The Ethnic Experience in Lawrenceville

Presented to: North Hills Genealogical Society by Jim Wudarczyk on August 21, 2001.

In an old episode of “Death Valley Days,” the man, who invented rivets on jeans to keep the pockets from tearing, was denied a bank loan because he employed two foreign born persons. He attracted quite a crowd as in frustration he walked through the town, kicked objects, and yelled out, “Foreigners! This whole country is made up of foreigners. Everyone came from somewhere.”

This is the essence of ethnicity: at some point in time, everyone came from somewhere. Too often we tend to think of ethnic as people in colorful costumes performing folk dances. However, we should instead think of ethnic as the root from where people hailed and how they tried to preserve some aspects of this culture while being assimilated into the American nation.

To help us identify any group that settled in a particular region, one must look at two factors: (1) the formation of religious institutions, and (2) the creation of fraternal societies.

Lawrenceville is not unique in the ethnic experience but being the oldest suburb in Pittsburgh, the community has undergone tremendous changes between its founding in 1814 until the present. In some respects this neighborhood is a microcosm reflecting international changes in migration patterns and national trends. While it is impossible to capture the entire history of this community in one lecture, we can look at some of the trends and the effect of ethnicity over the course of the last 187 years.

Tonight we will take a look at a few ethnic groups and see that the experiences of these people were similar to those in other parts of the city and other metropolitan regions throughout the country.

1814-1867
From British Isles:
Early Settlers in Lawrenceville

In 1814 William B. Foster, father of the famous composer, Stephen Collins Foster, founded Lawrenceville as a real estate investment. As might be expected, the ancestors of the early settlers in the area were from the British Isles: Scot Irish, English, and Irish Protestants. As late as 1826 there were only 200 persons living in the largely rural community.

When one looks at the demographics of the United States during the first half of the American Republic, which historians date from the beginning of the presidency of Thomas Jefferson until the Mexican War, one finds that the population was largely native born, worked in agriculture, and was overwhelmingly Protestant. Lawrenceville during this period was no different.

I may be speaking out of turn but it appears that these early White Anglo Saxon Protestants or WASPs had no interest in preserving their ties with their European past but rather were very proud of the fact that they were Americans. They had every reason to be proud since they were the descendants of those who fought in the American Revolution or in the War of 1812, and they and their forefathers were the ones who carved a nation from wilderness.

If one looks at the literature of the period, the early decades of the 19th century was a time when the American character was defined. James Fenimore Cooper wrote the “Leatherstocking Tales,” in which the rugged frontiersman and pioneer is established as the ideal, and Washington Irving created a past that blended fact with folklore in “The Knickerbocker Tales.”

Between 1814 and 1840 Lawrenceville was very rural. The Harris Business Directory of 1837 noted that the wealthy built their villas there for purity of atmosphere. Aside from the military establishment at the Allegheny Arsenal, some breweries, a small paper mill, and some boat building establishments, there was very little industry in the region in the early days of the community.

The residents were Protestants. At first they were largely dependent upon a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Joseph Stockton, principal at the Pittsburgh Academy, to travel from Pittsburgh to the village to conduct services but by the early 1830’s the neighborhood boasted of having three churches. In 1832 the Presbyterians and Methodists began to construct houses of worship, and in the following year, 1833, thirty-four officers and men from the Allegheny Arsenal laid the foundation for the creation of an Episcopal church. In addition, in 1819, a Masonic Lodge, Lawrence 460, was established.

One finds the Harris Directory to be a very valuable source for the documenting of early life in Lawrenceville. In addition to the three churches, the village had three Sunday schools, a literary institute and a lyceum. It is also interesting to note that in the absence of a public library, the churches filled that void. By 1837 the Methodist library had 107 volumes, while the Presbyterian church housed 250 volumes.

By 1850 Lawrenceville was still largely rural and there were only 200 dwelling houses to accommodate its population of nearly 1700 persons.

In the early 1850’s a new political party emerged and for several years was the dominant force in our country. This was the American or Know Nothing Party, and it built a constituency based on advocating nativism and preaching a doctrine of anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Masonic. It is important to make note of this fact because the American Party was successful in creating chaos in Pittsburgh.

