News Around the Neighborhood
The 2016 AWCC Executive Committee
The 2015 Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour
We Still Need Your Help
The 2015 tour will be on Friday, December 11th from 5:00-8:00 pm, and Saturday, December 12th from 10:00 am-8:00 pm. Tour tickets are now $35 and Train Museum tickets are now $15.
Ticket Sales
Continue to encourage friends, relatives and coworkers to attend the tour. To purchase tickets, or for more details, check our website.
Training for Tour Guides and Train Guides
All guides are asked to make every effort to attend a training session—there are 4 new houses on the tour this year!
Tour Guides
Wednesday, 12/9 from 6:00-7:00 pm at Calvary UMC (Beech Avenue entrance)
or
Thursday, 12/10 from 6:00-7:00 pm at Calvary UMC
Train Guides
Wednesday, 12/9 at 7:30-8:30 pm at Holmes Hall, (719 Brighton Road)
Greens “Bunching” and Street Decorating
We will be decorating the streets on Saturday, December 5th, starting at 9:00 am. Volunteers will be bunching greens to create the lamppost swags in the Serventi/Wilson garage on Dounton Way. This is a fun way to get in the holiday spirit—and we can finish quickly with 20 volunteers.
Clean-up
Also on Saturday, December 5th, join your neighbors and pick up litter and leaves around the neighborhood (and in front of your house!) If each of us fills just one bag, our streets will be clean!
Cookies for Party
Please contact Trish Burton if you can bake two dozen cookies for the volunteer party.
More Ways to Help!
There are many opportunities to volunteer. During the tour, be a greeter at Calvary, a tour guide, a house sitter for a homeowner on tour, a conductor at the train museum or be ready to help tour houses with salting and shoveling should we get snow that weekend. Or, help with the volunteer party or set up the luminaria. If each of us helps in just one way, then our neighbors don’t have to do all the work to make this, our biggest fundraiser (that pays for all of our fun events, as well as preservation activities), successful. AND, you get to attend the party!
Volunteer Party
All volunteers are invited to our Holiday Party. This year, Carol Gomrick and Brett Kempf at 940 W North Avenue will host on Saturday, December 12th, beginning at 9:00 pm. This will be a “seventh” house for volunteers to get to see, and it’s a gem! To help with party, please contact Carrie Doyle at (412) 337-6020.
December Street Cleaning
The City street sweeper will come through again this week, weather permitting (date TBA). You can help by moving your car from the street or sweeping the leaves to the middle to be picked up…or sweep and bag leaves in case the sweeper doesn’t come!
Thank you for helping to make our neighborhood look its best.
December Street Closings
Thank you for your cooperation. The streets are only closed for 1¼ days, and allow tour visitors to safely move through the neighborhood.
Residents of the 800 and 900 blocks of Beech Avenue; the 800 block of North Lincoln; and Galveston from Buttercup Way to Dounton Way, and from Maolis Way to North Lincoln.
The above streets will be closed to traffic and parking on Friday, December 11th, from 4:00 pm until 11:00 pm, and on Saturday, December 12th, from 9:00 am until 11:00 pm for the 2015 Christmas Tour. This is done to protect the safety of all of us. Pedestrians will be walking on the streets during these times.
If you park on these streets, please find an off-street spot for parking during the tour. The following lots will be available:
- The Babb Lot on the corner of North Lincoln and Galveston – enter from Chapel Way (must exit by midnight, Saturday, December 12th)
- The CCAC Lot on Ridge Avenue across from the Fort Duquesne Bridge ramp
- The Smart Solutions lot on the 800 block of West North
A Wonderful Place to Call Home
Submitted by Fran Barbush
When Tom and I moved to Allegheny West in 1976 we were unfamiliar with the community that existed beyond our doorsteps. Manchester and the Mexican War streets were getting the historic attention in Pittsburgh. We felt we were lucky to find this little known gem of a neighborhood which needed some TLC. Our interest began by meeting Gary Otto who was already here working on his home.
But, we were still surprised to learn of the active community when Larry Ehrlich knocked on our door looking for volunteers for the neighborhood Springfest. At the time the most urgent challenge was to keep the community standing since so many entities felt that their important “cause” justified demolition of buildings. This ultimately led to our successful city, state, and national historic district designation. The prevailing sentiment being that without the buildings there would be no neighborhood.
There have been many challenges, and varied strong opinions which were not always unanimous, but through years of voluntary efforts the neighborhood has grown stronger. Thank you to all the helpers who work to make Allegheny West a wonderful place to call home. Tom and I still think it is the best place to spend Christmas. A line from a song I learned in college is something I reflect on when times are troubled – “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
Wishing you all peace now and in the new year.
