Brookline

[John Swindler]

While searching for some newspaper articles, got side-tracked (no pun 
intended) to a Pittsburgh internet site which had information on Brookline 
community, including photos of Brookline Blvd., circa 1918.  Follows is a 
selection of trolley related extracts from this Brookline website.  May have 
been three rivers.net???  (same site that hosts Duquesne Incline)

John



Street Car Service

The first street railway south of the Monongahela River was a horse car 
line, which operated on Carson Street to Thirtieth Street. In the winter the 
floor was covered with straw to keep the passengers feet warm. The first 
electric cars were used in this part of the city in 1890 and were controlled 
by the Pittsburgh and Birmingham Traction Company. The cars seated about 25 
people. In 1903-04 the streetcar tunnel was built and the line through 
Beechview to Mount Lebanon was constructed. Regular service through the 
tunnel began on December 2, 1904. In 1905 a double-track line was 
constructed through Brookline from Kerr's Blacksmith Shop on West Liberty 
Avenue to the Charleroi and Washington line near Oak Station. Service was 
discontinued beyond Edgebrook Avenue, on Brookline Boulevard, after 1909.
In 1910, West Liberty Avenue was double-tracked, giving Brookline a complete 
double-track system and greatly improving the service.


Ways To Travel
Transportation to Pittsburgh in the early days was by way of the narrow 
gauge Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad, which followed the general 
course of the Shannon Drake trolley line, to the Haberman Avenue Cable Car 
up Mount Washington, down the Castle Shannon Incline to the South Side, and 
then by horse car to the city. So at the turn of the century this area was 
relatively isolated from downtown Pittsburgh.

Within a few short years, man made huge strides in transportation.  The 
street car tunnel under Mount Washington was opened in 1904. This was a 
phenomenal breakthrough to the South Hills. It shortened the trip to town by 
miles and by hours. It gave impetus to the West Liberty Development Company 
and other real estate firms, from 1905 to 1908, to lay out streets and lots 
in the area which was to become Brookline.

All Dirt Roads
At the turn of the century all roads were dirt and there were no sidewalks. 
The heavy traffic, which was horses, cut the roads so that in wet weather 
the mud was often axle deep. Reverend Jones of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church at the Brookline Junction, with the help of a friend, secured funds 
to purchase boards for a boardwalk. With the help of the community, the 
boards were laid from the city line to the Bell House, West Liberty Avenue. 
This was the first public improvement in the section.
The West Liberty Improvement Company laid out in lots the section of 
Brookline in 1905. The Brookline section attracted so many people that in 
1908 it was annexed to the city of Pittsburgh as the 44th ward. Brookline 
became the 19th ward in 1910 when the city of Allegheny was annexed to 
Pittsburgh.

The Main Highway
In the early days, Pioneer Avenue was the only main thoroughfare entering 
the city from the south. The general location of Brookline Boulevard was 
known as Hunter's Lane. The West Liberty Improvement Company developing this 
section wanted to cut a street through a certain man's property. He 
protested and sat on the bank in front of his home with a rifle to prevent 
the street from being constructed. The street was then cut along the side of 
his lot and it is now known as Wenzel Way.


Was a State Road
Pioneer Avenue was established prior to 1797 as the State Road from 
Pittsburgh to Washington and was later known as the upper road from Boggs 
Mill and also the Coal Hill and Upper St. Clair Turnpike road. It was an 
artery of major importance because it connected the old Township road (now 
Warrington Avenue) with the Morgantown Road (now Banksville Road) across Mt. 
Washington and the road from Millersville, which is at the foot of Greentree 
Road at Independence Street, West End. Wenzell Avenue, which led from 
Pioneer Avenue to Greentree Road, was laid out in 1832. West Liberty Avenue, 
along Plummer's Run, from the Bell House to Pioneer Avenue, near Potomac 
Avenue, was laid out in 1839. Inasmuch as the community had no brick yards 
or saw mills, all builders' supplies had to be hauled over this poor road, 
the wagons often sinking hub deep in mud. When the street car line was laid, 
the street was paved between the rails, only, and it remained so until 1817 
(or 1917???), when it was widened and improved. Whited Street is a former 
Township road and, with the exception of a few streets, such as McNeilly 
Road, Brookline Boulevard, and the aforementioned streets, practically all 
other streets were created by virtue of lot plan developments, principally 
by the West Liberty Development Company between 1905 and 1908, from which 
the community derived its name.

