Highman Street

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Highman Street
Neighborhood Westwood
Origin of name Possibly a pun on nearby Lohrman Way, misheard as "Lowman," because this street is on a hill
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Amherst Avenue (until 1927)
Origin of name Amherst College
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Lohrman Street (1942–1945)
Street names in central Westwood in 1914, after the passage of ordinance no. 402.

This street appears as Amherst Avenue in the 1905 Hopkins atlas as part of the Westwood Plan,[1] laid out by C. B. Harmon.[2] It was named for Amherst College. Nearly all of the avenues in this plan were originally named for colleges and universities;[3] in addition to Amherst Avenue, the plan included the following:[1]

Street names in 1927, after the passage of ordinance no. 244.

In 1927, after the annexation of Westwood into the city of Pittsburgh, Amherst Avenue was renamed Highman Street to fix the duplication with Amherst Avenue in Brighton Heights.[4][5] A segment of the old Shady Boulevard (today the southwesternmost part of Shadyhill Road) was also renamed Highman Street; Shadyhill Road was redirected south, along today's Elmdale Road.[4]

Some residents told a story about the origin of the name Highman: the name was supposed to be Lohrman Street, to match the existing Lohrman Way, but a City Council member misheard it as "Lowman" and suggested that "Highman" would be more appropriate since the street is on a hill.[6]

Street names in 1942, after the passage of ordinance no. 283.

The two Highman Streets that did not quite connect caused confusion, so in 1942 the eastern one (today's Highman Street) was indeed renamed Lohrman Street.[7]

Street names in May 1945, after the passage of ordinance no. 137.

This did not solve the problem. It seems that the new street name was not adequately communicated, and residents still believed there were two Highman Streets. The routing of Shadyhill Road to the south was also seen as confusing, since the natural course of the road was to the west.[8][9] In a second attempt to fix the problem, in May 1945 Shadyhill was rerouted to the west (to its current route), and its old southern end (today's Elmdale Road) was changed to Rosewick Street.[10]

Street names in October 1945, after the passage of ordinance no. 384.

But in August of that year, a resident of Shadyhill Road, George E. Harr, petitioned City Council to have Rosewick changed back to Shadyhill.[11] The result was an ordinance that reversed the previous two ordinances, and the street names returned to what they had been at the beginning of 1942.[12]

The rapidly shifting street names caused even more confusion. G. E. Goldstrom complained that he wasn't sure whether he lived on Shadyhill Road or on the corner of Highman Street and Highman Street.[6] It seems that he thought the southern part of Shadyhill Road (today's Elmdale Road) might have been named Highman Street too. Goldstrom led a push to reroute Shadyhill Road back to the west; he was opposed by Harr.[13][14] The situation led to arguments in City Council, and it seems that no one was really sure what the streets were called: it was claimed that there were three streets named Highman.[15][16][17]

Street names in August 1946, after the passage of ordinance no. 340.

