Like many towns surrounding Pittsburgh, shops shuttered and many packed their bags in Coraopolis after the steel industry began to die towards the end of the 20th century. About half an hour away from the former Steel City, Coraopolis is receiving fresh attention. Within the last few years, passionate nonprofits and entrepreneurs have set out to bring Coraopolis back to its former glory—the borough had the first high-speed electric streetcar in the country. Downtown storefronts that sat vacant for years are now home to trendy boutiques next to nail salons and antique shops. Though it’s a town less than two miles across with a population of about 5,500, there’s an immense sense of pride among its residents. “Ninety percent of the businesses give back,” says Alana Welch, who took her store, Project Angels Boutique, to brick and mortar in downtown Coraopolis two years ago. “We love what we do, so it’s easy.”
The Coraopolis Take on Fifth Avenue Shopping
Developers and entrepreneurs have been breathing life back into the buildings that sat vacant in Coraopolis’ historic downtown until the last few years. Downtown encompasses Fourth and Fifth Avenues, with stylish boutiques, beauty salons, yoga studios, toy stores, game shops and even a couple of oddities and metaphysical supply stores. Historic downtown also contains one of the few remaining original main streets in Pittsburgh, and the area’s antiquity is evident in the cobblestones of nearby streets like Mulberry. While the area is certainly growing, some things—for the better—haven’t changed. City parking is still only a quarter for an hour.
The area’s antique shops draw a large crowd, with residents on the lookout for hidden treasure in stores like Emma Jean’s Relics or Off the Avenue Antiques. Happy hours and live music at local restaurants on balmy evenings and girls' night shopping events at avenue boutiques stir up more interest and traffic in downtown Coraopolis. “There’s not anything like it in terms of businesses,” says Welch.
Festivals and concerts bring business back downtown
The Coraopolis Community Development Corporation (CCDC)—one of the leading champions for growth in the borough—takes credit for two of the community’s biggest events. The Second Saturdays concert series of the summer brings everyone who wasn’t already going to be Downtown to Mill Street, which connects Fourth and Fifth Avenues. Store owners host exclusive sales, hungry concert-goers dig into mid-day meals from local food trucks and live Pittsburgh bands rock out in front of crowds. Once the concert series ends, the community starts prepping for the Coraopolis Fall Festival. The festival is the spookiest place to be before Halloween with pumpkin painting, costume competitions, mini golf, a magic show and tent-or-treat.
The newly opened AHN Montour Sports Complex just east of the borough hosts the Pittsburgh Riverhounds professional soccer team, whose games draw a crowd at the center’s new, FIFA regulation-sized soccer fields. Families and friends cheer their favorite players on in little and adult league games and tournaments.
The Coraopolis Train Station Project
Besides planning summer concerts and festivals, the CCDC has taken on one of the community’s largest redevelopment projects: the former Coraopolis Train Station. Its Richardsonian Romanesque design landed the train station on the National Register of Historic Places; however, years of vacancy have caused a need for major repairs. The CCDC is working to give the station a second life as a community space and cyclist waystation while preserving its historic architecture. Honoring more recent history, the new gathering space will be named after Coach Fred Milanovich, who coached football and basketball at Coraopolis High School throughout the ‘50s.
The Montour Trail System tours through Pittsburgh
With prime real estate on the banks of the Ohio River, Coraopolis has waterfront parks like the Susie Letteri Riverfront Park and the Broadway and First Park, with benches and a wooden observation deck for optimal views of the river. Just across a parking lot, kids crawl on the playground, shoot hoops on the basketball court and batter up on the baseball field at Shelley Y. Jones Memorial Park while the Ohio River rushes by in the background.
The real star of Coraopolis, though, is the Montour Trail System. Just east of the community’s borders, it’s the country’s longest suburban rail trail at 47 miles just on its main line, leading all the way to Clairton, Pennsylvania on the Monongahela River. It earned Trail of the Year status from the state in 2017.
Classic American homes sit atop Pittsburgh hills
The borough’s gridded residential streets, along with its developing downtown district, lend a more metropolitan feel to this suburban area. Symmetrical American Foursquares and Colonial Revivals with dormer windows perch on the top of hills, overlooking the streets and cars below. With a significant construction sweep in the 1920s, century-old homes cost between $150,000 and $300,000. While the median single-family home price is under $300,000, there are several investment properties in the area as well, with price tags in the five digits. Many properties offer driveways and garages, but drivers who park on the street will get good use out of their parking brakes—the surrounding terrain is quite hilly.
Fourth and Fifth Avenue become 51
Fourth and Fifth Avenue, the setting for the borough's vibrant business community and event scene, run east to west through the entirety of Coraopolis. Immediately outside of the community, they converge to form Pennsylvania Route 51, which runs along the Ohio River and connects to Interstate 79. Cars aren’t the only mode of transportation here, though—BicyclePA Route A runs through the area, connecting Erie, Pennsylvania to Morgantown, West Virginia. Residents can catch the Pittsburgh Regional Transit buses to nearby Sewickley or Moon Township. The borough earns a C-plus for its crime rate from Niche, based on both violent and property crime statistics.
Cornell schools and Robert Morris University
With about 675 students across the entire district, and teachers with an average of ten and a half years of instructional experience, the Cornell School District receives a C-minus from Niche. The "Pittsburgh Business Journal" named the school district the No. 1 Overachieving School District for four years in a row. Cornell High School partners with the University of Pittsburgh and Robert Morris University to provide college-level education to students who are ahead. Robert Morris University is in neighboring Moon Township, and college kids often make their way into the community before crossing over the bridge to the university's athletic complex on Neville Island.
When you hire Marcia Shipley as your real estate agent, you are trusting her with your most important asset, your home. She takes that responsibility personally and has set high expectations for herself in terms of the service she delivers to her customers. Meeting those expectations with a level of honesty and integrity has earned her a reputation as an effective and ethical REALTOR; who cares. Since personal and exceptional service to her Sellers and Buyers is her priority, she limits the number of listings she carries at any given time.
Buying and selling real estate should be an enjoyable experience. She strives every day to achieve that for her clients and has been honored by having past customers, friends and family employ her services and/or refer her to others. In fact, nearly two thirds of her business comes from her sphere of influence or past clients. At the end of each day, she needs to know she did the right thing for everyone involved.
Disclaimer: Certain information contained herein is derived from information provided by parties other than Homes.com. Our sources include: Accuweather, Public Records and Neustar. All information provided is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed to be accurate and should be independently verified.
