Abstract
Nestled in Pittsburgh’s East End Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood is the Belmar Gardens housing cooperative. At its inception, the community was celebrated as a solution for middle-income African American families who found themselves shut out of home ownership by discrimination in unwelcoming white neighborhoods. The revolutionary project was backed by a federally secured mortgage and was modeled on the recent success of the Merrick Park Gardens housing cooperative in New York. Home amenities would include “an integral garage … hardwood floors … venetian blinds, tile bathrooms with both tub and shower, [and] ample closets with sliding doors.” Construction began in 1953, and the first residents arrived in late 1954.
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