly drained through the 1980s and 1990s, many of Franklin Avenue’s architectural gems and well-remembered sites still exist. The Renaissance Place, a former Mellon Bank building, now houses the R.O.O.T.S. School, and the former G.C. Murphy building still stands. Several organizations, including the City of Aliquippa, Beaver County, the Corporation for Economic Development, and the Aliquippa Alliance for Unity and Development, have been some of the major stakeholders in the downtown revitalization effort. The streetscape has undergone a significant refurbishing over the past few years, getting new sidewalks, attractive streetlamps, and trees.

“There’s some renewed interest since the café [Uncommon Grounds] went in,” said Diane Manning of Town Center Associates, an organization offering technical support for the Beaver County Main Street Program. Uncommon Grounds is a new but persistent arrival to the downtown area, providing tasty, inexpensive food and lots of positive buzz. Australian transplant John Stanley created the café as a gathering and listening place. The café regularly hosts performances and meetings for community groups.

One of Stanley’s next initiatives in downtown Aliquippa involves the construction of a new downtown park. Its design includes a basketball court, stage, and a playground to make it a vital, central gathering place, especially for the next Aliquippa Festival of Art, Music, and Praise. Remarking on Stanley’s work, Manning continued, “That gives us new life on Franklin.”

Links

Town Center Associates, Beaver County Main Street Network

Beaver County Corporation for Economic Development

Aliquippa Alliance for Unity and Development (AAUD)

Beaver Times article Uncommon Grounds: Where the coffee is hot and the space is cool, May 12, 2007

Cool Space Award Winners

Uncommon Grounds (2007)

Aliquippa Borough Building

B.F. Jones Memorial Library

Rainy Day on Franklin Avenue

Franklin Avenue

Uncommon Grounds

Mural on side of Uncommon Grounds

Sheffield Avenue