Transportation Difficult
Transportation was slow and difficult. The traveler to Pittsburgh would ride 
the narrow gauge steam Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon Railroad, take a Cable 
Dinkey up Haberman Avenue, come down Castle Shannon Incline, thence by horse 
car from Brimingham to Pittsburgh. Most of the coal mined around Brookline 
was hauled on the Castle Shannon Railroad through a tunnel, the portal of 
which was at the curve in Sycamore Street, then down to Carson Street, by an 
old coal incline. Wagons would travel via Boggs Avenue and the Shannon 
Incline, or over Mt. Washington and down the Monongahela Incline. The old 
Charleroi street car line ran along West Liberty Avenue about 1902 but the 
community still had poor access until the street car tunnels were opened 
about 1903, providing cheap and convenient mass transit to the Gold 
Triangle.


Brookline Of Yesteryear - By Frank Hahn
(reprinted from Brookline Journal, July 1956)

In beginning this writing I take you back more than fifty years. Grandfather 
purchased two lots in the Huey Plan and built his home in 1901. A short time 
later my parents purchased a lot next door. My parents broke ground for our 
home in 1904. At the turn of the century, when that plan was laid out, lots 
sold for around $300. In the early 1920s, lots on Pioneer Avenue changed 
hands at from $2,000 up.
We are now aboard a Brookline trolley car (Toonerville) at the South end of 
the tunnel (South Hills Junction in modern lingo), for the trip to 
Brookline. We swing and sway down through the barn yard to its end, and the 
switch. Here the conductor got out, threw a switch, and the motorman pulled 
onto the single track cutoff that leads to Warrington Avenue. The conductor 
threw back his switch, and threw the light giving right of way to the single 
track at Ye Old Bell House.

The Bell House stood just across Saw Mill Run. An old wooden bridge spanned 
the run. Here the conductor turned off the single light. Double track 
started here and we turn onto West Liberty Avenue. Born's Hotel was on one 
corner and Elijah Lee's blacksmith shop was on the opposite corner. 
Gilfillan and Orr Feed Company was next to Born's, and a frame house was 
across the street. From there up to Cape May Avenue just a few frame houses 
stood.

At Cape May Avenue was the old frame school. Here was were the Mission and 
Brookline Boulevard United Presbyterian Church originated. A few more 
scattered houses, then the Paul Coal Company mine entrance, stable and 
loading bins at the corner of Stetson Street. From here on more scattered 
houses with Zehfuss Hotel near Capital Avenue, Wilhelm's country store at 
Ray Avenue and Butcher Baker's meat market at the corner of Pauline. Where 
the Evangelical Home stands were the Knowlson and Millitzer Farms, and at 
the junction the George Kerr and Sons blacksmith shop, with the big house on 
the hill behind.

Before we start up the hill let's look back on the south-east side of West 
Liberty Avenue. On the corner was the old mine entrance, the pumping station 
and air shaft.

The street car wound its way over a private right of way up the hill. In 
later years the right of way was widened and paved, extending the Boulevard 
to the Junction. Present Bodkin Street was originally Hunter Avenue, then 
Brookline Boulevard until the paving of the right of way.

We will now travel down the Boulevard. The car tracks were in the center, a 
private right of way unpaved, and set between the tracks were wooden poles. 
Long cross-arms were mounted atop these poles, to which were strung the 
trolley wires. I should state that Pioneer Avenue was originally Lang 
Avenue, named for William Lang. The Lang farm was at the West Liberty end, 
alongside the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad tracks. The name 
duplicated another Lang Avenue and the early residents decided on Pioneer 
Avenue when change was necessary.

Doctor C.C. Lang had his home and office on the corner where Myer's Gas 
Station now stands. When Mr. Myer's put in his first station equipment the 
house was moved to its present site at Pioneer and Berkshire Avenues. Next 
was part of an old orchard, then W.H. William's Grocery. At the trolley car 
stop (West Point Avenue) now Wedgemere, was Hoot's Bakery. This building 
housed many business establishments until 1920.

Brookline's first movie house was an open-air theatre (not drive-in) between 
a store and the engine house. Crossing Castlegate was Dooley's Grocery and 
Meats. Joe Dooley also had his own ice plant.
Further on down the Boulevard, vacant lots, with remnants of an old orchard, 
to "Heine" Melvin's Drug Store at the corner of Stebbins From a point 
opposite Flatbush Avenue, a path cut through the field, and on an angle, 
ending beside Ed Cook's house on Berkshire Avenue.

