October 2025 | For Immediate Release
Brighton Heights, Pittsburgh, PA – On Saturday, October 25, 2025, Allegheny Land Trust (ALT) invites the community, local media and conservation champions to attend a native species planting at St. John’s Green – the site of the former St. John’s Hospital in the City of Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood.
This volunteer planting marks a major milestone in the transformation of the former hospital site into a vibrant green space serving as both a community gathering place and an active, green stormwater infrastructure site in the City of Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood.
Those attending the tree planting will plant native trees, shrubs and wildflowers to help rewild the blighted land. To get to the planting areas, attendees will walk the newly formed trail systems around the site’s new rainwater meadow, rain garden and community gathering areas.
“We’re grateful to have reached this point in the project, thanks to our partnership with the Brighton Heights Citizens Federation and other community leaders’ years of work,” ALT project manager Alyson Fearon said. “This planting event isn’t just about trees — it’s about restoring land, capturing stormwater to promote community resiliency and investing in place-making and hope in the heart of Brighton Heights.”
After the hospital site was vacated in 1997, Brighton Heights Citizens Federation, the URA, and other community leadership and development groups worked hard to ensure its future would serve the neighborhood. ALT was invited to the table to explore the land’s use as permanent green space; after all, neighbors had begun using the rewilded space as a local hangout and cut-through path between streets.
Now, ALT has protected the land, surveyed the community and begun implementing initiatives outlined in the community-informed green space and stormwater management plan. The site has seen significant construction activity this summer and will be symbolically opened for neighbor exploration during this native species planting.