[PRCo] Fineview = Nunnery Hill

[Donald Galt]

I've gone and drug out the ERA Headlights article commemorating 
the closure of 21-Fineview.

It doesn't duplicate the location of Bob Rathke's stunning snow 
scene, but does feature a couple of shots at a not dissimilar spot 
farther out the line, Brush Street at Hazelton, almost within sight of a 
three of Bob's other pictures (if, that  is, I have these correctly 
identified.) And, Blimey! there are motorcars on what purport to be 
public streets . There are also shown cars using Lanark Street, 
where the paved streetcar track traces a ribbon along an otherwise 
unsurfaced road.

The ERA article dates Fineview back to March 1908, when it was 
#125 - Nunnery Hill. It also states that the service operated only 
from the North Side until the introduction of PCCs on 9 June 1952.

The first time I ever heard of Fineview was reading a National 
Geographic article on Pittsburgh, dated probably 1948 or so. One of 
these days I'll try to dig it out and quote it.

Anybody know anything about the line's predecessor, the Nunnery 
Hill incline? According to the map, it started from Federal Street at 
the bend just above Fairmount Street (Henderson) then paralleled 
Fairmount as far as Sandusky, where it bent north to attack the hill 
directly, terminating at Parkview Avenue and Cato Street. Parkview 
and Cato have both been absorbed into Catoma Street, so the 
terminus was where Catoma bends north, a block west of Meadville.

While one can understand the idea of building a streetcar line to 
serve Nunnery Hill, it's a little harder to fathom its extension beyond 
Lanark Street, winding its way around the hillside at a location not 
particularly convenient for potential riders living along the streets 
above. Perhaps the operational advantages of a loop service were 
seen to outweigh the expense of the additional line? Seems 
unlikely. Maybe the clue lies in the platting of a network of streets in 
the area that apparently were never built.

With its sharply bending single track and 15%+ gradients it couldn't 
have been conceived as an alternate to Perrysville Avenue, and it 
sure as heck wasn't a way to anywhere else. Just a hillside trolley 
line that miraculously survived to 1966.

Don