Bethel Park’s Coverdale neighborhood receives historic designation

For most young men, Friday nights often mean heading out for a night on the town instead of staying home to chat with an elderly neighbor.

Robert McCormick remembers telling a friend that he was choosing the latter option.

“He looked at me like I was dead crazy,” the Bethel Park resident said.

But that was par for McCormick’s course. He spent plenty of time listening to longtime residents of his Coverdale neighborhood, named for the coal mine that once operated there, talk about its past and entrusting him with its posterity.

“It was told to me that this was my job, to tell the story after they had gone,” he said. “I promised them that, and I take that very seriously.”

His mission to fulfill the pledge reached a milestone with the Oct. 22 unveiling of a plaque heralding the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s designation of Coverdale as a historic district, recognizing its significance as housing for coal miners’ families dating back to 1920.

Joining McCormick for the proceedings in Miners Memorial Park were neighborhood residents who share his preservation interests and have worked with him in collecting local memorabilia and organizing events, including one marking a century since Coverdale’s founding.

“For years, and especially at the hundredth-anniversary celebration, I heard the same thing over and over and over: This place needs to be a historic district,” McCormick said. “Today, that thought is a reality. Let this plaque be a reminder of the important place Coverdale is.”

He provided an update regarding efforts to establish a Coal Town Preserve in a house he owns at 2856 Cherry St. Plans call for a one-day opening to the public in the summer of 2025.

Otherwise, visits will be handled in a manner befitting Coverdale’s heritage.

“We are going to do things a little bit the old-fashioned way. There is no Facebook, no website, no drama,” McCormick said, explaining that prospective guests are asked to write letters to the Cherry Street address. “In return, we will send you an invitation into our home.”

His son, Collin, spoke prior to the plaque unveiling about what visitors can expect.

“Local history really is cherished memories that happened in your kitchen, your bathroom, your bedroom, your backyard,” he said. “The Coal Town Preserve is supposed to serve as an immersive form of this, where you can go through and you can grab the things that people a hundred years ago might have grabbed, the things that they thought were futuristic but then we think now are Jurassic.

“The hope for us is to keep that alive for as many years as possible.”