41st Street

See also Fisk Street, which was named 41st Street for less than a month in 1868.

41st Street
Neighborhood	Central Lawrenceville
Origin of name	Sequential numbering up the Allegheny River
➤ Burrows Street (1814–1868)
Origin of name	William Ward Burrows II
➤ 42nd Street (1868)
Origin of name	Sequential numbering up the Allegheny River, including Fisk Street

The original name of 41st Street was Burrows Street. It was named for William Ward Burrows II (1785–1813), a naval officer who was killed while in command of the USS Enterprise in the War of 1812 and who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The other original streets of Lawrenceville, founded in 1814 during that war with an arsenal as its central feature, were also named for military officers killed in 1813: Allen Street (today 38th Street), Pike Street (today 39th Street), and Covington Street (today 40th Street). Lawrenceville itself was named for James Lawrence (1781–1813), the naval captain famous for his last words, "Don't give up the ship!"

In 1868, Pittsburgh's modern sequence of numbered streets was created by renaming all the streets perpendicular to the Allegheny River; Burrows Street became 41st Street. The original renaming ordinance actually changed Burrows Street to 42nd Street because it included Fisk Street as 41st, but this was apparently a mistake. Less than a month later, a supplementary ordinance repealed all of the name changes east of 40th Street and redid the numbering with Fisk Street omitted, which put Burrows Street at 41st.

The 1868 ordinances also corrupted the original name of the street, spelling it Borough Street. Most sources after this date use that spelling. Bruce S. Cridlebaugh supposes the street was named for Lawrenceville Borough, but this is based on the misspelling. It is clear from the original spelling and the names of the surrounding streets, and Lawrenceville itself, that the names are those of fallen military officers.

See also

• Burrows Street