The Irish Experience

The first group of people, whom we might define as being ethnic, was the Irish. One would assume that because they spoke the English language that there would be a smooth transition into the assimilation of American culture, but this was hardly the case. Old World prejudices between the Catholics and the Protestants carried over to America. The noted black sociologist and writer, Thomas Sowell, pointed out that 10% of all of the blacks, who came to the New World, died in route, while 20% of the Irish who left their native land died before reaching our shores. The prejudice against the Irish was so dominant and so crass that Sowell noted, “A dead slave was money lost, but a dead Irishman was simply a dead Irishman.“

While the first half of the American Republic – roughly 1800 until 1825 – was a period of very little immigration into our country – the demographics began to change around 1826 with German and Irish immigration becoming more and more prevalent. The great potato famine in Ireland in the 1840’s sent tens of thousands of Irish to America’s shores, and this event put into motion the rise of the American Party.

By 1853 there are enough Irish in Lawrenceville to warrant Reverend Andrew Gibbs to begin building a Catholic church. Prior to the erection of Saint Mary’s 46th Street, Mass was held in a home on 46th Street. Because of the large number of persons attending the religious service, most had to stand and kneel in the street outside the home. Here they were taunted and ridiculed by members of the American Party. Later when Gibbs began construction of a church, the Know-Nothings filled in the foundation of the chapel in an effort to discourage Catholicism from spreading into Lawrenceville. Tradition has it that Irish workmen had to arm themselves with pick axe handles and guard the foundation from the antics of the Nativists.

As late as 1860 the men of Saint Mary’s had to meet in a group at the Allegheny Arsenal and march together into downtown to attend the home mission at Saint Paul Cathedral since no Catholic man was safe in passing the coal yards at 28th Street.

German Protestants and German Catholics

The Germans who settled into Lawrenceville can safely be divided into two groups: Protestant and Catholic. In both cases, they wanted to maintain their ethnicity.

In 1857 a group of German Lutheran began to organize a new congregation. Two years later they found their first home in a wood frame church, and were chartered as the German United Protestant Congregation of Lawrenceville. After several name changes, the congregation they eventually became known as Saint John’s Lutheran Church. Between 1865 and 1894 the church offered a day school with classes conducted in both German and English. Apparently the use of the German language was discontinued in 1945. The church closed its doors in the spring of 2001.

A second German congregation, Zion Evangelical Lutheran, was organized in 1868. The present edifice was erected in 1874 at the corner of 37th and Bandera. Around 1880 a day school was opened with an enrollment of 60 pupils. In 1886 a special building was constructed to house the school. By 1897 there were 155 students enrolled. This Christian day school continued for 53 years.

The last German congregation that we can document was the German Methodist Church on 40th Street. This church was founded in the late 1860’s and most likely continued until the 1940’s.

German Catholics practiced their faith at Saint Philomena Church on 14th and Liberty Avenue, which was quite a considerable distance to travel in an era of no public transportation. What is interesting about the German Catholics is that they were eager to establish a school before establishing a church. As early as 1854 Xavier Helbling, a butcher and father of 11, thought that it was too far for his children to travel to St. Philomena School, and was concerned about sending his children to Saint Mary School on 46th Street since it was an Irish School. Historically there was a feud between the Irish Catholics and the German Catholics. The Germans were insistent upon instructions being conducted in their language and that each child’s day should start with the attendance at Mass. As a result, Helbling hired a tutor and founded the first German school in Lawrenceville in a room behind his store in the vicinity of 48th and Butler Streets. Nine of his children were among the earliest pupils. The school moved to several locations and often had different names: Ruland Hall, Lawrenceville Academy, Squire Nickle’s Mansion, Old Town Hall, and the Robinson Hall School. As long as there was a competent teacher, the school flourished but finding competent teachers for a small private school was a major problem. Finally in the early 1860’s the task of educating German American children was transferred to Catholic nuns.

In 1861 a handful of men petitioned the bishop for the creation of a new Catholic parish in Lawrenceville. The birth of Saint Augustine Roman Catholic Church almost did not come about because one man refused to deed over a small parcel of land unless he could be assured that services would continue to be conducted in the German language forever. A compromise was struck. The bishop agreed to provide the parish with a priest, who would conduct services in German, as long as the parishioners wanted the language to be maintained, provided that the parishioners agreed to keep their church financially solvent. This compromise would be the basis for agreements with other ethnic parishes in the Catholic diocese.

