Lawrenceville History

Lawrenceville, one of the city's largest neighborhoods, is also one of Pittsburgh's oldest. Lawrenceville's 11,000 residents represent a changing mix of established families, whose parents and grandparents moved to Pittsburgh in the late 1800s to work in the factories.

Lawrenceville sits on the site of the former Lenape (Delaware) tribe village. Its earliest identity was as "Shannopin's Town," when it was surveyed, like many other Pittsburgh neighborhoods, by George Washington. The neighborhood became Lawrenceville when William B. Foster—father of Stephen Foster of "Oh, Susannah" fame—plotted out the land. Foster sold some of the land to the U.S. Government to build a munitions factory for the Union Army during the Civil War. At the peak of operations, the factory employed 1,200 Pittsburghers, but tragedy struck in 1862 when an explosion killed about 80 people. A monument stands in their honor in the Allegheny Cemetery, as well as the Foster family burial site.

From the mid-1800s to the 1950s, industry boomed in Lawrenceville. Immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Poland, Croatia and Serbia came to find jobs in the factories dotting the Allegheny River and to build a better life for their families. Today, residents and business owners in Lawrenceville take pride in their rich heritage and are working to restore the buildings to their original splendor.

Today, you'll find young professionals, artists and musicians living in the neighborhood, thanks to architectural gems and affordable homes.