BGC Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation. Changing lives and neighborhoods since 1976.
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BGC doorwayThe Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC) seeks to better the social, economic, and physical fabric of the Bloomfield, Garfield, and Friendship neighborhoods by engaging and inspiring members of the community. Community-based and board-driven, one of the BGC's main goals is to get as many people in the community as possible to participate in efforts aimed at physical revitalization, an improved economy, and strengthened social well-being.playground

OUR UNITED WAY CONTRIBUTOR CHOICE NUMBER IS 260

History Back to top

On November 1, 1975 at St. Lawrence O’Toole Roman Catholic Church in Garfield, the Rev. Leo Henry gathered parishioners, business people, and residents of the Bloomfield and Garfield neighborhoods. As he observed a community spiraling downward from a decade of physical and economic decline, he felt compelled to do something to address its future. Projects On Penn

Father Henry challenged his audience that night to help him launch a community organization that could confront the neighborhood’s growing problems. Scores of volunteers would help drive a program of advocacy, planning, and revitalization activity in the Penn Avenue commercial district and the surrounding neighborhoods. Using the sale of $5 membership “shares,”, he made each person a stockholder in this new engine for change. Over 500 of those shares would be sold in the weeks and months to come, and the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation was officially born in January of 1976. That month, Father Henry also launched the Bloomfield-Garfield Bulletin, a community newspaper to "promote a spirit of community." With the community behind it, the BGC began work to reverse the neighborhood’s decline.  Progress was fast-moving, and in its first year, the BGC not only turned back plans for a methadone treatment center in the heart of the business district, but it also secured $85,000 from Pittsburgh City Council to invest in the commercial district.

Since those early successes, the BGC has continued to fight for the health of the community:

1978 - Penn Avenue revitalization begins as residents and business owners commit over $2.5 million in deposits for Equibank to open the first branch banking office on Penn Avenue since the Great Depression. Other victories followed with the opening of a pharmacy, a dairy store, and an auto repair shop.
1981 - The BGC becomes the first community group in Pittsburgh to receive an allotment of federal community block grant funds from City Council for the purpose of hiring its own staff.
1982 - Construction of new, single-family homes on hundreds of vacant lots in Garfield begins.
1984 - St. Margaret Memorial Hospital in Aspinwall opens a family medical center in a vacant storefront at the corner of Penn and S. Evaline Street. That center, under the leadership of Dr. Ann McGaffey, now sees over 600 patients from the community each month in a modern facility next door to St. Lawrence O'Toole Church at 5321 Penn.
1986 - The first million-dollar investment to Penn Avenue is over 20 years begins as a vacant commercial laundry at Penn and N. Atlantic is converted into Champion Commons, a first-class office building.
1988 - A vacant school building next to St. Lawrence O'Toole Church is renovated and converted into the Laurentian Hall Apartments for seniors.
1989 - The BCG spins off the Friendship Development Associates (FDA) to address the decline of the housing market in that neighborhood.
1990 - The BGC begins renovations to a 10-unit apartment building at 205 S. Millvale Ave. and the construction of 12 for-sale townhomes at Mossfield Court in Garfield.
1991 - BGC buys a half-vacant, former laundry plant at Penn and N. Mathilda Street and adds four new commercial tenants, including the first live-performance theater in the district.
1994 - A vacant church on N. Pacific Avenue in Garfield is transformed into the Community Activity Center. The BCG and local residents also create the Garfield Youth Sports that year, offering football and cheerleading programs every fall for more than 180 boys and girls from Garfield and other East End neighborhoods.
1995 - The BGC begins its relationship with the City of Pittsburgh to provide employment placement services for teens and young adults in the community.
1996 - Three major projects are commenced to provide affordable housing for the residents of Garfield: with cooperation of the the Highland Park CDC, a vacant mansion and carriage house at 5635 Stanton Avenue is transformed into 11 affordable rental units; the Negley Place Neighborhood Alliance works with the BGC in converting a Victorian house at 5548 Hays Street into three condominium units; and FDA helps in the purchase and conversion of four historic row houses in the 5400 block of Penn into six spacious rental units for families.
1997 - The Penn Avenue Arts Initiative (PAAI) is born, and with it the chance for the BGC and the Friendship Development Associates to emphasize the arts as a route toward revitalization of the commercial district. A number of artists and small entrepreneurs tap into a pool of loans and grants offered by the PAAI to do interior or exterior improvements to buildings in the 4800 to 5500 blocks of Penn Avenue.
2000 - The BGC and Garfield Jubilee Association complete a neighborhood plan that provides the impetus for construction of 50 new, single-family homes in Garfield.
2004 - Provision of expanded after-school and summer programs by the BGC for students at Fort Pitt Elementary and Peabody High schools become possible, thanks to a contract with a new East End nonprofit, Wireless Neighborhoods.
2006 - Construction is completed on 60 apartments for low-income seniors who were relocated from two public-housing high-rises - the Penn Fairmont Apartments. Also included in the space are 7,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor, which the FDA will own and manage.
2007 - The site of the closed St. Joseph's Nursing Home on Penn Avenue becomes a new facility for the Children's Home of Pittsburgh.
Champion in Action." With Lawrenceville Corporation, Friendship Development Associates, and East Liberty Development Inc., the BGC launches the East End Partnership, a community development collaboration to work on revitalization strategies for the four diverse communities. The first director of the Partnership is hired. A plan developed in 2000 - see above - to build 50 new single-family homes in Garfield enters its final phase, with 31 houses developed and 29 of those sold.
2009 - In collaboration with Garfield Jubilee Association, the BGC spearheads the Garfield Neighborhood Plan, a 20-year housing and land-use plan to promote long-term sustainability for the neighborhood of Garfield. The BGC hosts a record 90 young people in summer jobs through a contract with the City of Pittsburgh. The BGC Youth Development Center opens a new office at 5321 Penn Avenue, a space it shares with a community partner, the Eastside Neighborhood Employment Center.
2010 - The Garfield Neighborhood Plan is unveiled. This 20-year plan, which was created with extensive community input, provides a road map for future development in the neighborhood of Garfield through the year 2030.