In 1863 the first Saint Augustine Church was constructed at 37th and Butler Street, and would serve the parish until 1901 when the present edifice was erected. What is interesting to note about the old church is that in 1870 it played a crucial role in a miracle. A small child was ill with measles and several other serious illnesses. The child was in so much pain that he was literally pulling out all of his hair. Doctors said the child faced a slow and painful death. The child’s grandmother, Mrs. Vogel, attended Mass and remembered the kindly Father Francis Seelos of Saint Philomena’s who had recently died. Seelos, who was recently beatified by Pope John Paul II, was a victim of the American Party’s bigotry, and on three occasions was brutally beaten as he responded to sick calls. She prayed that Seelos would intercede to almighty God to cure the child or take him quickly. Vogel made the prayer just as the priest elevated the sacred host at consecration and the church bells began to ring. When she returned to her daughter’s home, she found the doctors in total amazement. The child’s fever broke and he was resting comfortably.

In 1872 Bismarck was threatening to expel from Germany all religious orders not involved with hospitals. This prompted the Capuchin Franciscans to send two priests and a brother to Pittsburgh to accept the bishop’s offer of running Saint Augustine Church. The friars soon established a monastery and are still actively ministering to the people of Lawrenceville.

When the railroads began major expansion in the Strip District in 1870, several hundred homes were demolished and those families migrated to Lawrenceville.

At the dedication ceremonies for the new Saint Augustine Church, constructed between 1899 and 1901, there were 5,000 persons on hand to witness the event.

In addition to the creation of a church, the Germans were also responsible for the organizing of a beneficial society that led to the creation of Saint Francis Hospital in 1865. One must remember that for many years, insurance, health care, and even where one was able to purchase a drink was restricted to certain groups of people. In other words, a tremendous amount of discrimination existed.

After the Civil War, German singing societies became very popular in America, and one –the Eintracht- was founded in Lawrenceville. This continued until the 1960’s. During the 1930’s and 1940’s, it was regarded as one of the finest singing societies and won numerous awards and distinctions. A second German singing society – the Orpheus – moved from their East Liberty home to Lawrenceville sometime in the 1970’s.

1868-1917
More Irish: 1870

The period between the end of the Civil War and 1900 was one of phenomenal growth for the neighborhood. As noted, in 1850 there were 1,700 persons in Lawrenceville, but 50 years later, 1900, there were 33,000.

As the eminent architectural historian, James Van Trump, noted, “Lawrenceville is a neighborhood built largely between 1860 and 1900.”

This explosion in population led to the rise of numerous institutions in the area. One of these posters illustrates some of the organizations that found a home in Lawrenceville in 1901.

With the new wave of Irish immigrants, two new Catholic churches were created: Saint John the Baptist in 1870 and Saint Kieran in 1886. It has been said that so many Irish congregated around Saint Kieran on 51st and Carnegie Streets that the area was known as “Little Ireland.”

It must be noted that not only did Lawrenceville attract Catholic immigrants, but was truly a diverse and eclectic community. At least thirty religious congregations found a home in the area. In addition to some of the congregations already mentioned, we find the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, 43rd Street Presbyterian, McCandless Avenue Presbyterian, Good Hope Mission United Presbyterian, and the 7th United Presbyterian Church (which was affectionately known as the 7 UP Church.) The Methodists had the Butler Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Denny ME, McCandless Avenue Methodist, the 2nd German Methodist, and the First Primitive Methodist Church. In addition to the German Lutheran churches, there was also an English Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Enter the Slavs:
Slovenians in the Lawrenceville

There was a saying in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church prior to Vatican II that you could go anywhere in the world and still not know what they were saying. While some parts of the Mass were in Latin, the sermon, gospel, hymns, and epistle were in the vernacular of the people. So when the East European immigrants came to America, they tended to congregate around others of their kind, because of the lack of understanding of the English language.

To illustrate the importance of understanding or misunderstanding the language, there is a story of an immigrant who was told he could find lodging on a certain street. He thought he had a fairly good grip on the language and returned to the store where he first was told where to go. He explained to the shopkeeper that the room was already taken. So the storeowner went with him to the site. ”There’s the sign,” exclaimed the immigrant. “Too late.” It actually read, “To let.”

