Walk back Montour Way to where it intersects with Strawberry Way, and you’ll drop through a hole in time back to the Pittsburgh of two hundred years ago. These little houses, improbably nestled among the skyscrapers, have somehow survived everything that has happened to downtown Pittsburgh since the birth of the skyscraper in the late 1800s. Even more improbably, one of them now holds a clothing store so exclusive that it can face a forgotten alley and nobody has to know about it.
In the background of the last picture, you can see the looming shrouded bulk of Henry Hornbostel’s Smithfield United Church, which is currently undergoing restoration.
This forgotten corner of old Pittsburgh is just a short walk from either the Wood Street subway station or the Ross Street exit of the Steel Plaza subway station.
Father Pitt 