Beginning in the 19th century, the thoroughfare became a place of middle- and upper-class commerce. A history of Pittsburgh notes that a Market House was established in 1832 along Liberty Street between Sixth Street and Cecil Alley. Liberty also hosted food suppliers, brewers, and small manufacturers. In 1894, the Joseph Horne department store was built there. In the early 20th century, the Clark Building (named for the
Clark candy company) and the Second National Bank were built. At length, it became a home for theater and movies, with the
Stanley Theatre, the Lowe's Penn and the
Harris Theatre. However, much of this activity was checked, first by the
Great Depression, and then by the
St. Patrick's Day Flood of 1936. Some businesses were closed, and others moved elsewhere. A section of Liberty Avenue in
Downtown Pittsburgh became a
red-light district in the 1970s and 1980s, hosting the city's
sex industry, including
burlesque houses,
strip bars, and
peep shows, and attracting
vice and crime. The
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, formed in 1984, worked over the next 25 years to transform the area into the
Cultural District, a center for the arts, eventually bringing the
August Wilson Center for African American Culture,
Bricolage Production Company,
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Arts Education Center, and a museum of cartoon art,
The ToonSeum, to Liberty Avenue. Liberty Avenue in the downtown area underwent a years-long extensive $3.6 million redesign and repavement that was completed by 1991. ==Strip District==