History
Iconic Landmark, Modern Luxury
When you live in Market Square Place, you’re part of the story of Downtown Pittsburgh’s heritage and renewal.
The unique luxury apartment building was previously the famous G.C. Murphy store, which was made up of more than four buildings combined. The buildings were connected by steel frame on the design of G.C. Murphy’s then-head architect Harold Crosby to create the block-long building with entry on both of the prestigious Fifth and Forbes (then called Diamond Street) Avenues.
For over 80 years, the Mckeesport-based G.C. Murphy Co. was a regional chain of 5-and-10 stores that served communities across the eastern and midwestern United States. It was one of the first models of a department or variety store.
The Downtown G.C. Murphy was the 170th store to open and was touted as the “World’s Largest and Finest Store of its Kind” when it opened in 1930. At its peak, the store had over 375 employees at service counters throughout the building selling everything from sporting goods to cosmetics to toys to fertilizer and everything in between. It also offered its famed lunch counter and a 200-foot long soda fountain on the entry floor, with the additional departments with their mahogany countertops on the upper floors.
G.C. Murphy Co. Downtown was an iconic destination for shoppers. It was architecturally beautiful, bringing together the signature values of Pittsburgh architecture of its time with industrialism and craftsmanship in its concrete floors, arched windows, soaring ceilings, and intricate facade. A 2000 article by Albert Tanner for the Tribute Review included a glowing description of the significance of the art deco facade:
“Above the third-floor windows, a band of half-circles (the rising sun?) peak out from the behind triangles decorated with cubes and tiny triangles tinted salmon and green. Above, four frozen fountains jet upward past the roof line from a bed of lush vegetation. Panels of stylized ferns and flowers dot the facade.”
The Next Chapter
G.C. Murphy was sold in the 1980s and with the looming threat of the building’s demolition, Piatt Companies (then called Millcraft) saw the opportunity for revitalization of the beautiful property and purchased it for renewal into an apartment community with retail on the ground floor. Since its transformation in 2009, Market Square Place has consistently exemplified the value of preserving Downtown’s historic architecture while infusing new life into the urban landscape.
The history of the building’s roots is seen throughout the current living community, whether the historical photos that line the walls, having to take a few seemingly random stairs created when the buildings were combined, or the illuminated letters from the G.C. Murphy sign in the common community space. Join us in writing the next chapter of the building’s life.