In the end, an ordinance was passed in August 1946 that rerouted Shadyhill Road back to the west, changed the old southern end to Elmdale Road, and preserved the name Highman Street for the street that was originally named Amherst.[17][18][19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Real Estate Plat-Book of the Southern Vicinity of Pittsburgh, plate 18. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1905. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1905-plat-book-southern-pittsburgh; included in the 1903–1906 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source] hopkins-1905
  2. ↑ Plat-Book of the City of Pittsburgh, vol. 7, plate 22. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1917, revised 1928. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1917-volume-7-plat-book-pittsburgh-south-side-southern; included in the 1923 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source] hopkins-1917-vol-7
  3. ↑ Bob Regan. The Names of Pittsburgh: How the City, Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks and More Got Their Names, p. 60. The Local History Company, Pittsburgh, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9770429-7-5. [view source] regan
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "An ordinance changing the names of certain avenues, streets, lanes, alleys and ways in the Twenty-eighth Ward (formerly Westwood Borough)." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1927, no. 244. Passed Mar. 28, 1927; approved Mar. 31, 1927. Ordinance Book 38, p. 448. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh: For the Year 1927, appendix, pp. 211–212, Smith Bros. Co. Inc., Pittsburgh (Google Books cZfgUddPQR0C; HathiTrust uiug.30112109819802; Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1927). [view source] ordinance-1927-244
  5. ↑ "Street names in Westwood are changed: Thirty-one given new designations to avoid duplication." Pittsburgh Post, Mar. 29, 1927, p. 5. Newspapers.com 88713819. [view source] street-names-in-westwood
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 William Cooper. "Confusing, to say the least: What's in a name? Nothing much when it's about Westwood streets: People can't be sure just where they live." Pittsburgh Press, Feb. 27, 1946, p. 4. Newspapers.com 149673571. [view source] cooper
  7. ↑ "An ordinance changing the name of HIGHMAN STREET, between Shadyhill road and Behrens way, to LOHRMAN STREET." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1942, no. 283. Passed June 22, 1942; approved June 23, 1942. Ordinance Book 52, p. 427. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh: For the Year 1942, appendix, p. 206, City Printing Company, Pittsburgh (Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1942). [view source] ordinance-1942-283
  8. ↑ "Around the town: Even residents confused on street with 3 names: Cab drivers shun it, strangers and postmen suffer; Council asked for help." Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 14, 1944, p. 11. Newspapers.com 148022422. [view source] even-residents-confused
  9. ↑ "Street puzzle in Westwood." Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, Nov. 14, 1944, p. 4. Newspapers.com 524137686. [view source] street-puzzle
  10. ↑ "An ordinance changing the names of certain avenues, streets, roads and ways in the City of Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1945, no. 137. Passed Apr. 30, 1945; approved May 1, 1945. Ordinance Book 53, p. 597. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh: For the Year 1945, appendix, p. 86, City Printing Company, Pittsburgh (Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1945). [view source] ordinance-1945-137
  11. ↑ Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh: For the Year 1945, p. 306. City Printing Company, Pittsburgh. Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1945. This book has several parts: index to proceedings, pp. 3–178; proceedings, pp. 1–544; index to appendix, pp. 1–91; and appendix (containing ordinances and resolutions), pp. 1–383. [view source] municipal-record-1945
  12. ↑ "An ordinance changing the names of certain streets, roads and ways in the 28th Ward of the City of Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1945, no. 384. Passed Oct. 29, 1945; approved Oct. 30, 1945. Ordinance Book 53, p. 738. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh: For the Year 1945, appendix, p. 202, City Printing Company, Pittsburgh (Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1945). [view source] ordinance-1945-384
  13. ↑ "Council pages King Solomon in Westwood streets fight: Some residents don't know where they live but another group argues it doesn't matter." Pittsburgh Press, Mar. 14, 1946, p. 8. Newspapers.com 149658710. [view source] council-pages-solomon
  14. ↑ "Mixup in street names protested." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mar. 14, 1946, p. 2. Newspapers.com 90310059. [view source] mixup-in-street-names
  15. ↑ "A dizzy case: It's all in name and Council's all mixed up: Too many Highman Streets is problem." Pittsburgh Press, Apr. 10, 1946, p. 6. Newspapers.com 149687384. [view source] its-all-in-name
  16. ↑ "Weir draws up a solution for that Westwood puzzle: He suggests a little hocus-pocus at the corner where you see two signs." Pittsburgh Press, Apr. 17, 1946, p. 8. Newspapers.com 149727482. [view source] weir-solution
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Around the town: Confusion in Westwood may end under new plan: City hopes to close the strange case of dazed delivery boys on Highman Sts." Pittsburgh Press, May 7, 1946, p. 9. Newspapers.com 149723481. [view source] confusion-in-westwood
  18. ↑ "Westwood to have one Highman St.: Council group votes to 'amputate' other." Pittsburgh Press, May 15, 1946, p. 24. Newspapers.com 149674395. [view source] one-highman
  19. ↑ "An ordinance changing the names of certain streets, roads, and ways in the 28th Ward of the City of Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1946, no. 340. Passed Aug. 5, 1946; approved Aug. 12, 1946. Ordinance Book 54, p. 358. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the Council of the City of Pittsburgh: For the Year 1946, appendix, p. 215, City Printing Company, Pittsburgh (Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1946). [view source] ordinance-1946-340
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