‘We all stayed.’ Penn Hills, once a suburban landing pad for Black households, now risks disinvestment and erasure of history.

Aaron Tipton, a longtime resident of Penn Hills’ Travella Boulevard, stands for a portrait on Thursday, May 30, 2024, outside of the home he grew up in and lives in today. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource) Pirates great Willie Stargell was one of many of Black Pittsburgh’s leading figures who looked east for homeownership. Penn Hills residents wonder if the community built in the 1950s and 1960s can be preserved. “PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region. Sign up for our free newsletters.” by David S. Rotenstein, PublicSource June 13, 2024 Willie Stargell joined the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1962, 15 years after Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball’s color barrier. Six years later, Stargell bought a modest ranch house on Doak Street in Penn Hills. His choice was no accident. Since the 1920s, the western part of Penn Hills has been a preferred destination for Pittsburgh’s Black middle class. In the last century, Black Pittsburghers beat a path eastward, from the Hill District, through Homewood and into Penn Hills. “It was a pretty decent community with, you know, Black affluent people,” said Aaron Tipton, a Black man in his late 50s who grew up (and still lives) in...