Manchester Historic District

Built between about 1860 and 1900, the Manchester Historic District in Pittsburgh is a dense group of brick, stone and frame houses arranged in row, semi-detached and individual form along a gridiron street pattern. Most structures are two or three stories with mansard or pitched roofs. Sheffield Street displays mansard roofs with cast iron cresting, rock-faced lintels and ornate porches, while Liverpool Street has semi-detached houses with jig-saw porches. Several larger mansions on Pennsylvania Avenue and Liverpool Street include a Second Empire house and a Gothic mansion from about 1870. The area developed as housing for workers at nearby mills and factories, including the Hall and Speer Plough Works and Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works. It declined from the turn of the century into the 1960s. A restoration program by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh has since sought to preserve its Victorian architecture while keeping costs low for owners.