>From Stebbins Avenue, more open fields to McNeilly's Grocery. This building, 
now owned by Melman's, housed stores operated by Dean Rhodes and Stevens. 
Every one of these Boulevard stores had a stable on the alley to the rear. 
The next buildings erected were an apartment and duplex near Queensboro, 
where Dr. O'Hagan, the school doctor, lived, and Sam Gigliotti's building. 
This building had two store rooms with living quarters above. Sam had his 
tailor shop in one store. and Nick Ermilino had a shoe repair shop in the 
other. Another early building was Bob Hartman's News Agency and Simon 
Zitelli's Barber Shop.
In the triangle stood the frame building owned and occupied by the Freehold 
Real Estate Company. Between the triangle and Breining Street, Oakridge 
Avenue and Merrick Avenue was an old orchard.
Beyond Breining Street we ran into, what was called in the olden days, 
Anderson's Acres, farm and woods. Below this was the Hayes farm. The 
original East Brookline was laid out in part from the Hayes farm.

Another thing that is buried in the bygone past is picnic day, as it used to 
be.
Most people didn;t have their own cars; or if they did the husbands used 
them to go to work, so the families would meet on picnic day at one of the 
designated stops and board the streetcars.
One of the big stops was Creedmore. There would be hundreds of folks 
gathered there, all dressed up in summer duds and carrying big baskets of 
picnic lunches.

The first picnic Brookline ever had was at Kennywood Park. The only trouble 
with that was that it was so late for the kids getting home on the 
"specials." On the car I was on, almost all the small fry were tired but no 
one was crying, because a young fellow named Joe Buch got up in front of the 
street car and sang song after song. After that first attempt, the picnics 
were all held at West View Park.

Here are some other scattered facts that I remember from the old days:
* The mules that used to work in the mines behind Edgebrook Avenue.
* The streetcar line used to end at Creedmore Avenue, and had to be extended 
to Fairhaven so Pittsburgh Railways could keep their franchise.



A little history of the Brookline's Presbyterian Church  ...
This church dates back to December 9, 1900, when Mr. C.F. Mulholland of Bell 
House, West Liberty, suggested to his pastor, Robert H. Hood, that a Mission 
Sabbath House be organized to provide Christian instruction for the 
neighborhood children. Thirty-five young persons responded and a Sabbath 
School was started with Mr. Mulholland as Superintendant.
The first building used by the Mission was an old blacksmith shop located 
near the south entrance to the yet unheard of Liberty Tunnels. A chapel was 
built in 1902, and formally dedicated on June 11, 1903. Due to the growth of 
the area, the Mission was relocated to West Liberty Public School in 
January, 1907.
A congregation was established a few weeks later and services were held in 
the Public School Building until March, 1908, when the "Knowlson M.C. 
Church" was purchased and renovated. At this time the Session was known as 
the West Liberty United Presbyterian Church.
Also, interestingly enough, during the heyday of trolley transportation in 
Brookline, our route was #39. Mrs. Carolyn Wood, my source of information on 
the above history of the church, pointed out that the Sunday school children 
were always taught a nifty way to remember the Brookline route number. 
Thirty-nine is the number of books in the old testament, and 3 times 9 is 
the number of books on the new testament. There's one for the Brookline 
trivia buffs.



Using this old history as a background, I will attempt to trace the growth 
and development of Brookline as it is to-day. When Allegheny County was 
formed in 1788 Brookline was known as Lower St. Clair township. In 1876 it 
was incorporated into West Liberty Borough.
The borough continued to grow through the years so I will try to trace the 
growth and development as best I can from the limited sources. When the 
borough was in existence the chief occupation, according to history, was 
mining. A little over thirty years ago we find that the locality was 
practically all farms. It was then a common sight in the summer evenings to 
see a constant line of market wagons on their way to the city with produce.
In planning this favored residential district its founders realized that 
their first step must be easier connection with the City of Pittsburgh.
The first street car line was constructed about 1900. This carline went up 
Brownsville Road and down Warrington Avenue and on out West Liberty Avenue. 
In the same year the idea of building a tunnel under Mt. Washington was 
instigated. This project was completed in 1904 and made a street car tunnel 
almost one mile in length. The street car line was then constructed through 
the tunnel. From this date the growth of this country can be traced.

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