<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div><a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20130628/e060b9f0/attachment.jpe">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20130628/e060b9f0/attachment.jpe</a></div><div><br></div><div>This is another picture I find intriguing for a variety of reasons. If I look at the 1860s and 1870s atlases of Pittsburgh, there was no incline but by the 1880s we needed a way to get those Irish immigrants down to the Strip District to work in the mills. The incline would be faster than going into the city on a cable car and then back out. </div><div><br></div><div>No, I am not casting ethnic slurs. I am not sure who lived up on Herron Hill originally but I know we had a neighborhood up there long before I had family up there. It was too close to downtown not to be developed early. But my own genealogical research shows house after house had Irish families in the 1880s and my great grandparents were some of them who came here out of hunger. Therefore I have proof … xeroxes of census records to prove the lower hill was solidly Irish before it turned to the next group. Of course, when they came here, some other group that was already up on the hill, probably felt more superior and moved elsewhere. </div><div><br></div><div>Then later on, someone of African extraction moved into the hill and the Irish, now feeling more Americanized, moved out. My great grandparents moved to Wilkinsburg and over to Oakland. Much better for superior people (like Mrs. Bucket) than Herron Hill. :<)</div><div><br></div><div>If you look at the 'hood in Google or Bing maps today, you will see all manner of suburban style homes that were not there 50 years ago. I asked my sister if the neighborhood had changed. She said no, same type of 'hood, just new homes. No, I am not going to get into any discussions about who paid for them … I do not know. They might be section 8. </div><div><br></div><div>Funny how things have changed. Today the family seems to have quit running away from others like so many others. There are now two mixed African American / White marriages in the family and one engagement. </div><div><br></div><div>Another reason? Well, when I lived in Penn Township as a kid (long before it was renamed and reincorporated as the Municipality of Penn Hills) and back when we had operator assisted telephones, a bread man, a milk man, a newspaper carrier who threw the paper into the shrubs, a huckster and, last but not least, a black fish man who came around on Fridays with fresh fish. He lived on Herron Hill and drove a Plymouth Coupe with an ice chest in the trunk.</div><div><br></div><div>Finally, my time in Pittsburgh was before the Parkway East was built. Oh, I remember driving into Squirrel Hill with mom and dad on a Sunday afternoon because dad wished to inspect the new tunnel), but we had moved out before it was opened to Bates Street. Our way of getting into the city was one of two routes, the most common was Coal Hollow Road to Sandy Creek and Nadine and then in Allegheny River Blvd and Butler Street. That was back when Butler Street had a bar on every corner to satiate the thirst of the mill workers, each competing to increase market share by telling you, in red neon, to<i> "Have a Duke" </i>or that Iron City Beer was better. The alternate way was to drive through East Liberty and in Bigelow Blvd, and then I remember the billboards on the incline extolling the virtues of new electric appliances powered by Duquesne Light Company. I never rode the include and never even saw a car moving on it …. guess it didn't run too often on Saturdays, Sundays or evenings when I was likely to be driving under it. </div><div><br></div><div>End of B S. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>
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