Exploring Pittsburgh 2018: East Liberty/East End

Jackie

Luca

Ben

We traveled to East Liberty/East End for our Pittsburgh exploration. It’s adjacent to Shadyside; it’s just northeast of Shadyside. We took the 75 from the bus stop at the corner of Bigelow Boulevard and Fifth Avenue in front of the WPU. We rode the bus for about 15-20 minutes (even though it said it would take around 30 minutes) and got off on Penn Avenue right across the street from the Village of East Side which has a Trader Joe’s, McDonald’s, Staples, and some other stores. 

If you look to the right along Penn Avenue, there’s a large office building with “Google” and “Bakery Square” displayed.

Walking down Penn Avenue past the Google building, we walked into Bakery Square. In Bakery Square, there was a bar/restaurant called Social that was pretty busy even on a weekday night and included an outdoor section where people were drinking and playing games. There was also a coffee shop, Anthropologie, LA Fitness, a massage place, Panera, Jimmy John’s, a Thai place, Verizon, West Elm, a children’s toy store, and some other shops. It was easy to walk around casually and it was well-lit from the colorful lighting and fairy lights which was pretty since it was dark outside. There weren’t too many people walking around in Bakery Square but it was late evening and it seemed like somewhere a lot of people might go during the day on the weekends. 

We walked a little further and came across a baseball field which was connected to a very small but nice park with trees and a walking path called Mellon Spray Park. And right behind it was the Ellis School which is a K-12 all-girls’ school. From there, we took the 71D for about 15 minutes back to Lower Campus. During our trip, we stayed mainly on Penn Avenue and around Bakery Square for our trip but in the opposite direction that we walked, you’d find a cluster few small performing arts theaters (Quantum Theater, Kelly Strayhorn Theater), a Color-Me-Mine ceramics studio, another gym, banks, a few chain pizza/fast food restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, churches, and shopping centers. Scattered around, there’s also a Home Depot, Whole Foods, and a Target in East Liberty/East End. Overall, it is quite corporate but it seems like a nice area that has a variety of places that would be good for clothes, groceries, and shopping.