Historic Nomination | Tito-Mecca-Zizza House

What started as a desire to remediate long-term blight and vacancy is now an exciting opportunity to preserve and tell the history of the Tito-Mecca-Zizza house in Uptown. Thank you to everyone who submitted a letter of support. We are hopeful now that the nomination for historic designation for 1817 Fifth was deemed viable by Pittsburgh’s Historic Review Commission. As we begin to understand what our next steps will be in this process, we’re happy to share more about this unique property, its history, and the family that once lived here.

Key Highlights:

-Joe Tito played a significant role in the Prohibition history of Pittsburgh through his successful transition from bootlegger to a prominent businessman as the owner of Latrobe Brewing Company.

-As a close friend and business partner of Gus Greenlee, the investments of Joe Tito contributed to the success of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, a professional Negro League baseball team, and were instrumental in the construction and operation of Greenlee Field.

-The former Tito garage, now located at 1818 Colwell, became the Latrobe Brewing Company’s first Pittsburgh beer distributorship and was the first known place where Rolling Rock beer sold beginning in 1935.

Read the full nomination here (revised following November 2021 HRC nomination viability hearing).

Special thanks to historian and folklorist, Dr. David Rotenstein for all of his efforts in the research and the conveyance of the historical findings related to these properties. For more information, contact Sabreena Miller at smiller@uptownpartners.org.