AUGUST WILSON’S
HILL DISTRICT TOUR
Community and University
Honors Social Justice Seminar
Spring 2013
1712 Bedford Avenue – Site of Fences
• Thought to be the site of
Fences (set in 1950s)
• Former home of famous
boxer Charlie Burley
• Wilson’s grandmother’s
house
1727 Bedford Avenue –Wilson Childhood Home
• Frederick August Kittel, Jr.,
one of seven children, lived
in the rear of this building
• Front half of the building was
a storefront
• Setting of the play Seven
Guitars, set in 1948
• Daisy Wilson Artist
Community to refurbish the
home
Miller African Centered Academy
• Once the McKelvy School
• Pernell’s school in King
Hedley II
• Former home of the
Pittsburgh Crawfords
• Just over 300 students
• 97% African American
• 96% eligible for free or
reduced-price lunches
2215 Wylie Avenue – West Funeral Home
• West Funeral Home has been
operating for almost a century
• Mentioned both in The Piano
Lesson and Two Trains Running
• Thomas West, Sr., is an important
character in Two Trains Running
• One of the oldest continuously
running businesses in the Hill
District
2172 Wylie Avenue – Eddie’s Restaurant
• August Wilson worked at Eddie’s
• Unofficial center of Hill District’s
literary and dramatic community
• Inspiration for Memphis Lee’s
restaurant in Two Trains Running
• Many patrons operated on a tab
system
• Torn down in November 2007
2141 Wylie Avenue – Crawford Grill
• Night spot, restaurant, jazz club,
and hangout
• Owned and operated by Gus
Greenlee, the “Numbers King” of
the Hill District
• Mentioned in Fences and King
Hedley II
• Closed in 2002
2046 Wylie Avenue – Site of Jitney
• One of many jitney stations that
operated in the Hill
• Still an important mode of
transportation in today’s Hill
District
• “A perfect place for a play” –
August Wilson
1839 Wylie Avenue – Aunt Ester’s House
• Aunt Ester is a 285-year-old woman
central to many plays of the
Pittsburgh Cycle, including Gem of
the Ocean and Radio Golf
• Came to America with earliest
slaves
• Aunt Ester = “ancestor”
1835 Centre Avenue – Hill House Association
• Traces its heritage to the Anna B.
Heldman and Soho settlement
houses, which helped immigrants
and black migrants settle in the Hill
District (people like August
Wilson’s family)
• Association created in 1964 as a
product of the Civil Rights
Movement
• “Empowering individuals to
change, become models for their
family, and gradually reweave the
community’s social fabric”
• Headquarters completed in 1972
2007 Centre Avenue – New Granada Theater
• Built in 1928, designed by Louis
Bellinger
• Remodeled in 1937 as movie
theater and jazz club
• Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald,
Count Basie, and Cab Calloway
performed there
2145 Centre Avenue – Lutz’s Meat Market
• Mr. Lutz plays a central and symbolic
role in Two Trains Running
• Polish, white man, a reminder that the
Hill District was once a very diverse
neighborhood
• Sold the business after 1968 riots
2250 Centre Avenue – Weil School
• Black Horizon Theater (1968)
• August Wilson directed his first plays
at this building
• School still in use today
Photo by “Teenie” Harris