Descend the steps behind the bus shelter on the left at 18th & Mission. These 102 steps drop down to 21st St. To return to the registration area, make a right at the bottom of the steps.
StepTrek Route: Blackroute_2018
Black Route 2018
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Join Gold Route
To join Gold Route, stop at S. 18th St. Please see Gold Route map and directions.
To return to start, see next section.
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Mission St. Continued
Stay on Mission. After the first bridge is the Mission St. pumping station circa 1900, which delivers water into the neighborhood and surrounding area. An initiative in 2009 brightened this area by replacing existing street lighting with higher wattage lamps. To continue to finish and Gold Route, cross the second bridge built in 1939 as a project of the Public Works Administration under FDR. That’s South Side Park below and rising up the hill to your left. Continue to 18th St.
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* St. Josaphat Church
Dedicated in 1916, the Roman Catholic Church was built to serve a Polish parish established in 1901. The building is Romanesque with a Byzantium influence evident in the arches, pillars and bell tower. The main altar held relics of St. Josaphat. Beneath the choir balcony hung a picture of the Black Madonna. The church closed permanently after a section of ceiling collapsed about the casket of the last caretaker during his funeral mass. The church is being converted into multiple living units.
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Mission St.
Turn left. Across the street is the former St. Josaphat Church.
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Sterling St.
Cross to stop sign and make right to descend these 64 steps that were built in 1951. Continue down to Mission Street.
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Holt St. continued
Descend the 44 wooden steps that were rebuilt in 1999 to Sterling St.
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* The Dirty Dozen
Each November, Pittsburgh hosts a 50-mile bike race that goes up 13 of its steepest hills. Eleanor St. is one of the Dirty Dozen. Take a look up the street to get a sense of the vertical climb. Another is Welsh Way on the Gold Route.
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Holt St. continued
Continue past Eleanor St. and keep right.
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* SSSNA Founding
Just after 49 Holt St. is an open lot. A fire here destroyed three homes on Memorial Day weekend 1997. Alarmed by the inability of a standard fire truck to negotiate the narrow streets and sharp turns, a group of residents joined forces to create the South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association and lobby the city for smaller fire trucks. The city adopted the new design, and now a number of smaller fire trucks serve hillside neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh.