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(Updated with new quotes, 8:13 p.m.)

Once home to the city's wealthiest people --- lawyers, bankers and executives of National Tube and G.C. Murphy Co. all lived in the area --- the neighborhood around the Carnegie Library of McKeesport is still full of stately mansions. But beginning in the 1980s, many of those once-distinguished homes were carved up for apartments or simply abandoned.

Residents and city officials say they're taking a stand to save the "Library District" of McKeesport. A program to tear down abandoned buildings and help eradicate blight in the city's Seventh Ward will be the topic of a public meeting tomorrow night.

The meeting at 6:30 p.m. at McKeesport Presbyterian Church on Versailles Avenue is open to anyone interested in the neighborhood's future.

The effort to stabilize the Library District was announced last week by McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko and will be funded in part by a grant from the county's Community Infrastructure and Tourism Fund.

County spokeswoman Amie Downs said a $200,000 grant has been awarded to the city to tear down abandoned homes to coincide with the construction of the new Cornell Elementary School, "so that public safety is increased and (to provide) a more suitable living environment for the community."

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"We're looking to go in and get rid of the blight, starting with this grant," Cherepko said. "I think it's important for us to get the word out, and we're looking for a domino effect --- we want this to spread up past Union Avenue into other neighborhoods."

In addition to the Carnegie Library of McKeesport, the neighborhood is home to the McKeesport Little Theater, several churches, and the site of the new Cornell Elementary School. Centennial Elementary School is nearby.

Such institutions are among the neighborhood's stabilizing factors. McKeesport Presbyterian is working to acquire one of the most blighted homes on Union Avenue, demolish it, and create a community garden in its place, said the Rev. Darrell Knopp, the church's pastor.

"It is a great neighborhood with wonderful people," said Shari Holland, who lives in the neighborhood and is part of a group called the Concerned Citizens of the Library District. "Our neighborhood group has met together to learn to know one another and to work together for the good of the entire community. A few months ago we had a cleanup day --- and the turnout was incredible --- and to top it off, the McKeesport Presbyterian Church made lunch for everyone working! Great neighbors."

Concerned Citizens has been instrumental in working to stop and reverse the neighborhood's slide, Knopp said. The group includes several homeowners who have taken great pains to maintain their homes, he said.

Unfortunately, Knopp said, "there are more unkept than kept. Across the street on Union, of the first six houses, two have been completely remodeled, but there are a couple that are just horrible."

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Knopp, who was called to what was then Central Presbyterian Church in 2001, said the neighborhood hasn't changed much since his arrival. "It was pretty bad when I came here," he said.

But when the congregation in 2007 merged with the former Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Downtown, and relocated all services to the former Central Presbyterian, it committed itself to help improve the neighborhood. This fall, it launches a $270,000 campaign to raise money and restore the exterior of its own building. (Nearby First United Methodist Church has already begun a similar project.)

"There's a confluence of events taking place that we think are going to make this blighted neighborhood much better and safer," Knopp said.

Improving the neighborhood is about more than just appearances, he says. "It's about the whole quality of life," Knopp said. "And we really think there's going to be a positive rippling effect from what we're doing, and from the new Cornell school up the road."

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The new Cornell school, being built at the top of Spring Street on the site of the former McKeesport Technical High School, is an opportunity for a neighborhood "jump start," Cherepko said.

"There's not an area in the city of McKeesport that doesn't have concerns," he said. "Take Sumac Street, or Fremont Street --- it's amazing the number of homes down there that need to be taken down, sometimes four or five in a block."

Tearing down a single house costs $8,000 to $10,000. With hundreds of homes awaiting demolition in McKeesport --- at a cost of millions of dollars --- city officials are considering the use of public-works employees to tear down some of the abandoned houses, if contractual, environmental and legal issues can be solved, Cherepko said.

"It's a major problem that our city faces, but working together, we'll be able to do something," he said.

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Saving the neighborhood will require more than city employees, Knopp said --- it will require everyone, including McKeesport Presbyterian. The church, which has adopted as its credo "Preserve to Serve: Christ, Congregation and Community," is trying to reach out to the neighborhood in many ways, through free community breakfasts, hosting concerts and meetings, and offering a free afterschool program for at-risk children.

"We do a lot of community work," Knopp said. "Last Dec. 1 we had our first annual community light-up night, and 150 people attended. There was a great spirit of camaraderie and we're going to try to do it again this year." At a block party three or four years ago, more than 200 people attended, he said.

People are still worried about the safety of the neighborhood, but they're translating their concern into action, Knopp said.

"We think that's there's a confluence of things going on --- the new school, the clean-up project across the street, plus the mayor's project --- and it's all going to add up to making a difference in this whole district," he said.

Holland is among those eager to attend Wednesday's meeting. "We look forward to hearing more tomorrow evening about ideas and plans impacting our neighborhood," she said.

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