Above, Lanark Street in Fineview in 1994. The houses had suffered many unsympathetic alterations, but they were inhabited. After this picture was taken, Fineview declined to probably its lowest point; several of the houses vanished. But the decline hit bottom about fifteen or twenty years ago.
Here is almost the same view in 2026. The houses that remain have been neatly renovated, and the street seems healthy and happy again.
Here is the view that gives Fineview its name. The neighborhood was originally called Nunnery Hill, but neighborhood business interests petitioned the city to change the name in 1915. The Fineview Overlook on Catoma Street at Lanark Street is difficult to find even if you know where you’re going, but the view is worth it.
This little church—now converted to a private home—presents a bricky front to the world in a typically Pittsburgh Romanesque style.
But the front is only a few feet deep; it is attached to a modest frame building.
A New Deal housing project built on the site of the abandoned Andrews mansion in Fineview. Construction began in 1940; the architects were Marks, Fisher & Simboli.1 The first tenants moved in at the end of 1942. The buildings have been updated, and the grounds are neatly kept.
When the complex was nearly ready to open, it was noted in the papers that the manager, Rose Marie Demestitchas, was the first woman ever appointed manager by the Housing Authority.
When the complex opened, America had entered the Second World War, and most spots were reserved for defense workers.
Although preference will be given to war workers, the housing authority officials urge others from sub-standard homes to register in the event there is room for them.…
“Preference will be given to war workers who come here from other districts and are living in temporary or unsatisfactory quarters,” Supervisor [Saul] Weisberg said. “Also first opportunity for the new homes will go to defense workers living an unreasonable commuting distance from their employment—men whose daily round-trip from home to job takes more than two hours or costs more than 40 cents.”2
Most of the houses along the right are gone now, perhaps destroyed by a fire; one of the remnants has been so tastelessly mutilated that destruction might have been kinder. There is now a little park with an overlook at the bottom of this street. Fineview is an odd Pittsburgh phenomenon: a working-class neighborhood with cheap houses and magnificent views. In most other cities, the views would have driven house prices into the astronomical range, and houses would be destroyed to be replaced with luxury condos instead of vacant lots. But Pittsburgh has so many magnificent views that the demand simply cannot outpace the supply—at least not yet.
