Source:Fleming-old-map-4
George T. Fleming. "History from an old map: Fourth chapter of the story evolved from Masson's map of Pittsburgh of 1805—lot owners on Fourth and Fifth streets, now avenues—the Diamond Square lots and the old jail: The rugged, broken topography of the era depicted—Craig's recollections quoted—some noted realty owners' names, Samuel Jones, Ephraim Blaine, Ephraim Douglass—Alexander Fowler, patriot and orator." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Aug. 6, 1922, sec. 6, p. 10. Newspapers.com 85915679.
THE last chapter of our "History From an Old Map," printed in The Gazette Times, July 23d, last, was concluded with some relevant matter after mention of lots 337, 338 on William Masson's map of Pittsburgh, published in 1805. We will therefore go to lot 339 on the map and find it a large triangle owned by William Turnbull at that time. This lot is familiar to this generation as the site of the former Wabash Railroad passenger station and overhead yards, now the property of the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad. The remainder of the block bounded by Fourth avenue, Liberty street, Diamond and Delray streets, is irregular in shape, geometrically a trapezoid with right angles at Fourth and Delray and Diamond and Delray streets. The latter in the early years of Pittsburgh, from 1794 to the erection of the Court House on Grant's Hill, about 1840, was always called Jail alley, because the first jail, a stone building facing Diamond square, was situated there. In many histories of Pittsburgh the picture of this jail is given with the information that it is a picture of the first bank in Pittsburgh. William G. Johnston, born in the vicinity in 1828, and familiar with the building from his earliest years, gives a picture of the first bank building in his "Life and Reminiscences" and exposes the erroneous portrayal of the old jail. Masson's crude sketch of a building on the lot is marked "Jail," and depicts a two-story building with a large door at the entrance from the street and a window on each side. The building stood on lot 341. There are five lots on this block, the plan shows: Nos. 339, 340, were owned by John Irwin, and 343 at Diamond and Liberty, by Hugh Ross.
Right here we may stop and ponder. We know Ferry street extends to Liberty at Diamond. Delray street was once called Decatur, a street of the same name on the Hill having been changed to and since known as Hazel. In Riddle's Directory of Pittsburgh, published in 1815 in his enumeration of the streets, he mentions "Chancery lane, called in this work, Jail alley." Chancery lane ends at Fourth avenue now, almost opposite Delray street. We are justified in assuming that in Riddle's time Delray was regarded as part of the lane.
The question arises, "Does Ferry street in Woods' original plan of Pittsburgh end at Fourth avenue?" Thomas Vickroy, who was Woods' assistant in the survey which was made in May, 1784, in a deposition made in December, 1841, gives the details of the survey, mentioning all the streets but Ferry in the narration of their field work. We are to remember that this lower portion of peninsular Pittsburgh, the original Pittsburgh, was much cut up; cut in rather by which old-timers most inelegantly called "guts," and ponds and many gullies. The people living in Water street in 1784 objected to the width of the street, saying it was to [sic] narrow, to which Mr. Woods replied that they would be digging cellars and then they could fill up the gullies and make a fine street.
Vickroy said further that there was a narrow place at the mouth of Ferry street, and lower down there was a great gut at the mouth of Wood street which made an ugly crossing. This was the outlet of the immense pond known as Hogg's Pond, which extended from Fourth avenue past Strawberry alley at Grant street. When we remember that this pond got all the drainage from Grant's Hill on that side and much of that from what we now call the "Hill," the Wylie avenue section, we can readily believe that the pond, except in times of drouth, was filled with water.
So, too, the pond that had its outlet at Ferry and Water streets. This was not as large as Hogg's Pond, extending only from Fourth to Fifth streets (now avenues), and from Delray street to Liberty. The Ferry street pond began to widen at Third street, now avenue. Neville B. Craig, in his "History of Pittsburgh," described the lower section of Old Pittsburgh as he knew it in his boyhood; writing in 1850, he states:
"South of Market street, between Front and Water streets, was another pond, and still another in the square in front of where the St. Charles Hotel stands. Finally there was Hogg's Pond, extending along the north side of Grant's Hill up to Seventh street. From this pond there was a low, ugly drain extending down nearly parallel to Wood street to the river. A stone bridge was built across this gully in Front street, probably soon after the borough was incorporated, because without it the gully would be very difficult to pass."
Mr. Craig was describing conditions in 1798, at which time he was 11 years old. Front street, we are to remember, is now First avenue. There was no levee or wharf in those years and the river banks were high and badly broken. The town was incorporated a borough in 1794. Mr. Craig says further:
"Fifty years, nay even 30 years ago, nothing could be less pleasing to the eye than the ragged irregular bank. From Smithfield street to near Wood the distance from the lots to the break of the bank was from 60 to 70 feet. Wood street was impassable when the river was moderately high. From Wood to Market, the distance from the lots to the break of the bank was 50 or 60 feet. At Market street there was a deep gully worn into the bank so that a wagon could barely pass along. At the mouth of Chancery lane there was another chasm in the bank so that a horse could not pass between a post at the corner of a lot and the precipitous bank. At the mouth of Ferry street there was another similar contraction of the way so that it required very careful driving for a wagon to pass along. At Redoubt alley there was quite a steep and stony descent down to the level of the covered archway of which I have before spoken, etc."
