More than 30 Polish Hill businesses stood chock-a-block on Brereton Street in 1930, complemented by storefronts on side streets, including Dobson. In 1960, Polish Hill’s business district still boasted more than 15 shops.

Today, Dobson has a trio of retail in one building — Lili Cafe, Copacetic Comics and Mind Cure Records — and Brereton’s active businesses have dwindled to a handful.

The Storefront Project’s fourth installment takes a current and historic look at Brereton Street in Polish Hill.

See it at newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/storefront-polishhill

Since launching in 2011, this series has featured the history and transition of storefronts on a portion of Centre Avenue in the Hill District, the Central North Side’s Mexican War Streets and several blocks of Broadway Avenue in Beechview.

The years 1930, 1960, 1997 and the present have been chosen for each installment to show how urban retail has responded to transitions in both population and demographic diversity. The Polish Hill Civic Association and especially staff member Leslie Clague have provided old photographs and historic narratives that document the changes on Brereton Street over the past 85 years.

In 1930, Pittsburgh was near the height of its density, and the businesses in the 3000-3200 blocks of Brereton included eight grocers and butchers, four confectioners (candy and convenience stores), two hardware stores, a theater, two dry goods stores, two tailors, a fruit market, two shoe stores with shoe repair, a baker, a pharmacy and a barber.

In 1960, the population shift from urban areas to the suburbs had already begun. That year, Brereton still had five grocers, three confectioners, a barber, a tailor, a couple of taverns, a luncheonette, a dry goods store and one of the two hardware stores that had stood in 1930.

By 1997, the street’s retail had been reduced to a market, a hardware store and a bar. As in many city neighborhoods, its few walkable retail operations were hanging in there rather than thriving. Most former storefronts were converted into residences.

Dee Kwasniewski McNorgan was born and grew up in Polish Hill. She remembers the neighborhood in the 1940s and ’50s, when “you never had to leave. We had everything — doctors, dentists, shoe stores, clothes stores — you name it. We had an A&P [supermarket] and an old-fashioned drug store, with soda fountain.”

She remembers Okonski’s, which was at 3208 Brereton in 1960, from her childhood. That means the butcher was in business in the 1950s and possibly in the ’40s.

“When a lot of the women started driving, they would go off Polish Hill to the new big grocery stores,” said Ms. McNorgan, who moved to Santa Ana, Calif., in 1963 and has lived there ever since.

One of the last of the old-time retailers on the street closed in the mid-2000s. Mostowy Hardware at 3105 Brereton had done business there for decades. Zielinsky’s Hardware had occupied that site in 1930 and was still there in 1960. 

The 2010 Census reported Polish Hill’s population as 1,274. In the past five years, the neighborhood has seen a small resurgence of investment among homeowners, landlords and retailers. 

The most recent transitions have come in the past year, when Sarney’s Bar closed at 3055 Brereton and reopened as Pope’s Place, a bar with a dress code, and Alfred’s Deli at 3041 opened as Alfred’s Deli and Market.

Anna Misiaszek remains the owner of the market, but her daughter Natalie and Leia Nachele, a Polish Hill resident, helped redirect its focus. The store reopened in August after a renovation that strongly suggests how much Polish Hill has changed since the days when Ms. Misiaszek and her husband, Alfred, operated it and spoke Polish with most of their customers. It still sells pierogis but also selective produce, and gluten-free and specialty groceries along with more conventional canned, frozen and boxed foods.

Two currently active storefronts do not keep regular weekday hours. Posy, a flower and gift shop at 3101 Brereton, is open by appointment, and the Jubilee Pantry, a food club at 3103, caters to elderly and home-bound residents and to walk-ins from the 15219 ZIP code twice a month.

Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.

First Published: February 1, 2015, 5:00 a.m.