[PRCo] Re: The "h" in Pittsburgh

[Edward H. Lybarger]

There was a period in which the feds were into all sorts of nanny-like
things...like wasteful extra letters in placenames.  Teddy Roosevelt wanted
to change all spelling to phonetic.  But yes, this was a Post Office
regulation...that's the only place the authority would have existed.

Stefan Lorant was not as all-knowledgable as he would have liked us to
believe, in this as in other matters.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 1:06 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: The "h" in Pittsburgh


And Stefan Lorant said it was dropped by custom.  Which one is correct.  Why
would the federal government have the authority to drop the "h"?  Or is it
the
post office department that decided they had the authority to change the
sames
of towns ... they've always exercised that right.  As in "Hecla" versus
"Southwest/"

"Edward H. Lybarger" wrote:

> Every now and again a question about the spelling of Pittsburgh comes up.
> So for all to remember (!), here are the essential dates:
>
> The "h" was dropped by federal mandate December 24, 1891, and was restored
> July 19, 1911.
>
> Ed