Bloomfield (Pittsburgh)
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Bloomfield is a neighborhood in the East End of the City of Pittsburgh; it is located some three miles from the Golden Triangle that is the City's heart. Bloomfield is currently known as Pittsburgh's Little Italy, and in the words of Pittsburgh architectural historian Franklin Toker "is a feast, as rich to the eyes as the homemade tortellini and cannoli in its shop windows are to the stomach." It is a decidedly urban neighborhood, with narrow streets and alleys packed with rowhouses crossing the business district on Liberty Avenue.
Bloomfield appears to have been an independent borough prior to its annexation by the City of Pittsburgh in 1868. The land here was claimed from the native Delaware tribe by Casper Taub, one of the area's earliest European settlers. Taub sold the land to his son-in-law John Conrad Winebiddle, whose descendants then broke it into lots and sold it beginning around the time of the 1868 annexation.
In the decades following 1868, Bloomfield was settled by German Catholic immigrants, who built St. Joseph's Church in 1886. Beginning around 1900, these were joined by Italians from five towns in the Abruzzi region, who formed Immaculate Conception Parish in 1905 (that church was rebuilt in its present form in 1961). Descendants from both groups, with the Italians outnumbering the Germans, still give the neighborhood its character today.
This character can perhaps best be described as earthy, gritty, close-knit, and proud: as local author Chris Potter puts it, "Bloomfield has always taken pride in its modest working-class aspirations and a lack of...upper-class trappings." The local rowhouses, constructed mostly of wooden frames covered long ago by aluminum siding, have unpretentious exteriors that often conceal contain lovingly maintained interiors. The business district along Liberty Avenue puts most of life's necessities, and several luxuries, within an easy walk of Bloomfield residents: besides the two churches and West Penn Hospital, there are many bars and restaurants, one supermarket and two Italian markets, plus tanning and hair salons, gifts and card shops, several gyms, a barber shop, two cobblers, a sweeper repair shop, and much more. Several Asian restaurants and specialty stores have opened along Liberty Avenue in recent years, as the national trend towards immigration reaches even the slow-growing Pittsburgh area.
Bloomfield sits on a plateau above the Allegheny River, and is bordered by Penn Avenue on the north, the East Busway on the south, 40th Street on the west, and Gross Street on the east. This last boundary is somewhat disputed – most residents believe that Bloomfield abuts the neighborhood of Friendship at Gross Street, where the provincial frame rowhouses give way to stand-alone brick Victorian homes that grow larger on each street heading east. The City of Pittsburgh, however, claims that Bloomfield extends east as far as Graham Street. The East Busway is set in a valley that separates Bloomfield from the Hill District; the two neighborhoods are within sight of one another, but are connected only by the Bloomfield Bridge, which spans this gap.
The Bloomfield Bridge played a role in the life of the Baltimore Colts' Hall of Fame quarterback, Pittsburgh native Johnny Unitas. After being cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1955, Unitas played one season for the semipro Bloomfield Rams on Dean's Field under the bridge. Unitas has passed away, and the semipro league has long since folded, but Dean's Field and the Bloomfield Rams still exist. The field is now part of a recreational complex, and Immaculate Conception grade school calls its teams the Rams.