![Stairway down to the Grand Concourse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Stairway%2C_Grand_Concourse%2C_2024-01-07%2C_01.jpg/400px-Stairway%2C_Grand_Concourse%2C_2024-01-07%2C_01.jpg)
The stairway from the Smithfield Street Bridge down into the Grand Concourse of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie railroad station.
The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad had its shops just down the hill from this building, so here is a railroad men’s YMCA, now turned into an office building.
RAILROAD
YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN
ASSOCIATION
The inscription was probably spelled out in bronze letters; when they were removed, they left legible ghosts behind.
The cornerstone tells us that the building was put up in 1905.
Addendum: The building was under the supervision of Chief Engineer J. A. Atwood, who may have designed it. Source: Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide, January 4, 1905: “At McKees Rocks, Allegheny county, the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad Company will erect a building for the Y. M. C. A.. Bids will be received until January 15th by Chief Engineer J. A. Atwood.”
The old Pittsburgh and Lake Erie station, now the centerpiece of the Station Square entertainment district, with the Monongahela Incline in the background.
Although the angle is distorted here by a telephoto lens, the building is not rectangular. A satellite view reveals the odd shape.
A view of the interior, now a restaurant called the Grand Concourse, is here.