By 1894 the city had a substantial colony of Slovenians. This prompted Reverend Joseph Zalokar to initiate organizational activities, which resulted in the creation of Saint Mary the Assumption Church. By the early 1900’s, some six thousand Slovenians lived in Pittsburgh. George Prpic, in his study of South Slavic immigration, indicated that Slovenian ties to the Roman Catholic Church in America were a carry over from their native land. He further deduced that the Slovenians had staunchly rejected Protestantism in Europe, viewing it as a form of German nationalism. While Father Matthew Kebe (1934-1966) was pastor, services were frequently conducted in Slovenian, but the use of the native tongue ceased after his retirement.

In addition to religious and educational facilities the Slovenians of Lawrenceville erected Slovene Hall on 57th Street. This hall was founded in 1910 and served as a social club for nearly eighty years before being forced to close its doors because of escalating costs and declining membership. The club once had a bowling alley, bar and dance hall. At one point, it even served as a ethnic singles club. According to Joe Lubich, the club began to lose members when other places were allowed to sell liquor on Sundays, and soon it couldn’t pay its bills.

With the closing of Slovene Hall, the various lodges of KSKJ, SNPJ, and other groups moved to the social hall of Saint Mary of the Assumption church. KSKJ, which once had at least six lodges to which the people of Lawrenceville belonged, were reduced to two by the early 1990’s. These lodges were primarily formed as social clubs, as well as to offer insurance programs to their members.

Polish Migration

The Polish were the last major ethnic group to establish themselves in Lawrenceville. By 1902 there were enough Poles to establish Holy Family Church and School complex. Over the next twenty-five years the parish had 1,050 families and a school with 1,000 children enrolled.

In 1940 the parish moved from 41st and Foster Streets to its new home on 44th Street. Eventually the new church acquired the title, “The Polish Cathedral” because it was executed in the manner of churches in Poland. Over the years the artistic beauty of the church was enhanced by an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa and an elaborate mural depicting Polish historical and religious events, titled “Poland Always Faithful.”

One of the criticisms of the ethnic Catholic churches is that frequently they were stricter than the territorial parishes. I do not know that is a fact, but one priest told the story that when he was young, he was cocky. One day he was given the assignment of going to the post office to get the mail. He only half-heartedly listened to the instructions. When he got down to Butler Street, he drew a complete blank. Was he supposed to go left or right? Was the post office on Butler Street or was it below Butler? So he returned to the rectory and told the pastor that he did not get the mail. “Oh, why not?” “I couldn’t find the post office.” With that the pastor raised his massive frame on his desk, and with the reprimanding finger, shouted, “How do you expect to show people the way to heaven if you can't even find the post office?"

When looking at Polish ethnicity, it is equally important to look at some of the fraternals and publications. For example, the Polish community read the newspaper The Pittsburczanin, which ran from 1920 until 1976. It started as a daily, then went to a weekly and finally to a bimonthly.

There were also a number of fraternals: two chapters of the Polish National Alliance, the Saint Casimir Society, Society of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Polish Falcons, and the Polish Army War Veterans. What is interesting about some of these organizations is the fact that their charters were to “propagate the tenets of the Catholic faith and promote the cause of freedom for partitioned Poland.

The Lost Colony of Swedes

If you ask the residents of Lawrenceville to name the ethnic groups of Lawrenceville, I will venture to guess that none will name the Swedes. Just what happened to these people remains a mystery, pretty much like the mystery that surrounds Roanoke. We know that they existed because there were three churches: the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran, the Swedish Mission Congregational, and one known simply as the Swedish Church.

The size of this community must have been considerable since the Carnegie Library published at the turn of the 20th century two tracts listing foreign publications to be found at the Fisk Street branch. The first list was a four-page brochure listing Polish books and magazines, and the second was an eight-page booklet listing Swedish publications.

Other Ethnic Groups

While there were representatives of other ethnic groups in Lawrenceville over the years, most did not establish either a religious house of worship or a fraternal society. For example, residents knew of Greek families living in the area but other than long time residents remembering a specific family, who was Greek, there is no record of them having made any significant contribution to the Lawrenceville community.

