Fountain Street Overlook to open with a scenic view of Pittsburgh

To look at the new greenspace on the wooded slope between Fountain and Henderson Streets, directly behind Allegheny General Hospital on Pittsburgh’s North Side, one might find it difficult to imagine the working class neighborhood that once existed there.

Houses owned by the mill and factory workers when Pittsburgh’s population was double what it is today covered the area as recently as the 1950s and 60s. When those houses deteriorated and were torn down, it left behind exposed foundations and they became illegal dumping grounds filled with trash and invasive weeds.

But after a cleanup effort that began a year ago and removed literally tons of trash, the nonprofit organization Scenic Pittsburgh is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday. It will celebrate the unveiling of the Fountain Street Overlook — a new publicly accessible 2.2-acre greenspace in the city’s Fineview neighborhood.

The area looks out across the rivers and affords a view of the Fort Pitt Bridge and Mt. Washington.

“What has happened for the last 50 years is that people dump here because they think the property has no value,” said former Allegheny County Commissioner and current executive director of Scenic Pittsburgh Mike Dawida.

“The property has value and we are showing it and we hope that with this ribbon cutting, the community will benefit from this and instead of going to Mt. Washington to look at the view, you might come to the North Side to Fineview,” he said.

Some of the land involved is owned by Scenic Pittsburgh, with the rest being leased by the nonprofit from the City of Pittsburgh. The site can be reached via stairs on Fountain Street near the intersection of Sandusky Street. Scenic Pittsburgh is also establishing a trail that can be accessed at the site.

“I’m really proud of this project,” said Scenic Pittsburgh assistant director Dave Demko. “It’s a chance to get back to nature from the urban environment.”

Dawida said, however, that more needs to be done including flattening out the trail.

“When I first came up here it was impossible to walk here. It was a mess. It’s even hard for me to comprehend that it’s now a trail,” said Dawida. “It’s a place where you can walk your dog, look at the sunset. It’s going to be very useful in the community.”

Tuesday’s ceremony is open to the public and will include members of the greenspace restoration partnership that has worked to clean up and open the site, including Allegheny Cleanways, Grounded, and Landforce, as well as the Fineview and Perry Hilltop Citizens Councils.

Allegheny Cleanways executive director Myrna Newman said at first she wasn’t seeing the same potential for the site that others were.

“I thought there was a great view but I wasn’t really seeing what they were seeing until we started cleaning it up and they started putting in paths — and this is where that partnership comes in — it started becoming this really cool overlook area,” said Newman. “It’s a really cool place.”

The partnership is currently working on another site on Lanark Street, also in the Fineview neighborhood, with the opening planned for this fall. A third project is in develop in the Hill District.

Scenic Pittsburgh has received funding for the restoration of the Fountain Street Overlook from the Laurel Foundation and Colcom Foundation as well as a joint grant from Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and Allegheny Health Network.

“These greenspaces that can be reclaimed as assets, this is a legacy of a lot of post-industrial cities,” said Scenic Pittsburgh communications and outreach director Kate Angell. “Most of them used to have much bigger populations and there were houses on a lot of these spaces.

“Some spaces can be repurposed as housing and businesses but some places are just not suitable for that. This is a really good example. ”

In April, the Scenic Pittsburgh staff planted 50 native maple viburnum bushes that they hope will discourage invasive weeds and start to restore the balance of native plant life to the site. The bushes and protective tubes were donated by the Keystone 10 Million Trees partnership.

Dawida said there is more to do to make the Fountain Street Overlook as beautiful as it can be and he will continue to seek funding to improve and maintain it.

“We think that this could be a model for the whole country,” said Dawida who is also chairman of the board for Scenic America.

The Fountain Street Overlook will be open from dawn to dusk.