How many social service agencies have been included in a script by a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner?
While you ponder that question, get ready for a momentous commemoration; the Hill House Association is marking 50 years of service to the Hill District community.
The Hill House Association as we know is a result of a merger of its predecessors: the Irene Kaufmann Settlement House, the Anna B. Heldman and Soho settlement houses with the Hill City Youth Municipality.
The Pittsburgh Courier’s coverage indicated this new paradigm was greeted with much skepticism, especially since some said there was a lack of residential input and it was being promoted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the same entity many held responsible for the dismantling of the lower Hill District.
The Courier reported the following: Residents complained of not being sufficiently informed on the proposed redevelopment of the Hill District. Suspicion was voiced on the rezoning of a large tract in the Herron Avenue, Wandless, Morgan area from residential to commercial. Gladys Coffey, chair of the Wesley Center Community Civic Action Committee said, “We feel that with these recreational and social institutions closing down, a vacuum is left in the community. We do not say that Hill House cannot fully serve our needs, but we feel that even before these centers are closed down, we should be assured that the functions of the former agencies which have become a part of the lives of a great many persons in the Hill we be continued at least until a proper adjustment is made.”
As development picked up steam, the URA retained the services of professionals, among them community organizer Bernard H. Jones, to assist and cooperate with residents in overall efforts to improve the physical conditions in the middle Hill District and neighboring communities. They would communicate with residents, assemble additional data and work with various operating agencies and citizen groups toward development of both immediate and long-range improvement plans for the Hill District community.
Like it or not, the Hill House was what the community was left with. It was a hard sale and it would have to produce results in a community in the crosshairs of urban renewal. After a less than congenial start, the association began to make it’s mark.
In April 1965, the Courier broke a story that “The Hill District would get a new $400k building in the next 2-3 years at a location to be determined.”
Situated in the heart of the Hill on Centre Avenue, the Hill House Association is a vital link to social service agencies, day care, youth programming and senior services. It is the hub of the hill in that various groups and organization conduct meetings in the facility. HHA began to build credibility with it constituents.
“The HHA continued to provide many of the types of positive, uplifting programming for the resident’s of Hill District youth and adults that made the Hill City Youth Municipality a nationally acclaimed program,” shared Ronald Saunders, a fixture in the Hill. “For an example when my dad James S. Robinson Jr. was the director of Hill City he was successful in integrating and implementing an inter-neighborhood affairs council for the purpose of creating better understanding among people in the community. James Henry, longtime former director of the Hill House Association also duplicated and implemented similar types of programs, councils and committees at the Hill House Association which impacted the lives of the Hill District residents in various ways.”
Today’s Hill House Association continues to provide in the traditions of its predecessors, offering services and activities that have a positive impact of the quality of life in the Hill District and the surrounding communities. Some of those include early learning and youth programming, senior services and workforce development.
One of the blessings the Hill House Association can count on is the devotion of those who grew up in the community and long time residents
“I’ve remained in The Hill as a resident and business owner because of the deeply rooted cultural vibe of the people,” says Bomani Howze. “The Hill is like no other neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh. From Reed & Roberts to Sugar Top, from Whiteside Road to Burrows, despite the naming of these villages and the attempts to “voucher” our people out, we remain a tight knit self determined community.”
