Like most American Rust Belt towns settled by European immigrant laborers, Pittsburgh in the early 20th century was a deeply religious place where ornate Romanesque and Gothic chapels, churches and cathedrals rose in nearly every corner of the city. But partly as a result of the steel industry's collapse, Pittsburgh's population (now just over 300,000) has been in decline for decades, and congregations have been abandoning their grand old churches in search of smaller and more affordable spaces. Along the way, some of the Steel City's savviest entrepreneurs have been purchasing many of Pittsburgh's disused churches and adapting them into clubs, restaurants, theaters and concert venues.
The latest edition is the Braddock Community Cafe, which in late 2012 was installed on the ground floor of the former First Presbyterian Church of Braddock, a squat stone structure now known as the Nyia Page Community Center. In the city's suburban South Hills, Overbrook Presbyterian Church was transformed less than a decade ago into the Church Recording Studio, a music production facility.
A look at Pittsburgh's many reused churches, in fact, remains a unique way of exploring the city. A chapel tour of the area, for instance, could include a sing-along session at Charlie Murdoch's Dueling Piano Bar (inside a century-old Presbyterian church built for Ukrainian immigrants), a pottery class at the Union Project (a community education center in the former Union Baptist Church) or even a visit to the Sphinx Cafe, a hookah bar in a rundown former church of unknown provenance in the city's university district.
Hotels, too, have gotten in on the act. The Priory Hotel's 42 rooms are within the former St. Mary's Priory, built in 1888 for Benedictine monks. The family-owned boutique hotel is home to the pint-sized Monks' Bar, known as the smallest pub in Pennsylvania, and the aptly named Grand Hall, a sumptuous event space featuring restored Austrian stained glass windows. In 2011, an ad agency executive and his wife, Edward and Mary Ann Graf, also historic preservation hobbyists, spent $2.7 million upgrading the property, adding 17 guest rooms.
For many business owners and developers, it makes economic sense to creatively adapt these old churches, especially in densely populated areas where demolition and reconstruction could prove difficult, said Arthur Ziegler Jr., the president of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. That's the case at Church Brew Works, an award-winning brewpub within the meticulously restored St. John the Baptist Church, where microbrews with names like Pious Monk Dunkel are known as some of the finest in the city.
In Pittsburgh's tourist-friendly Strip District, a neighborhood filled with ethnic grocery stores and nightclubs, the Altar Bar is another Catholic chapel turned midsize concert hall. It has been hosting touring rock bands since 2009. The 650-capacity room, inside the former St. Elizabeth Church, features a wraparound mezzanine, two bars and vaulted ceilings. The late 19th century brick building's previous incarnation was a nightclub called Sanctuary, where cocktail servers wore stiletto heels and revealing Catholic schoolgirl uniforms.
"We took a little liberty with how short the skirts were," said Michael Pitterich, the owner of both clubs. "The diocese wasn't real happy about that."