Greg Anderson has owned Vinyl Remains on Washington Road since 2018, the kind of shop where regulars stop in weekly and the owner knows what they're hunting for before they ask. He didn't expect his corner of Uptown to feel different this year. But it does. "The fact that I'm now between two brand-new businesses, there's an energy there," he told Mt. Lebanon Magazine.
That sentence is worth sitting with, because Uptown has spent years being described the opposite way. A district that has "been serving residents since our founding in 1912" earned a reputation for stability bordering on stasis, the kind of main street where storefronts don't turn over so much as they get inherited. That reputation was accurate for a long time. This year it stopped being accurate.
The New Names on Washington Road
Four businesses opened or relocated onto Washington Road in the past year, which sounds modest until you remember this is a strip where longevity, not turnover, has always been the story.
Treats n Beans opened its second Pittsburgh-area standalone location at 698 Washington Road this summer, a café concept that started in Jordan and had been running in Oakland since 2019. Owner Mahmoud Zalloum picked Uptown specifically for its walkability. The menu features imported Belgian chocolate and Italian pistachio sauce.
The Golden Beetle, a gift and home goods shop Meredith Broussard opened in 2023 just off Washington Road along Central Square, moved onto the main strip itself this August, landing at 733 Washington Road. In Mt. Lebanon Magazine, Broussard described her original pitch for the shop as personal, and her goal was building a spot where people find something for a good moment. That address now places Broussard's shop among the corridor's newer storefronts.
J. Jones Evening Wear opened its first Pennsylvania location at 660 Washington Road, a nearly 3,000-square-foot store carrying prom and homecoming gowns, mother-of-the-bride dresses, and formalwear from designers including Jovani and Ashley Lauren. The company's flagship in Weirton runs more than 10,000 square feet, so the Uptown store is deliberately smaller and more intimate. In Mt. Lebanon Magazine, owner J. Jones said, "I think the South Hills customer is going to love it and appreciate it."
Mullett's, a cocktail lounge, opened to enough buzz that Pittsburgh City Paper named it Best New Restaurant, with Pittsburgh Magazine and Mt. Lebanon Magazine both covering the launch.
Four storefronts is a small sample size anywhere else. On a street where the last major cosmetic change before 2021 dated back to a 1993 streetscape project, it reads as a shift.
The Infrastructure Changes Underway in Uptown
The streetscape project was one part of the changes underway in Uptown. The municipality spent nearly $4 million between 2021 and 2023 on Phase 1 of the Vibrant Uptown project, rebuilding sidewalks, lighting, planters, and pedestrian crossings along Washington Road. The commission approved that contract in May 2021, and the district celebrated the completed work with an Uptown Unveiled street festival in August 2023, six hours of live music and open businesses along the corridor.
The municipality isn't done. It approved a $6 million bond issue to fund the next round of infrastructure work, with $221,000 earmarked to get a new phase called Activate Uptown off the ground. That plan targets Clocktower Plaza, the portal leading to the Mt. Lebanon T Station, Parse Way, and Clearview Common. Planning firm Pashek and MTR gathered input from more than 1,300 residents and stakeholders, and 73 percent of respondents wanted the municipality to address a vacant lot at Clocktower Plaza left behind after a 2023 demolition. Commercial Districts Manager Eric Milliron framed the logic behind continuing to invest this way: business districts age the same way houses do, and Uptown was competing with malls and other towns for the same foot traffic.
The storefront openings and infrastructure work are both part of Uptown's recent changes. A gift shop moved onto Washington Road frontage, a formalwear brand chose its first Pennsylvania address here, and a café brand opened its second Pittsburgh-area standalone location.
The Markets Are Staying Open Longer, Too
The retail turnover isn't the only sign that Uptown's calendar looks different than it used to. The Saturday morning Uptown Market, held across from Washington Elementary School, runs from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday from late May through October 24 this year. That's roughly six to eight weeks beyond where a typical farmers market season would wrap, and the extension wasn't automatic. It came in response to demand strong enough that organizers pushed the calendar later into fall.
Focaccia baker Ben Carozza, a regular vendor, told LeboBeat that the loyalty shows up week after week: "People come here just for me sometimes." Mason Allison, who works the stand for Coyne Family Farms out of Burgettstown, told LeboBeat that it was busier than other markets his family sells at: "Every other market we've been to hasn't been this busy." Mt. Lebanon Partnership representative Dorene Ciletti, who staffs an information booth at the market most weeks, told LeboBeat that the community response has been consistent: "It's been great to hear from the community."
Wednesday shoppers have their own option. The Mt. Lebanon Lions Farmers Market runs from 4 to 7 p.m. at Mt. Lebanon United Lutheran Church, 975 Washington Road, rain or shine, through the end of October. Between the two, Uptown residents now have twice-weekly market access stretching almost into November, a season length that would have looked unusual even five years ago.
The Weekend That Ties It Together
All of this converges on one weekend. The Mt. Lebanon Artists' Market returns to the Academy Lot on September 26 and 27, a juried show now drawing more than 65 professional artists working in everything from wood and glass to jewelry and fiber art. It's the kind of event the Mt. Lebanon Partnership treats as its signature, and it comes paired with Pittsburgh Eggfest in Rollier's parking lot next door, where local grill teams compete on Sunday afternoon.
The rest of the weekend fills in around it. Curbside Concerts bring local musicians onto Washington Road itself, and the Kids' Paint Out at Clearview Common turns the plaza into a temporary studio for younger artists. Anyone walking that stretch for the festival will pass Treats n Beans, the Golden Beetle's new storefront, J. Jones Evening Wear, and Mullett's along the way, all businesses that didn't exist on this street a year ago.
That's the part worth sitting with before the weekend arrives. The Artists' Market itself hasn't changed much year to year. It's still the Academy Lot, still juried, still paired with Eggfest next door. What's changed is everything around it. A resident who walked Washington Road for last year's festival and skips this year's will find a noticeably different street waiting for them, not because the market moved, but because the block did.
Anderson said it best from behind his own counter: there's an energy there. For a street that spent decades being defined by what didn't change, that's the story this fall actually tells.
If you're weighing a move within Mt. Lebanon or into it, and want a read on how a specific block or listing fits into what's happening on Washington Road right now, Lauren Coulter and there team know this corridor block by block. Contact Us to talk through it.