 

To download a copy of our 2009 Annual Report to Members, please click here.

 

Staff and Board Back to top

Community Development Office Staff

Richard Swartz, Executive Director
Aggie Brose, Deputy Director

Kathryn Vargas, Assistant to the Deputy Director
Mary Anne Stevanus, Bookkeeper/Office Manager

Jeffrey Boykin, Office Assistant

Michael Rebinski, Intern
Paula Martinac, Marketing/Communications Manager; Editor, The Bulletin
Martin Pochapin, Ad Representative, The Bulletin

Youth Development Center Staff

Richard Flanagan, Youth Development Director
Jose Rodriguez, Community Learns Program
Charis Rose, Out-of-School Employment Program Coordinator
Mary Bray, In-School Employment Program Coordinator
Justin Davis, Employment Program Coordinator
Joseph Breems, Program Assistant
Nicole Henninger, Program Assistant
Maria Graziani, Program Assistant

2009-2010 Board of Directors

Jason Wilburn, President
P.J. Maloney, Vice President
Catherine Curry, Treasurer

Kenya Boswell
Bill Cornell
Freddie Croce
Eileen Kraus Dobratz
John Florio
Brad Hlavach

Jeff Joyce
James F. Maloney
James H. Moore
Jamita Poston
Felisa Preston
Laura Staniland

Resources Back to top

In the mid 1990s, the BGC bought a 19th-century church – the former Pacific Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church at the corner of North Pacific Avenue and Dearborn Street – and turned it into the Bloomfield-Garfield Community Activity Center, which is used by many of our youth programs. At the Center, BGC youth clients have access to two computer labs with high-speed Internet connection. The Center is also the site of many other BGC functions, including public meetings and holiday programs, such as an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day event and a neighborhood Christmas party. It's also available for other community organizations and neighborhood families at low rental rates. (For rental information, call 412-441-6950 x 11.)

The Community Center will undergo a combination of infrastructure and cosmetic improvements through a three-phase construction schedule. EDGE Studio on Penn Avenue has completed preliminary design work, funded by the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh.

Community Partners Back to top

The BGC partners with other community-based groups to help create change in Pittsburgh's East End. In 2008, the BGC joined with three other community development corporations to create the East End Partnership, a new community development collaboration to work on revitalization strategies for the diverse communities of the East End.

Our partners include:

East Liberty Development Inc.
Liberty Bank Building, Suite 201
6101 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206-3924
412-361-8061
412-362-3231 [fax]
www.eastliberty.org

www.eastlibertypost.com

Friendship Development Associates Inc.
5530 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
412-441-6147
412-441-6149 [fax]
www.friendship-pgh.org

Friendship Preservation Group
P.O. Box 9180
Pittsburgh, PA 15224-0180
www.friendship-pgh.org

Garfield Jubilee Association Inc.
5138 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
412-665-5200
www.garfieldjubilee.org

Lawrenceville Corporation
5170 Butler Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15201
412-782-5100
412-782-5422 [fax]
www.lawrencevillecorp.com

Lawrenceville United
4825 Butler Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15201
412-802-7220
www.lunited.org

Penn Avenue Arts Initiative
5530 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
412-441-6147
412-441-6149 [fax]
www.pennavenuearts.org
 

 © 2009 Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation History Staff and Board Resources Community Partners