Polish Hill, where you are now, is one of the most intact ethnic immigrant neighborhoods surviving in Pittsburgh. The church before you — St. Stanislaus Kostka — was built in 1892 by Polish immigrants who had come to work in Pittsburgh's steel mills and wanted a parish where Mass would be said in their own language. The church's twin towers are visible from much of Pittsburgh, a statement of permanence by a community that had arrived with almost nothing.
Polish Hill sits on a steep promontory above the Strip District and the Allegheny River, a location that gave it isolation but made daily life an exercise in climbing. At its peak in the early twentieth century, Polish Hill was home to thousands of Polish steelworkers and their families, with their own stores, clubs, and social organizations. The steel collapse hit this neighborhood hard.
Many families left. But the church still stands, the houses still cling to the hillside, and the neighborhood carries the memory of the men who crossed the ocean to tend Pittsburgh's furnaces.