The building at 2145 Centre Avenue was, for many years, the home of Lutz\u2019s Meat Market, and the owner\u2019s name is still visible on the building\u2019s cornice.<\/p>\r\n
German immigrant Charles Lutz founded the meat market in 1894 across the street from where he would eventually build a three-story building on the corner of Centre and Elmore Streets. The meat market made up the first floor, and the Lutz family loved on the floors above. Charles ran the shop for 28 and then sold it to his son Karl in 1922.<\/p>\r\n
During the decades surrounding World War II, Lutz\u2019s Meat Market was a popular shopping destination for Black migrants that moved to the Hill. It was known for its quality selection and hiring Black employees as clerks and butchers.<\/p>\r\n
Despite its popularity and the family\u2019s good reputation in the community, Lutz\u2019s was not exempt from tensions during the Civil Rights Movement. During the riots in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr\u2019s assassination in April 1968, many business were ransacked and burned \u2013 Lutz\u2019s included.<\/p>\r\n
Lutz's was a popular shopping destination for residents in the Hill due to its quality selection, and the fact that nearly all of the store\u2019s employees were Black.<\/blockquote>\r\nKarl Lutz decided to retire at 63 years old and sold the business to Cal Cunningham. A Pittsburgh Courier <\/em>article announced the transition and noted, \u201cKarl Lutz will be missed. He was a kind man and taught Cal everything about the business.\u201d Cunningham, a long-time employee and apprentice to Lutz, ran the market for a year before tragically passing of a cerebral hemorrhage. Unable to keep the business alive, his wife closed the market a few years later.<\/p>\r\n
Lutz's Legacy<\/span><\/h3>\r\n
Years later, playwright August Wilson would use the Lutz name for a white shop owner character in his 1990 play Two Trains Running<\/em>. This Lutz character never appears on stage, but complained about by the character Hambone, who is convinced Lutz cheated him out of a pay that was promised. Most August Wilson scholars agree that, while Wilson drew on a familiar name from his past, he did not intend his character to portray the actual Karl Lutz, especially since the fictional business owner did not reflect Karl Lutz\u2019s true character.<\/p>\r\n
More recently, the building has become the home of Nafasi on Centre, a collaboration between the Hill CDC and #ArtsInHD, an initiative of the Hill District Consensus Group. Nafasi on Centre is intended to provide a central hub for innovative artists with Hill District connections; it hosts artist work-space in the basement, a caf\u00e9\/gallery on the first floor, and four 1-bedroom apartments and two micro lofts, spread across the second and third floors. The meat market may no longer serve the residents of the Hill District, but it and the Lutz\u2019s family legacy continues to provide a space for residents to come together as a community.<\/p>","sponsor":"","subtitle":"","accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"https:\/\/www.hilldistrict.org\/nafasi<\/a>","related_resources":["Sean D. Hammil, \"The real-life story behind August Wilson's character in his play about 1968 violence is different - and compelling.\"<\/a> Pittsburgh Post Gazette <\/em>April 2, 2018.","Sara Bauknecht, <\/span><\/span>Nafasi on Centre is a new hub for artists in the Hill District<\/span><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span>Pittsburgh Post Gazette<\/span><\/span> November 30, 2020.<\/span><\/span>"],"files":{"https:\/\/hillhistory.org\/files\/fullsize\/a8716e3480f2026fd427131563c5d2c3.jpg":{"id":69,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Karl Lutz and Cal Cunningham","thumbnail":"https:\/\/hillhistory.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/a8716e3480f2026fd427131563c5d2c3.jpg","description":"Interior of Lutz Meat Market, with Nat Jackson and Izzy Frazier behind counter, and owner Carl Lutz, and Calvin Cunningham holding papers in front of counter | Charles \"Teenie\" Harris Collection<\/a>, Carnegie Museum of Art | Charles \"Teenie\" Harris"},"https:\/\/hillhistory.org\/files\/fullsize\/e50d2dbe27f7ca8ee7248be64a063fb4.jpg":{"id":193,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"\"Doc's New Ideas\"","thumbnail":"https:\/\/hillhistory.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/e50d2dbe27f7ca8ee7248be64a063fb4.jpg","description":"By the 2000s, the storefront had gone through several business occupancies, and the original plate glass windows replaced with block. The site was frequently referred to as the \"Doc's New Ideas\" building due to the sign across the front. | Flickr<\/a> | Joseph A"},"https:\/\/hillhistory.org\/files\/fullsize\/e3acd139a2c73a6f517aaefcabf57810.jpg":{"id":194,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Nafasi on Centre gallery","thumbnail":"https:\/\/hillhistory.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/e3acd139a2c73a6f517aaefcabf57810.jpg","description":"In 2020, Hill CDC opened \"Nafasi on Centre\" in the Lutz building. The first-floor gallery space displays resident artists' work and also hosts numerous community gatherings. | Hill CDC"}}}