Erie's Midtown Neighborhood Growing

 Erie's Midtown Neighborhood Growing 

Article Written: December 8, 2022 at 10:45 AM

Map of the Midtown neighborhood in East Erie
Midtown, Erie, Pennsylvania

The story of Midtown Erie is a success story, from a once struggling crime ridden neighboorhood in the city, to a safe, calm, beautiful and newly developed homes always being planned for the neighborhood. Midtown was founded in 1953 and ran from Holland Street to Parade Street between East 12th Street and East 14th Streets in East Erie. The neighborhood was known for it's many churches, the Erie Farm Products Company and being in close proximity to Watson Paper Company where many residents in Midtown worked at. Overtime, the factories closed, the churches relocated and many homes in the area became abandoned and condemned. Plans to revitalize Midtown came in 2007 to demolish the abandoned factories, houses and churches in the neighborhood, as a result, HANDS stepped in and demolished some of the former church properties and replaced them with newly built houses and apartment buildings. A few abandoned factories in Midtown were demolished in 2009. New houses were built all along the 200 block of East 13th Street, 300 block of East 13th Street, 300 block of East 14th Street and the 1300 block of German Street in East Erie. In 2019, the Midtown Revitalization Plan came into full effect, as more abandoned houses and abandoned buildings were demolished. Also in 2019, a monument was added to the vacant land by the City of Erie at  1301 Holland Street in Midtown, the moument was named Fruits of Labor, and the land became known as Fruits of Labor Park. In 2020, HANDS built a brand new six-tenant townhouse apartment at 331 East 12th Street in the Midtown neighborhood of East Erie, the same year, a three-tenant townhouse apartment was built at 1326 Parade Street in East Erie. The former Almark Wholesale Company at 1318 Parade Street, which was left abandoned since 1984 was converted into a maintenance office owned by HANDS for the Midtown Apartment buildings. The City of Erie then purchased a vacant lot at 1326 German Street in Midtown and converted the lot into a park, naming the park "Midtown Park" in 2021. The City added a soccer field to the park and plans to add a playground and picnic shelters in the future. Also in 2021, EMTA officially held a grand opening for their new headquarters that was built at 238 East 14th Street in Midtown, the EMTA office was moved from West Bayfront Parkway in Erie to 127 East 14th Street in East Erie, a new parking garage was also built for the staff. HANDS is also planning on building a new apartment townhouse in the empty lot in the 200 block of East 13th Street if plans work out, HANDS told us this isn't it for Midtown.  "Midtown Erie isn't just gonna be all apartments, we plan on building a row of business in the 1300 block of Parade Street, we just recently demolished a vacant house at 1302 Parade with plans to demolish an unused parking lot to build the row of businesses, Midtown Erie is gonna be a safe place to live and work once again the more it grows in the future." says Timothy Althof, the director of HANDS.