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THE TITO HOUSE (Tito-Mecca-Zizza House)

Support the historic landmark nomination for 1817 Fifth Avenue and 1818 Colwell Street in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood. The Victorian house at 1817 Fifth Avenue is 137 years old and the building at 1818 Colwell Street is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Both are distinctive buildings with colorful and important histories. Tell the Pittsburgh City Council that these buildings and their stories are an important part of Pittsburgh and American history.

The Tito-Mecca-Zizza House derives its name from the family that lived there for more than 50 years. Joe Tito and his brothers were bootleggers and entertainment entrepreneurs who operated their Prohibition-era businesses from the house and its where they first ran the legal brewery they bought in 1932 as Prohibition was ending. The brothers introduced Rolling Rock beer in 1935 and the Colwell Street garage they built in 1922, which began as a garage for their bootlegging truck fleet, became the Latrobe Brewing Company’s first Pittsburgh beer distributorship. It is the first known place where Rolling Rock was sold.

The two buildings and the people who owned them, worked in them and lived there comprise important chapters in Pittsburgh and national history. Joe Tito became known as an influential figure in the history of American organized crime and he used the wealth built in bootlegging and gambling to establish an enduring brewery and popular beer brand that has become part of American popular culture.

The Tito story is a distinctly Pittsburgh story. It’s one that speaks to Italian-American history because of the Tito family’s rapid rise to wealth and social prominence in less than one generation here. Because of Joe Tito’s close friendship and business partnership with Gus Greenlee, it also includes important chapters in Black history. Greenlee was one of Pittsburgh’s most beloved and successful Black entrepreneurs known for his Hill District bars and restaurants and for owning the Pittsburgh Crawfords Negro Leagues baseball team. Joe Tito was the team’s vice president and he was an officer and part owner of Greenlee Field, the nation’s first Black professional sports stadium. And then there’s the incredible Rolling Rock beer story.

All of these stories converge at 1817 Fifth Avenue and 1818 Colwell Street. In 2021, a neighborhood community organization nominated the buildings as a City of Pittsburgh historic site. Nationally and locally prominent scholars enthusiastically supported the designation, writing that the buildings are among the most historic places in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend designation to the City Council, which has the final say. Send a strong message to Pittsburgh City Council that you support making the combined properties a City of Pittsburgh historic site where these stories can come alive for future generations of Pittsburgh residents and visitors.

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