When the Penn-Lincoln Hotel opened in Wilkinsburg in 1927, the six-story, 70,000-square-foot building was billed as “Pittsburgh’s Most Modern Suburban Hotel.”
Located along busy Penn Avenue at Center Street a few blocks away from the Wilkinsburg train station before the Parkway East was built, its 150 rooms were in a prime location for travelers visiting Pittsburgh by rail and by Route 30, the Lincoln Highway.
But over the years, American mobility changed.
Train service diminished and eventually was eliminated, the interstate highway opened in the late 1950s, and the hotel fell on hard times and was converted into an apartment building. It closed and fell into such disrepair that it was demolished in 2014.
Now, construction is expected to begin later this year on a new project that community leaders hope will spark additional development in the borough.
Action Housing Inc. and Hosanna House are collaborating on a plan that will put a 41-unit apartment building on the vacant lot with 12,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor. After consulting with a design advisory committee, Penn-Lincoln Apartments will have a design that pays homage to the original hotel, said James Eash, real estate development director for Action Housing.
“There are a lot of common design features that we will include,” Eash said.
For example, the new building will use the same style of red bricks. The main portion of the building will front on Penn Avenue at five stories, then step down to three stories, similar to the original. If the agency can raise additional funds, the new building also will have a large Penn-Lincoln sign on its roof, just like its predecessor.
Hotel history
According to the website abandonedonline.net, plans for the hotel began in September 1925 after a survey showed there would be strong interest in a hotel in Wilkinsburg.
More than 120 local business owners agreed to pursue the hotel and appointed a 21-member committee to oversee the project after a meeting at Dudley’s tea room. The group hired architect Benno Janssen of Janssen & Cocken, who worked on projects such as an addition to Kaufmann’s department store, the William Penn Hotel and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in Oakland, to design the hotel.
The facility was built for $850,000 and included a ballroom, a dining room and a coffee shop. It was dedicated after a four-day ceremony that ended June 2, 1927.
For several decades, the hotel thrived, but as the Eisenhower administration’s interstate highway system took hold and train service decreased, the location was no longer an advantage. The site continued as apartments and offices until the last tenant, Anna Nowak, closed her beauty shop in 1993 after 50 years.
Several unsuccessful attempts were made to revitalize the building; a 2010 study by the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development determined that there was little market interest in the building because it needed more than $10 million worth of repairs. It was torn down at a cost of $580,715 in 2015.
Long road back
Action Housing and Hosanna House, a community service organization, have been developing plans for the apartment building for the past five years.
They worked with the community on the design and have been cobbling together financing for the estimated $27 million project. Two recent grants have closed the gap substantially.
“We’re really close,” Eash said. “We’re at the point where we think we’ll be there in June.”
On March 6, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, announced the project had received a federal grant of $1.7 million to help with construction costs.
“The project will remediate blight and return a long-vacant site to its historic role as an important commercial gateway for Wilkinsburg while providing safe, secure, affordable housing and supportive services to the community’s most vulnerable populations,” Larry Swanson, executive director of Action Housing, said in a news release.
The other grant, announced March 26 by state Rep. Abigail Salisbury, D-Swissvale, commits $397,310 in state multimodal funds to improve sidewalks and address other accessibility issues around the apartment building site.
“That was a state avenue we were hoping would come through,” Eash said. “That will be a big help around the site.”
The apartments will be 100% affordable housing for people with 20% to 60% of the median income in the borough, and all of them will be accessible to people with disabilities. Eash emphasized the agency is putting a priority on family housing, a key need in Wilkinsburg, so the building will have 20 apartments with one bedroom, 12 with two bedrooms and nine with three bedrooms.
The building also will have staffing to connect residents with social services they may need.
There have been preliminary talks with possible tenants in the commercial space, but Eash said no one has signed a lease yet. Construction should take about 16 months, so the building could open by the end of 2025.
Steve Hellner-Burris, chief operating officer for Hosanna House, said the apartment project is important to the community service agency because it is located nearby, it will provide construction jobs initially and permanent jobs in the commercial space, and it should serve as “a catalyst” for other new development in the borough’s business district.
“If you take a look at a map, that site literally is right in the middle of the business district,” said Hellner-Burris, a 30-year resident of the borough. “When was the last time someone spent $27 million in Wilkinsburg? I can’t remember.”
Tracey Evans, executive director of the Wilkinsburg Development Corp., said her agency isn’t directly involved in the apartment project but considers it an important step in Wilkinsburg’s future. That project, along with the ongoing renovation of the former train station and the historic Lohr Building a few blocks away, will set a base for renewed interest in the borough, she said.
“We think things are looking up,” she said.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.