Point Breeze Place
| Point Breeze Place | |
|---|---|
| Neighborhood | Point Breeze North |
| Origin of name | Point Breeze neighborhood, ultimately from the Point Breeze Hotel |
| Point Breeze Court (until 1954) | |
| Origin of name | Point Breeze neighborhood |
Originally Point Breeze Court, the name was changed to Point Breeze Place when the dedication of the street was accepted by a city ordinance in 1954.[1]
The street is named for the Point Breeze neighborhood, which in turn is named for the old Point Breeze Hotel that stood at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Penn Avenue where Mellon Park is today.[2][3][4][5][6] The hotel appears on maps at least as early as 1851 and as late as 1882.[7][8][9][10][11] In his 1901 autobiography, William G. Johnston (1828–1913) reminisced about the hotel:[12]:107–108
In the following summer [1839], I spent about two months at the Point Breeze tavern, kept by a Mrs. Parker. (As I write—October, 1886,—this house is being demolished, its site to be included in the grounds of Mr. William Carr.) Its situation was at the junction of the Greensburg Pike and the Fourth Street road; a short distance east of East Liberty. I would be better understood now, perhaps, were I to say that it stood where Penn and Fifth Avenues meet. . . . The suppers served were likewise truly delicious. Even yet I recall the frogs, so daintily cooked, and the savory smell which filled the long, low dining-room, where a table groaning with every sort of delicacy was surrounded by guests. . . . I usually spent the afternoons watching the gentlemen play at ten-pins; I knew them all, and all knew me.
Later in the book, while describing routes taken on horseback in his youth, he comes again to the hotel:[12]:293
And still farther on, at the forks of the road, where the Greensburg pike (now Penn Avenue) and the Fourth Street Road (now Fifth Avenue) met, was still another hostelry of wide fame, kept by a prince among landlords,—Henry Barker. This was the "Point Breeze Hotel,"—the same at which under his predecessor I spent part of the summer in 1839; and which I had known even earlier when one Thomas McKeown was its host, who probably built it.
Where the roads met was a great watering-trough, and a tall post, with a swinging sign at its top, making known to all, not yet apprised of the fact, its name and that of its genial host.
References
- ↑ "An ordinance accepting the dedication of Point Breeze Court as shown on the 'Charles Hall Plan of Lots' in the Fourteenth Ward of the City of Pittsburgh laid out by Charles Hall for public highway purposes, opening and changing the name thereof to Point Breeze Place, fixing the width and position of the roadway and sidewalks thereof, establishing the grade thereof, accepting the grading, paving, curbing and sewering of the same, and accepting the sewering on a 15.0 foot casement extending from the northerly terminus of Point Breeze Place to June Way." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1954, no. 179. Passed June 1, 1954; approved June 4, 1954. Ordinance Book 59, p. 307. Reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 9, 1954, p. 22 (Newspapers.com 90127539), and June 10, p. 19 (Newspapers.com 90127704). [view source] ordinance-1954-179
- ↑ Annie Clark Miller. Early Land Marks and Names of Old Pittsburgh: An Address Delivered Before the Pittsburgh Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution at Carnegie Institute, Nov. 30, 1923, p. 46. Pittsburgh Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, 1924. Historic Pittsburgh 00awn8211m; Internet Archive earlylandmarksna00mill. [view source] miller
- ↑ Albert W. Bloom. "Pittsburgh today made up of many villages: City a composite of 25 to 30 municipalities whose separate identities meant much years ago." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan. 14, 1953, Daily Magazine, [p. 1]. Newspapers.com 89450362. [view source] bloom-villages
- ↑ Franklin Toker. Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait, p. 221. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Penna., 1986, ISBN 0-271-00415-0. LCCN 85-71786. [view source] toker
- ↑ Bob Regan. The Names of Pittsburgh: How the City, Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks and More Got Their Names, p. 46. The Local History Company, Pittsburgh, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9770429-7-5. [view source] regan
- ↑ Sarah L. Law. Pittsburgh's Point Breeze, p. 8. Images of America. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, S. C., 2014, ISBN 978-1-4671-2233-7. LCCN 2014932586. [view source] law
- ↑ Sidney & Neff and S. McRea. Map of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, with the Names of Property-Holders. Philadelphia, 1851. LCCN 2012592150. [view source] sidney-neff
- ↑ S. N. & F. W. Beers. Map of Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Smith, Gallup & Hewitt, Philadelphia, 1862. LCCN 2012592151; https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/31783; 1862 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source] beers
- ↑ Atlas of the Cities of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, and the Adjoining Boroughs. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1872. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1872-atlas-pittsburgh-allegheny; 1872 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source] hopkins-1872
- ↑ Atlas of the Cities of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, and the Adjoining Boroughs. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1876. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1876-atlas-pittsburgh-allegheny; included in the 1872 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source] hopkins-1876
- ↑ Atlas of the Cities Pittsburgh and Allegheny. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1882. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1882-atlas-pittsburgh-allegheny; 1882 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source] hopkins-1882
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 William G. Johnston. Life and Reminiscences from Birth to Manhood of Wm. G. Johnston. Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1901. Google Books N-QEAAAAYAAJ; Historic Pittsburgh 00adj9508m; Internet Archive lifereminiscence00john. [view source] johnston
