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Bloomfield Information
Bloomfield is a neighborhood in the East End of the city of Pittsburgh; it is
located three miles from the Golden Triangle, which is the city's center.
Bloomfield is referred to as Pittsburgh's Little Italy. Pittsburgh architectural
historian Franklin Toker has said that Bloomfield "is a feast, as rich to the
eyes as the homemade tortellini and cannoli in its shop windows are to the
stomach." It is a decidedly urban neighborhood, with narrow streets and alleys
packed with rowhouses. Liberty Avenue is the neighborhood's main business
thoroughfare.
Bloomfield appears to have been an independent borough prior to its annexation
by the City of Pittsburgh in 1868. The land here was claimed from the native
Delaware tribe by Casper Taub, one of the area's earliest European settlers.
Taub sold the land to his son-in-law John Conrad Winebiddle, whose descendants
then broke it into lots and sold it beginning around the time of the 1868
annexation.
In the decades following 1868, Bloomfield was settled by German Catholic
immigrants, who in 1886 built St. Joseph's Church. Beginning around 1900, these
were joined by Italians from five towns in the Abruzzi region, who formed
Immaculate Conception Parish in 1905 (that church was rebuilt in its present
form in 1961). Descendants from both groups, with the Italians outnumbering the
Germans, still give the neighborhood its character today.
This character can perhaps best be described as earthy, gritty, close-knit, and
proud; as local author Chris Potter puts it, "Bloomfield has always taken pride
in its modest working-class aspirations and a lack of...upper-class trappings."
The local rowhouses, constructed mostly of wooden frames covered long ago by
aluminum siding, have unpretentious exteriors that often conceal lovingly
maintained interiors.
The business district along Liberty Avenue puts most of life's necessities, and
several luxuries, within an easy walk of Bloomfield residents: besides the two
churches and West Penn Hospital, there are many bars and restaurants, one
supermarket and two Italian markets, plus tanning and hair salons, gifts and
card shops, several gyms, a barber shop, two cobblers, a sweeper repair shop,
and much more. Most of the restaurants serve Italian cuisine, although the
neighborhood does feature a noted Polish restaurant. Several Asian restaurants
and specialty stores have opened along Liberty Avenue in recent years, as the
national trend towards immigration reaches even the slow-growing Pittsburgh
area.
Bloomfield sits on a plateau above the Allegheny River, and is bordered by Penn
Avenue on the north, the East Busway on the south, 40th Street on the west, and
Gross Street on the east. This last boundary is somewhat disputed – most
residents believe that Bloomfield abuts the neighborhood of Friendship at Gross
Street, where the provincial frame rowhouses give way to stand-alone brick
Victorian homes that grow larger on each street heading east. The City of
Pittsburgh, however, claims that Bloomfield extends east as far as Graham
Street. The East Busway is set in a valley that separates Bloomfield from the
Hill District; the two neighborhoods are within sight of one another, but are
connected only by the Bloomfield Bridge, which spans this gap.