The empty lot covered in overgrown weeds and billowing plastic bags down the street used to be a house. A home.

Back then, you could always tell when breakfast was being made by the smell of slightly burnt toast wafting out of an open window. Moments later, you'd spot a man drinking coffee on the front porch while reading the newspaper. He'd tip his hat and wave to you as his daughter came springing out the front door in her favorite pink dress. Finally, the mother would join them, handing her daughter a packed lunch before she skips off to school. The Hill District was a beautiful, vibrant place to live.

By 1937 the neighborhood had been categorized as a "slum." The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation described a "concentration of negros and undesirables" as “Detrimental Influences” on the neighborhood. This designation perpetuated a cycle of redlining and white flight that would contribute to the rapid deterioration of the neighborhood This was only the beginning, though.

In 1943, City Councilmember George Evans described the Hill District as “one of the most outstanding examples in Pittsburgh of neighborhood deterioration […] Approximately 90% of the buildings in the area are sub-standard and have long outlived their usefulness, and so there would be no social loss if they were all destroyed.”1 And so began the dismantling of homes and livelihoods. Residents of the Lower Hill were promised compensation and rehousing, but such assistance never occurred.

“From 1955 to 1963, the City of Pittsburgh implemented a redevelopment movement to remove the Hill District. The Pittsburgh Redevelopment Movement viewed the mostly African American Hill District as a barrier to the city's modernization.”2

On April 4, 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, which spurred American cities to explode in grief and mourning. Some protestors expressed their frustrations with intense demonstrations of resistance. Riots broke out in the Hill District, causing further damage to a neighborhood already purposefully decaying.

Today, the fight to restore the Hill District to its former glory continues. Residents who have lived through this history work to be good stewards of the vacant land that used to house their grandparents, neighbors, or even themselves. These stewards spend their own time cleaning up litter, pulling weeds, maintaining an urban farm, or simply doing their best to bring back the vibrancy they saw while growing up. Grounded compensates these folks as part of our CommunityCare program, which currently has a group of 14 stewards in the Hill District. Previously, we had full programs in Wilkinsburg, Larimer, and Homewood but, unfortunately, only had enough funding this year to cover a few stewards in each of these neighborhoods.

We are looking to you, our friends and supporters, to help Grounded maintain core operations. With those basics covered, we can return our focus to collaborating with resident stewards in multiple hypervacant communities in the City of Pittsburgh. Stewards are doing the work to help fill the void that these vacant lots have created; something that should be the responsibility of the City but has instead fallen on the shoulders of residents.

It's not only the Hill District - it's each community in the City of Pittsburgh that's been condemned to suffer because of historically racist laws and regulations.

And these aren't only vacant lots - they're empty frames that hold what once was and can still be.

Meet the Stewards