[PRCo] Allegheny City Book

[Fred Schneider]

Those of you truly interested in history might like to buy the book  
"RESURRECTING ALLEGHENY CITY: THE LAND, STRUCTURES & PEOPLE OF  
PITTSBURGH'S NORTH SIDE" by Lisa A. Miles, ISBN 978-0-9798236-0-2.    
This is a second printing issued in 2007.   I bought my copy in the  
PTM store.  While the last chapter or two describes what happened  
after the enforced merger with Pittsburgh in 1907, the bulk of the  
book deals with old Allegheny.

Like all books, even in the second printing we don't get it all  
right.   I'm amused when she talks about a house at the intersection  
of Federal and North Diamond St.  That's Diamond Street in Allegheny,  
not Diamond St. in Pittsburgh.   Come on, Lisa, parallel streets do  
not intersect each other.   Diamond ran parallel to Federal between  
Federal and Arch!

But I also learned a lot ... a lot about sewers and plumbing, a lot  
about the University of Western Pennsylvania (the predecessor of the  
University of Pittsburgh) which deeply involved a man named  
Brashear.   I learned how the state brow-beat Allegheny into merging  
with Pittsburgh and the U. S. Supreme Court approved the  
confiscation.   I learned that Observatory Hill was not where the  
observatory is today out in Riverview Park and hence I finally know  
where the original Observatory Hill Passenger Railway ended.

While his name isn't indexed, I found a statement on page 168  
interesting.  It reads, "In 1886, Perrysville Avenue got perhaps its  
most famous homeowner.  William Thaw would sponsor John Brawhear's  
move to Allegheny City, in order to have him close to the  
Observatory.  He posed the offer to the world renowned lens maker,  
and Brashear accepted.   On land that belonged to Thaw, and that was  
directly across Perrysville Avenue from the entrance to McClintock  
Street, a beautiful mansard home was built for Brashead at 1954  
Perrysville Avenue.  Shortly thereafter, a factory building was  
completed behind the house."

It did not see any mention of the legendary Harry Zubik and his boat  
junk yard on the North Side but, as I pointed out, this is largely a  
history of Allegheny and not a history of the North Side.   It would  
be for people like my grandmother who never in her life would be  
accused of calling that part of the city Pittsburgh.   To her, it was  
always Allegheny.

Just heard a television announcer tell me the rain "continues to  
end."  Is that any more possible that parallel streets intersecting?