Stevenson Place
| Stevenson Place | |
|---|---|
| Neighborhood | Shadyside |
| Origin of name | Stevenson Building, from the George K. Stevenson Co. |
| Beitler Street (until 1911) | |
| Origin of name | John Beitler |
| Houston Street (1911–1988) | |
Stevenson Place is named for the Stevenson Building at the corner of Centre and Highland Avenues.[1][2] The name was given in 1988, when the building was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.[2]
The Stevenson Building was built in 1896 by the George K. Stevenson Company, a grocery business that began as John Porterfield and Company downtown in 1826.[1][3][4]:158 George K. Stevenson came from Ireland as a young boy in 1845, worked for Porterfield, and later bought the business.[4]:158 His son James B. Stevenson built the building in East Liberty and ran the store there.[1][4]:158 The building was designed by W. Ross Proctor.[1] The Stevenson Company closed in 1977.[3]
The street was laid out as Beetler Street in 1865 in a plan of lots for William P. Baum,[5] more commonly spelled Beitler Street.[6] The name is that of John "Pap" Beitler, an early settler in East Liberty, who had a tavern on Beitler Square at the intersection of Minersville Road (today Centre Avenue) and the Philadelphia Pike (today Penn Avenue).[4]:48 Beitler advertised lots for sale in East Liberty near the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1860.[7]
In 1911 Beitler Street was renamed Houston Street.[8]
Bob Regan includes "Stevenson" in a list of streets named for noted historical people, which according to the index is referring to Stevenson Place; unfortunately, he gives no further details.[9] It is not clear who Regan had in mind—perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish novelist, since Regan's list appears to include many other writers. It seems that Regan is in error here, since the family of Pittsburgh grocers was not famous historically.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Dargate Galleries and Fine Arts. "Relive the fashionable past in Dargate Galleries." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mar. 30, 1987, p. 5. Newspapers.com 89380007. [view source] dargate
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jane Shaw. "Et cetera." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 23, 1988, p. 17. Newspapers.com 89968141. [view source] shaw
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 East End/East Liberty Historical Society. Pittsburgh's East Liberty Valley, p. 43. Images of America. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, S. C., 2008, ISBN 978-0-7385-5489-1. LCCN 2007926962. [view source] east-liberty
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 John Fulton Stuart Collins, Jr. "Stringtown on the Pike": Tales and History of East Liberty and the East Liberty Valley of Pennsylvania: Its Origin, Early Struggles and the People Who Shaped Its Destiny, Past and Present, Together with Related Stories of Old "Pittsburg" Coincident with the Settlement of "Stringtown." East Liberty Chamber of Commerce, Pittsburgh. LCCN 65027412. [view source] stringtown
- ↑ "Plan of building lots situate in East Liberty: Laid out at the request of Wm. P. Baum Esq." Laid out May 1865; recorded Oct. 23, 1865, Plan Book 3, pp. 86–87. Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds 3778521. [view source] wm-p-baum-plan
- ↑ Atlas of the City of Pittsburgh, vol. 4. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1890. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1890-volume-4-atlas-pittsburgh; included in the 1890 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source] hopkins-1890-vol-4
- ↑ John Beitler. "Building lots for sale." Pittsburgh Post, Mar. 24, 1860, [p. 3]. Newspapers.com 88176693. [view source] beitler
- ↑ "An ordinance changing the names of certain streets, avenues and alleys in the City of Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1911, no. 558. Passed Feb. 14, 1911; approved Feb. 16, 1911. Ordinance Book 22, p. 498. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the [Select and Common Councils] of the City of Pittsburgh for the Years 1910–1911, appendix, pp. 322–323, Devine & Co., Pittsburgh, 1911 (Google Books 0X0zAQAAMAAJ; HathiTrust uiug.30112108223840; Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1910). Reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post, Mar. 10, 1911, p. 13 (Newspapers.com 86499788), and Mar. 11, p. 13 (Newspapers.com 86499822). [view source] ordinance-1911-558
- ↑ Bob Regan. The Names of Pittsburgh: How the City, Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks and More Got Their Names, p. 63. The Local History Company, Pittsburgh, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9770429-7-5. [view source] regan
