straight outta Cedarhurst

[sanpaku_backup]

Really only of interest to flw and maybe nylorac (who each grew up about a quarter of a mile from me) and perhaps librarygrrl or one_11, though probably not: very detailed historical atlases of Pittsburgh.

It proved to be very, very difficult to find my old house/neighborhood on these maps, because roads are straightened and have their names changed and so on, and many of the maps are not oriented northward. And growing up, I actually never memorized many of the street names; it would be like, "that crazy road that goes over the hollow and with that big bridge coming off of it, the one next to the hospital." So really the only ones that were useful were the 1934 and 1916 maps. But I did learn some interesting things, especially about the interaction between the folk knowledge I heard growing up and the story of the map.

For example, our suburban subdivision was mostly laid out between those two dates, but our house dated from about 1955. My friend Ken's house was built in the 1920s, for example, even though he was just up the street (and one street over). I wondered why there would be this mix of building dates. Now I can see why: the land laid out earlier, to 1934, had been coal company land, with the land south of the property line (probably just north of nylorac's house) going undeveloped until later. The privately owned pond ("Cedar Lake") up there had been next to a coal power plant (which I hadn't known). Legend had it that there were coal shafts all over our neighborhood, including right in front of our house, buried under the street. But that area was a privately owned, separate property, with a big circular road through it, no trace of which survives today. It amused me to see that the property, marked "Glaisdone," got turned into the street name of "Glaids" when the area was subdivided.

I don't really have a point. I will mention, though, that news that the Wabash Tunnel is reopening (pointlessly) makes me want to rush to Pittsburgh just to drive through it. (Frank, weren't you going to call one of your bands "Skybus" for a while?)

Comments

Skylab

[flw.livejournal.com]

It was Skylab, and there were already about a dozen bands named Skylab, so I switched to "Tugboat," and there were half-a-dozen of those, so finally I settled on "Doctor Espinoza," knowing there would be no bands named that. When I got doctorespinoza.com, I shortly thereafter got a furious email from a genuine Doctor Espinoza demanding to know on what basis I dared to call a rock band "Doctor Espinoza". There are laws against it! How dare you! Also, he wanted that domain for his important doctor work.

I referred him to the US Constitution which specifically forbids the practice of nobility and aristocracy and titles and all that other Knights of the Round Table Crap. Basically, he wanted the URL and thought I was "parking" on it, and felt that he cold force me to give it to him (why on Earth he hadn't bought it years prior is a mystery to me...) on the basis of my claiming to be a doctor falsely or something.

Anyways, I have been browsing the Warrantee Atlas for a few months now myself. I absolutely love it. If you look at the original names of the surveyed plots of land, it is amusing. Welcome to "Damn Good Whiskey Pennsylvania". And to realize that to become a landowner in 1760, all you had to do was walk out there and knock some posts in the ground. THIS IS MINE!

I just like to imagine all the lawsuits.

Re: SkyBUS

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

I think Skybus would have totally been a better name. Less cool, but no one would have chosen it as a band name before, and everyone from Pittsburgh -- but no one from anywhere else -- would get the joke.

Re: SkyBUS

[flw.livejournal.com]

Associated Production Music reports that they have available:

ISCD_0189 Skybus, Easy listening pop ballads

The thing about music is, every good name is taken.

[one-11.livejournal.com]

My word these are pretty.

No hits for either of my homes in Lebo... but Alderson Ave. in Squirrel hill was there by 1904. Can't remember my building number...

Tits and Ass Watkins.

[flw.livejournal.com]

5845 first (but not for long), then 5855. I like that it was sold to T.A. Watkins by Mellon!

I can't find anything in the South Hills either. How did sanpaku find them?

Re: Tits and Ass Watkins.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Pre-1916, it's all part of Scott, and the orientation is changed around. So look for the southeastern corner of Scott, along what I think is Chartiers Creek, and work your way back from there. You have to hunt carefully for roads -- I think Swallow Hill and Scrubgrass are there and marked as such. But you really need to turn them around in your head. Also roads that have since been straightened do things like make 90 degree turns.

It's a lot easier for 1916 and 1934, because Bower Hill is there and many of the roads in Cedarhurst are laid out (as well as most of the rest of Mt. Lebanon). It helps to have Yahoo Maps open at the same time. I don't know about you, but the roads we knew around there look different in my mind than how they look on a map. I think that for 1916 it's Plate 32 or 33 or something of the South Hills and Vicinity general map. I'll look it up when I'm not running out the door (as I am today).

Part of the problem is that the maps take forever to load, too.

Re: Tits and Ass Watkins.

[flw.livejournal.com]

Not for one-11 with his bitchin' new macintosh and blazin' work computer!

Thanks, sp, I am going to go rooting around there now. I really know the feel of that place, and to see old maps feels homey.