Braddock Church Residences
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The last few months have seen significant progress on MVI’s Braddock Church Residences, the eight-unit, mixed-income apartment complex being built in a 130-year-old church.
In the spring, crews completed environmental remediation, including asbestos and lead abatement. Since then, new plumbing, electrical systems, and HVAC have been installed in the interior. After being power washed, the exterior facade’s masonry was repointed, and the roof of the church was repaired.
Drywall hanging is now complete, giving a full view of what the apartments will ultimately look like, and crews are working on the front steps and accessible ramp.
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Mon Valley Initiative’s Braddock Church Residences $2.9 million project will bring eight units of mixed-income housing to Braddock and restore a church built in 1893. The eight apartments will include one- and two-bedroom units, six of which will be reserved for individuals or families at or below 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) and two of which will be market rate.
In 2019, the building was listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. As such, the project will preserve much of the unique character of the building, including original chandeliers, several stained-glass windows, and the pipe organ, which will be preserved but decommissioned.
The units will be next door to the Braddock Carnegie Library, an important community institution, and a block from Braddock’s primary business corridor. The extensive renovation of the Braddock Carnegie Library is taking place simultaneously, and MVI had previously developed single-family homes located in the same area. This latest project builds upon the transformation of the block by providing important affordable housing opportunities, adding to those that MVI already owns across the region.
Funding for Braddock Church Residences is being provided by First National Bank through tax credit investments, with additional financial support from Allegheny County Department of Economic Development, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Keystone Communities Program and Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program, United States National Parks Service Historic Preservation Tax Credits, Krupp Family Foundation, Allegheny Foundation, Dollar Bank Foundation, Hillman Foundation, and Mon Valley Initiative.
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In 1893, it was surely no accident that the congregation of the First United Presbyterian Church of Braddock built a new church next door to the Carnegie Free Library of Braddock, the crown jewel of the community, which was undergoing substantial expansion the same year.
Presbyterianism in Pennsylvania was strongly associated with families of Scottish origin who sought freedom from religious persecution in the United States. With such deep roots in the Scottish community, the United Presbyterian denomination had special status in Braddock, a community built on the investments of Andrew Carnegie.
The prestige of Carnegie’s gift would have equaled or elevated the church’s own. In fact, the two buildings shared a direct connection to Carnegie: the 1964 church history records that its pipe organ was a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, who also placed one in the Braddock Library music hall the same year. The church remained in use by the First United Presbyterian congregation until 2017.
Once the congregation of the First United Presbyterian Church of Braddock dwindled to only a dozen people, church leadership asked MVI to acquire their lovingly maintained property to ensure it would be preserved. It has a prominent location in the community next to the first Carnegie Free Library of Braddock, which was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 2012.
