Highland Park The Highland Park Neighborhood of Pittsburgh

Thus, when the Highland Park Community Club was formed in late 1945, Highland Park was a mature community of the prosperous east end. Driving around the neighborhood, one would see most of the homes and commercial buildings seen today. There were lots of families and children. With the end of the war, people stopped working Saturdays and found themselves with leisure time.

From the club's purpose, "To associate the families of the community in sponsoring and directing social and athletic activities for the boys and girls of the neighborhood," sprang a record of consistency and flexibility. Swimming and summer day camp have been held each year since 1947, while the club has evolved to tackle civic issues, housing and neighborhood development. The first meeting was held on January 9, 1946, at the red-brick home of first president Murray V. Johnston, 967 Wellesley Road.

The home of Dr. E. Ray Robb at 1206 Heberton was the club's first address. He had two teenage children, a boy and girl. Robb's family dentistry was in the highrise People's East End Building at the corner of Penn and Highland. The club immediately launched neighborhood basketball, baseball and football teams and chose club colors of green and red.

Having endured four years of not much more than jeeps and tanks coming out of Detroit, people snapped up raffle tickets for an air-conditioned new car with an automatic transmission, and the club's activities kicked off with two thousand dollars.

The founding members nurtured the club out of love for their children, and quickly backed it with organizational skill and energy, reaching out to recruit members down to Cordova Road. Families tended to join if they had small children. And in just a little over a year, membership swelled from the original fifteen families to one hundred and ninety.