[PRCo] Traffic on Oakmont Avenue

[robert netzlof]

--- On Wed, 1/30/13, Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net> wrote:

> According to "modern day" Mapquest
> map, the same street is named Oakmont
> Avenue *north* of Hulton Road and Allegheny River Blvd
> *sout*h of Hulton
> Road. Probably was the same back then too.

Looking again at the Hopkins 1915 map: If one were riding a street car on Oakmont Avenue coming toward the camera, one would turn (to the right in the photo, left as viewed from the street car) on a broad curve just past the switch to double track. That would place one on Dexter Street, but only for a moment, as at the end of the curve, Front street diverged at an angle. Front turned to parallel the Allegheny Valley RR tracks and crossed over the Plum Creek branch of the AVRR on a long bridge. At the end of that bridge, it turned back toward the railroad, then again turned to parallel it. See attached map snippet (Hopkins 1915 Vol. 8 plate 36).

The present day Allegheny River Boulevard appears to stay closer to the railroad line, apparently passing through an area that in earlier days was occupied by the railroad's shops and roundhouse. So, yes, the strip occupied by Oakmont Avenue in the photo is now occupied by Allegheny River Blvd. To the right of and behind the camera, ARB more or less replaced Front Street. Dexter Street is now called Plum Street, although I now see that the Hopkins map identifies that as Dexter (Plum).

Returning to the original inquiry, it seems fair to say "they ran on Allegheny River Boulevard" in the sense that as one travels along ARB, one is more or less tracing the route of the car line. It's also fair to say "they ran on Oakmont Avenue and Front Street" for those were the names of the streets "back then".

Perhaps someone who knows more about it than I can say when Allegheny River Boulevard came to be, and whether that was before or after the time of the trolleys.

Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob


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