Neighborhood Cleanup Winter Break
There will be no regularly scheduled last-Saturday-of-the-month neighborhood cleanups from December through March 2016. Cleanups will start again with the warmer weather in April.
Help is needed in cleaning up the neighborhood for the Victorian House Tour on Friday, December 11th and Saturday, December 12th. If you can get out to pick up street litter as close to the time of the tours as possible, including early Saturday morning, that would be very beneficial to the neighborhood as well as our guests.
Free Tickets for Northsiders: The Pittsburgh Moth GrandSLAM
Presented by The Moth
December 5th | 8:00 pm
The Moth presents the GrandSLAM, a battle of wits and words – fierce, hilarious, heartbreaking and all points between. Listen as ten StorySLAM champs tell Stories of No Turning Back, Seizing the Day, Dares and Double Dares, Psyching Yourself Up, Striking While the Iron is Hot or simply, What the Hell, May as Well.
The Moth is dedicated to finding intriguing people to tell inspired stories. At The Moth StorySLAM, those people find us. On this night, using words as weapons, they compete to determine The Moth’s Pittsburgh GrandSLAM Story Champion.
The storytellers are: Todd Shaffer, Tim Sommers, Tristan Reid, Catherine Palmer, Torrey Shineman, Krish Mohan, Derek Minto, David Montgomery, Laura Wimberley, and John Dick Winters.
You’re Invited
Thanks to the generous support of the Buhl Foundation, Northside residents and workers are invited to attend this performance for free. A limited number of tickets are available online, so reserve your seat today.
[ebor_button style=”pumpkin” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-pittsburgh-moth-grandslam-now-or-never-tickets-19711147573″] December 5 at 8:00 pm [/ebor_button]
Free Tickets for Northsiders: Live From Studio A
Presented by Scott Anderson and Andrew Swenson
December 3rd | 7:00 pm
The Live From Studio A band reunites for a special holiday concert. Join us for an evening of seasonal favorites and some of the most requested songs from the Holiday Jam archives.
Starring
Pete Hewlett, Lisa Bleil, Scott Anderson
Reunite with the ORIGINAL Live From Studio A Band
Eric DeFade, Dave Brown, Brian Stahurski, Joe Waslousky
Also featuring
Benny Benack, Joe Herndon, Bob Matchett
With Special Guests
Johnny Angel and Shari Richards
You’re Invited
Thanks to the generous support of the Buhl Foundation, Northside residents and workers are invited to attend this performance for free. A limited number of tickets are available online, so reserve your seat today.
[ebor_button style=”blue” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-from-studio-a-holiday-jam-reunion-tickets-19711111465″] December 3 at 7:00 pm [/ebor_button]
Free Tickets for Northsiders: No More! Project
Presented by Uniqu’ Performing Arts
November 21st | 7:30 pm
Say “No more!” to violence, peer pressure, abuse and suicide. This culturally relevant and timely production boldly faces issues plaguing our youth.
The N.M.P. tours nationally and has received many testimonials from young people who desire to change their lives for the better, as well as from parents thanking the Project for allowing them to see things that their children go through from their children’s perspectives, in a creative yet truthful light.
You’re Invited
Thanks to the generous support of the Buhl Foundation, Northside residents and workers are invited to attend this performance for free. A limited number of tickets are available online, so reserve your seat today.
[ebor_button style=”pumpkin” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-no-more-project-tickets-19336696580″] November 21 at 7:30 pm [/ebor_button]
Free Tickets for Northsiders: Remainder | Northside
Presented by Attack Theatre
November 13th and 14th
A world premiere contemporary dance performance inspired by a year of conversation and collaboration with Northside youth that uncovered treasure chests and concrete footsteps, and rebelled against the rules.
The performance will feature live music by Attack Theatre’s music director Dave Eggar and New York-based musician and producer Chuck Palmer. This project is made possible in part by the Henry C. Frick Educational Fund of The Buhl Foundation and The McKinney Charitable Foundation of the PNC Charitable Trust.
You’re Invited
Thanks to the generous support of the Buhl Foundation, Northside residents and workers are invited to attend this performance for free. A limited number of tickets are available online, so reserve your seat today.
[ebor_button style=”midnight” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/remainder-northside-tickets-19302982741″] November 13 at 8:00 pm [/ebor_button] [ebor_button style=”midnight” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/remainder-northside-sat-nov-14-2pm-tickets-19302993774″] November 14 at 2:00 pm [/ebor_button] [ebor_button style=”midnight” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/remainder-northside-sat-nov-14-8pm-tickets-19303030885″] November 14 at 8:00 pm [/ebor_button]