While the Croatians did not establish any churches, they did establish two fraternals. Neither is in existence today. In 1950 Matt Cvetic, one of the top echelon of the communist party, revealed that he was an undercover FBI agent. In his testimony before the House on Un-American Activities, Cvetic named Louis Filetich, founder and first president of the Lawrenceville Fraternal Center, as a communist. While Filetich was never called upon by any investigating committee to defend himself, being named by Cvetic as a communist cast a shadow not only on him but also on the Lawrenceville Fraternal Center. While there is no evidence to indicate that the fraternal was a hotbed of communist activities, the center was known in Lawrenceville as “the Commie club.” A few years ago, while at a meeting of the Holy Name Society, some elderly gentleman were talking about a restaurant that opened where the Commie club used to be. When I asked if the members were really communists, the question sparked a fierce debate. Interestingly, while there was no consensus on the matter, none of the men remembered the proper name of the fraternal, yet none hesitated to call it “the Commie club.”

In an interesting footnote, oral tradition has it that there were several Jewish merchants, who lived in what is now the 10th ward or that area between Stanton Avenue and the 62nd Street Bridge. It has been said that they were so devout and so Orthodox that they felt they would violate the tenets of their faith if they traveled too far to synagogue. Thus, in the early 1920’s they rented a garage in order to conduct their prayer services.

1918 Through the Present:
The Period of Ethnic Decline

The pinnacle or Golden Age of Lawrenceville is 1900. The population peaked at 33,000 people; there was a vibrant business community; numerous jobs in heavy industry; plenty of churches, fraternal organizations and beneficial societies. After 1900 it is down hill for the community.

Population declines are reflected in the census record:

1900 - 33,000
1940 - 30,000
1960 - 23,000
1980 - 15,000
1990 - 12,600
2000 - 10,800

Without a strong population base, you cannot support businesses. Thus, many churches with little or no congregation began to close their doors, and fraternals disappeared, often without a trace.

The death of ethnicity or a strong tie to the old country was not sudden, but rather one of gentle decay. After World War I, one starts to see a change in attitude toward ethnicity. In some cases, the first generation of Americans saw nothing wrong with marrying outside of their ethnic group, although Catholics still tended to marry within their religion.

After World War II, we find more and more couples marrying outside one’s faith. This is also the period when America sees the rise of the suburb. As more people moved outside the old, traditional communities, the bonds that held people together were dissolved.

Perhaps the main reason for the decline in ethnicity and ethnic identification took place in the mid1950’s when the Catholic bishops ruled that parochial schools were to conduct all classes in English.

Between the late 1950’s and the mid-1960’s, the Methodists – with the exception of the Primitive Methodists-, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, no longer practiced their faith in Lawrenceville. In the spring of 2001, a “for sale” sign was posted in front of Saint John Lutheran Church, leaving Zion Evangelical Lutheran as the only remaining Lutheran church in the area.

Even the Roman Catholic churches were consolidated into two parishes in 1993. From the standpoint of ethnicity, when an ethnic Catholic church was merged with a territorial parish, the ethnic church ceased to exist as an entity. Therefore, Lawrenceville today has no ethnic churches, although five of the six churches still remain open. One must encourage visitation to these edifices because each has interesting architectural and artistic features. However, based on the current and continuing decline in population, change in demographic makeup of the community, and relatively small percentage of Catholics practicing their faith, it is doubtful that these beautiful shrines will continue to exist very far into the near future.

Preservation Is A Necessity

While it easy to lament loss, there are some positive things that the historical and genealogical communities can do to preserve at least some vestige of our past.

Once when I was a young man, I attended a lecture on Polish ethnicity. During the question and answer period, one woman in the audience turned to me and said, “We’re losing everything that we built and it’s the fault of you young people. You have to go out and learn the language, keep all of the customs, and return to the home of your father.” Considering the fact that languages go in one ear and out the other, and the fact that I was never exposed to any customs, I had only the option of returning to the home of my father. That was easy because I was single and living with dad at the time.

While it was sound advice on the woman’s part, I don’t think that it is very practical. However, I believe that we all must make some conscious effort to preserve the past in at least some small way.

First, we must document churches, fraternal societies, Masonic organizations, and beneficial societies. We must create a record because too often none exists. Sometimes this can be accomplished by simply photocopying materials like commemorative booklets or programs and distributing them to libraries and archives, so that they will be available for future researchers.

Second, when writing our family histories, we should try to incorporate historical circumstances to show what communities were like in the past, what people did, and why they did it.

Lastly, we should try to retrace the steps of our forefathers to see where they lived, worshipped, and socialized. Anyone interested in taking part in a walking tour of part of Lawrenceville is invited to show up on September 8th at 10 a.m. by Pittsburgh Brewing Company. Wear comfortable walking shoes and let’s walk.

Thank you and good night.