PITTSBURGH: An Explorer's Guide

D U T C H T O W N

In 1900, Pittsburgh had three daily newspapers in German. All the big department stores downtown hired German-speaking clerks and took out German ads in the German newspapers. Many neighborhoods, especially on the North Side (then the independent city of Allegheny), were almost entirely German. But one in particular was associated in the minds of Pittsburghers with Germans: Dutchtown, also known as Swiss Hole. (In spite of what revisionist historians might tell you, it was never "Deutschtown"; "Dutch" is the original English word for German, and it held on as an alternative term through the 19th century.)

Officially East Allegheny, Dutchtown today is an odd mix. One street might be broken-down and decrepit, but a block away there might be trendy jazz clubs or beautifully restored rowhouses. The legacy of the old German inhabitants is everywhere, though, as are many of their descendants. They no longer speak German in public (the last German daily newspaper in Pittsburgh lasted only a few weeks after Germany declared war on the United States in 1941), but they still cook the same food and go to the same churches.
 

German was the language of Dutchtown until the 1930s.

Imanuel's Evangelical Church, now Methodist, has proclaimed its German heritage in big white letters since 1889.
 
 

A Victorian commercial building.

East Ohio Street, the lively business district of Dutchtown, shows the German influence in many of its well-preserved Victorian commercial buildings.
 
 

Emmanuel Lutheran Church

The German inhabitants of Dutchtown brought their religions with them, and many of their descendants are still faithful--Roman Catholic, two flavors of Lutheran, and Evangelical.
 
 

Trendy clubs and restaurants dot the back streets.

Trendy restaurants and clubs have sprouted here and there in the back streets. The James Street Tavern is famous for traditional jazz and blues; the Pittsburgh Banjo Club plays there every week.
 

Penn Brewery.

The old Eberhardt and Ober brewery is now the Penn Brewery, whose productions are admired by connoisseurs the world over. The restaurant serves German food, of course.
 
 

These rowhouses have suffered from every siding fad.

On the back streets of Dutchtown, you can see every form of ugly siding ever invented by mistaken human ingenuity.
 
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Copyright 1999 by Christopher Bailey.