[PRCo] Re: P-r-w, housing, cities, etc.

[Gray, George]

I think two different high schools are being mixed together in the
discussion.

South High School (which is now apparently South Vo-Tech High School) is
in the South Side on East Carson Street.

South Hills High School (built in 1917) is on the back slope of Mount
Washington on Ruth Street.  It is close to South Hills Junction, just a
five minute walk along various stairways and pathways.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of
Schneider Fred
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2008 2:20 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: P-r-w, housing, cities, etc.

South Side was not growing (meaning the area along the river in the  
flood plain from Smithfield Street out to J&L).   However, I don't  
know what area South Side High School (1923) encompassed.

The South Hills were growing vigorously because of the Liberty Tubes  
(1924) and the Liberty Bridge from the tunnels to the Boulevard of  
the Allies (1928).   The trolley tunnel first began to open up the  
South Hills in 1904.   Prior to that streetcars had to go over the  
top (Brownsville Road and Washington Road, later renamed Arlington  
and Warrington).   Automobiles either had to use that route or go  
through the west end.   Of course automobiles do not become numerous  
until the middle 1920s.   But the point remains that Mount Washington  
was the proverbial concrete wall the prevented development to the  
south.   The rest of the city was developed long before the South  
Hills.   Way out north to West View was being developed in 1910 ...  
so was Emsworth and Avalon.   Wilkinsburg is old.   But the South  
Hills (as opposed to South Side) is a 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s,  
1960s creation.

It is possible or maybe even probable that South Side High School was  
built in 1923 to serve some of the people on the other side of the hill.

The idea of staying in longer?   On average yes.   More people were  
going to high school.   But remember also that rural school district  
were paying tuition to send their kids to city high schools because  
they didn't have high schools.    You will find my story about a high  
school in 1930 in a suburban township in Lancaster County is not  
unusual for many suburban and rural areas in Pennsylvania.   And  
remember my tale about my mother's girl friend who came in on the  
Harmony interurban from Warrendale to go to school.  I remember a new  
high school being built in Penn Hills when I was in second grade ...  
I also remember the older high school reminded me of a late 1920s  
early 1930s building and it may have been the first high school the  
Penn Township had.

Considering where South Side H. S. was, could there have been a lot  
of kids from places like Castle Shannon or Library or Bethel Park  
coming in on the interurban to go to high school with tuition paid by  
their sending school districts?    I have no clue how you could find  
out.

My father and mother were very unusual.  They were born in 1907 and  
1909 and both graduated from high school and both graduated from  
Carnegie Institute of Technology.  Ed Lybarger's parents were  
similarly very usual.   I don't know where his mother went to college  
but I know his dad and mine were in the class at CIT.   The truly  
unusual thing was both mothers were in college.   Highly irregular  
for women born around 1909-1910.  Just finishing high school was out  
of the ordinary then.   It wasn't needed to wash, cook and clean a  
house and have babies and that was the way we thought they.   (And  
don't shoot the messenger.)


On Dec 11, 2008, at 1:29 PM, Derrick J Brashear wrote:

> On Thu, 11 Dec 2008, Gray, George wrote:
>
>> One can also look at the age of schools.  Brookline School opened in
>> 1908.  (I suppose it had a centennial this year.)  It had a major
>> expansion about 10-15 years later.
>
> Bedford School predates 1900. It was slated to be demolished,  
> according to
> the P-G, in 1959 but survives as housing. Blocks away is South Side  
> High
> School, a.d. mcmxxiii as the frieze read earlier today. Was the  
> South Side
> still growing? Possibly a little. But really I'd guess more kids were
> staying in school that long, meaning crowding. The housing in the  
> area is
> typically as old or older, in some cases much older. It's harder to  
> tell
> in some situations because the modifications are so old as to mask the
> original age, or new but so invasive as to hide some of the signs.
>