If you’ve traveled through Bridgeville’s business district recently, you might have noticed a flurry of activity at 358 Washington Avenue.
The 120-year-old brick building that once served as the borough’s business office and police station—complete with a jail cell—is about to become the Pittsburgh office of of JLJI Enterprises, an Ohio-based union-labor, commercial interior finishes contractor.
Brick walls that had been hidden by drywall. Photo via JLJI Enterprises 
Photo via JLJI Enterprises 
Photo via JLJI Enterprises 
The bars that covered the building’s jail cell windows. Photo via JLJI Enterprises 
Photo via JLJI Enterprises 
Photo via JLJI Enterprises 
Photo via JLJI Enterprises 
An old mural that JLJI workers discovered while renovating.
The company’s executives had been looking for the right location to open a Pittsburgh office when they literally drove right past the old borough building.
“We were going down Washington Avenue,” said JLJI general manager Adam Ramsey, “on our way to scout the old King’s restaurant building and some other locations in South Fayette when we saw the ‘for sale’ sign outside of this building in Bridgeville.”
Although the century-old structure contains some quirks compared to newer facilities in surrounding communities, the interior finishing pros loved the exposed brick interior of the building, and the opportunity it offered to create a unique interior office environment with a historical story behind it.
During renovations, JLJI tried to maintain as much of the original look of the structure as possible, Ramsey said. They might even re-install the jail bars that once lined the windows of the building’s holding cells.
JLJI hopes to move into the building within a month or two.