Butler Street, Lawrenceville

More than a century after the Pittsburgh native Stephen Foster – perhaps the greatest American songwriter of the 19th century – wrote this, his words ring true.

Yet residents of Lawrenceville, the area where Foster was born and raised, are hoping that, in this recession, the hardest of times might pass them by. After all, no less an authority than Richard Florida, the urban studies theorist, has called their community “an example of the kind of place that can be a ‘next neighbourhood’.”

Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and professor of business and creativity at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, knows Lawrenceville well. Before decamping to Canada he was on the faculty of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. He did the research for the book that made his name, The Rise of the Creative Class there, and he thinks Lawrenceville – with its inexpensive housing stock, growing number of restaurants, bars, arts outlets and specialty shops – has what it takes to attract and keep precisely the type of people he describes in that book – the designers, engineers, technology workers and artists he sees as the drivers of contemporary economic growth.

Lawrenceville stretches long and relatively narrow along the southern bank of the Allegheny River, just minutes to the north-east of Pittsburgh’s city centre, and is bounded to the south by the high ground above the river valley. It is an old area, with housing that reflects its former role as a dormitory town for the workforce of the industries that lined the riverbank when the city was engaged in national steel production.

The smoke-belching mills and heavy industry departed in the 1970s and 1980s, ushering in plenty of hard times. One result of de-industrialisation was de-population: Pittsburgh was home to 677,000 people in 1950; today that figure is just over 300,000.

But the air is clearer now and the city has regrouped around its concentration of urban universities, research facilities, hospitals, health services and the headquarters of eight Fortune 500 companies. And, in a way, the departure of the big industrial employers was actually a boon, allowing Pittsburgh to avoid the latest, massive rounds of layoffs and downsizings that have brought many Rust Belt cities to their knees.

It has also managed to dodge a severe crisis in the property market. Although RealtyTrac figures show that Law­renceville’s foreclosure rates did increase significantly between 2007 and 2008, estate agents say sales are holding up and the neighbourhood is relatively free of “for sale” signs.

Among those who have found their way to Lawrenceville is the dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts, Hillary Robinson. Originally from the English city of Oxford, she arrived after 13 years at Belfast’s University of Ulster, where she was latterly head of the School of Art and Design. “I went on instinct,” she says of her choice of neighbourhood.

The 2,300 sq ft loft apartment she bought in February 2006 was the first place she looked at and she was instantly captivated by its green construction credentials and its terrace, which gives a view of the city centre. Although the immediate area lacks some basic amenities, such as a supermarket, she liked the location – just 15 minutes from her favourite cinema – and the local mix of restaurants, bars and shops – including, she says, “an old-fashioned hat store”.

Although Robinson will not say exactly how much she paid, she acknowledges it was the highest-priced property in the neighbourhood at the time. Still, its value has risen since, thanks to growing demand. This has come particularly from the arts community, including Robinson’s own fellow faculty members, arts students and the curator of the museum devoted to Andy Warhol, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh.

Employees of local businesses might also start to flood in. Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center has a big facility on the east edge of the neighbourhood and there are several business incubators with robotics start-ups. The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, a renowned pediatric facility operated by the University of Pittsburgh, is opening its new campus in the area in May and is expected to draw dozens of physicians and support staff who want to live close to work.

The Lawrenceville Corporation, a non-profit-making community development agency, markets the neighbourhood, promoting site-sensitive design and assisting in the upgrading of blighted buildings. One of its latest aims, for example, is to open access to the riverfront, now largely blocked by the remains of old industrial facilities and warehouses. Executive director Maureen Ford acknowledges that attracting new, affluent buyers while also retaining “mom-and-pop retailers” and keeping house prices low will be difficult. “I don’t have an answer for that yet,” she says.

Yet Lawrenceville seems to be finding the right balance so far. Unlike some parts of Pittsburgh, where massive urban renewal efforts made historic neighbourhoods look like anodyne suburbs (Florida calls them “urban removal” projects), Lawrenceville retains its character, especially along the main commercial artery, Butler Street. In fact, one of the area’s main attractions is the old Allegheny Cemetery, a 300-acre tract stretching from Butler Street up toward the heights that mark its upper boundary. An urban wildlife preserve, it is a popular area for walking and it holds the remains of Foster – whose life and music are commemorated with a “Do-Dah Days” festival on the grounds each summer.

Directly across from the cemetery’s entrance is the Platinum beauty salon, one of many new businesses migrating to Lawrenceville alongside new residents. Its owner, Paul Soha, moved from another, pricier neighbourhood in March 2008, paying $325,000 for his building, which also includes three rental apartments, then spending another $100,000 on renovations. He says the area’s affordability and growing population makes it perfect for start-up ventures. “Almost everybody who’s opened has stayed open,” he says – and his own business is strong in spite of the recession.

Julie Treemarchi of Howard Hanna Real Estate, which represented Soha, expects the influx to continue, not least because Lawrenceville properties are relative bargains. She cites an older four-bedroom, one-bathroom, renovated brick row-house close to the new children’s hospital campus with an asking price of $72,000, as well as a three-bedroom, two-bathroom property with a finished basement and attic listed at $129,000. “It’s a good neighbourhood for young, first-time buyers,” she says. And, even in this economic climate, “our market is good and busy”.

For a more urban feel, Prudential Preferred Realty is selling a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,500 sq ft loft above a store on Butler Street featuring hardwood floors, exposed brick walls and a private porch for $209,000, while Howard Hanna has a one-bedroom, one-bathroom loft in Robinson’s building, the Blackbird Lofts, listed at $269,000. At the higher end Coldwell Banker Real Estate is offering a three-storey renovated 109-year-old brick house with four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a formal dining room, full basement and detached two-car garage at $335,000.

For urbanist Florida, Lawrenceville and Pittsburgh face the same challenge: to attract and hold enough of the new “creative class”, building a critical mass and taking advantage of the new geography of work. Success at this will be the key to ensuring that the hard times really do “come again no more”.

Henry Hamman is an FT correspondent based in Tennessee, US

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Estate agencies

Coldwell Banker Real Estate, +1 412521 2222, www.coldwellbanker.com
Howard Hanna Real Estate, tel: +1 412818 7924, www.howardhanna.com
Prudential Preferred Realty, tel: +1 412521 5500, www.prudentialpreferredrealty.com