The name of Redoubt alley has been changed to Blockhouse way. Mr. Craig refers to an underground passage that extended from Fort Pitt to the Colonel Grant redoubt on Water street, just above the gully at Redoubt alley. This gully was the outlet of the pond between Fourth and Fifth streets, along Liberty avenue through which Ferry street was later extended, thus bi-secting the lots 339–342 in Mason's plan. Haumann, in his map of Pittsburgh in 1795, published in 1869, shows all these lots under water except a small portion of No. 338 at Fourth and Liberty.
Coming back to Masson's map, we find the lots across Delray street extend to Market street and the west side of Diamond Square. Two lots reach Market street, Nos. 343, 344, the owners, Robert Williams and John Irwin respectively. Two short lots, 345, 346, reach the Diamond, the owners, Francis D. Byerle and Hugh H. Brackenridge, the celebrated Judge Brackenridge, the first press agent of the town of Pittsburgh, elaborately booming the place in The Pittsburgh Gazette in the very first issue ofi [sic] the paper, July 28, 1779, and for five weeks thereafter. These writings were subsequently published in book form with others of the same author under the title, "Gazette Publications." Brackenridge owned also the lot on the opposite corner, No. 398, at Diamond street and the Square.
On Market street, from Fourth to the Diamond Square there were two lots conforming to the measurements on the other side of Market street. These were Nos. 347, 348, owned by John Irwin and Robert Galbraith, respectively. The lots from this point front on Fourth avenue, there being no short lots fronting on the square, as on the west side of it. The lots to Wood street are numbered, 349–354, the owners' names in order, Robert Mial, James O'Hara, John Bradley, John Forney and Ephriam [sic] Blaine, who owned the upper two at Wood street. This man was the grandfather of James G. Blaine. The O'Hara lot, No. 350, seems to be one of the many that Gen. O'Hara sold, as old Hopkins plans of the '90's show that Thompson Bell and the old Merchants and Manufacturers Bank owned this ground.
Ephraim Blaine owned the opposite corner at Wood and Fourth, the lot No. 355; the two above were John Irwin's; the next three, William McMullin's; the next Joseph Finley and Ercuries Beatty No. 362 at Smithfield street.
No lot owner is indicated by Masson on lot 363; No. 364 was Samuel Jones', a great Pittsburgher in his day and publisher of Jones' Directory of Pittsburgh in 1826 in which he has inserted much history and description that is today invaluable from the standpoint of a writer of our local history. Samuel Jones was the first register and recorder of Allegheny county, serving, with a brief interim, from 1789 until 1818. His description of the unattractive town of Pittsburgh in 1800 grates harshly upon our sensitive nerves and dims our pride accordingly. "The streets," he said, "were filled with hogs, dogs, drays and noisy children. A solitary lamp twinkled here and there over the door of a tavern whenever the moon was in its first or last quarter. The rest of the town was involved in primeval darkness."
Mr. Jones was a contemporary of William Masson, and living nearby we can assume were acquaintances. Jones was the fatherin-law [sic] of Dr. Andrew Richardson, but they were of opposite politics. Gov. McKean ousted Jones and appointed Richardson in his place—all offices under our original Pennsylvania Constitution having been appointive, but Richardson did not like the position and did not hold that office long. The story of Richardson's activities is too long for insertion today. He was strongly a Republican as the Jeffersonians were called, while Jones was as strongly a Federalist. However, Richardson got in bad grace with his party and was badly defeated for office on two occasions, while father-in-law Jones smiled and held on. Richardson was a pioneer druggist in Pittsburgh as his advertisements in the Pittsburgh Gazette in 1799 attest. His drug store was on Market street, between Front and Water. He died in 1809. Our Pittsburgh historian, Charles W. Dahlinger, Esq., believes that Jones in his history of our embryo city has handed down "an intimate if somewhat regretful account of the early social life of the town."
Lots Nos. 365, 366, in Fourth street, above Jones', were owned by E. S. and M. Smith, as were two above Cherry alley, Nos. 367, 368. Samuel McVay owned No. 369, and George Adams 370, at the corner of Grant street. In "Riddle's Director [sic] of 1815" a line is to be found, reading:
"Jones, Samuel, register and recorder; office at the Court House; dwelling, north side of Sixth, between Wood and Smithfield."
Sixth street of those years became Sixth avenue in 1868, which it has remained. Jones' location was opposite the church lots, but Masson does not indicate Jones as a lot owner there, most of that block having been owned at the time by James Morrison, who was a merchant in Wood street, between Second and Third. James Morrison was the first sheriff of Allegheny county, the records show, and presumably later a merchant.
From Grant street, back to Liberty, the lots are numbered down, the lots extending from Diamond to Fifth. Diamond street, Masson properly marks Hammonds alley, which was that thoroughfare's original name. Four lots between Grant street and Cherry alley were numbered 371–374, on which the Frick Building now stands. However, in 1805, not a desirable property, for this ground was, until about 1840, a high, rocky hill, at least 60 feet above the present grade of Grant street. Turnbull owned lot No. 372 also; David Smith, No. 373, while No. 374 has no owner's name upon it, nor have any of the four lots in the block extending from Cherry alley to Smithfield street, now occupied by the Kaufmann store building. No. 379 is at Smithfield and Diamond, and was then owned by Thomas Wylie; Isaac Craig owned No. 380, and Hugh Ross the two immediately below; Peter Robinson held title to No. 383; George Lichtenberger to No. 384; Caspar Reeder to No. 385, and James McClelland to No. 386, which brings us to Wood street.
Across Wood street the lots were the same depth as above, extending from Diamond to Fifth street, now avenue. No. 387 was owned by Patrick Murphy, as was No. 388 next below; John Craig owned No. 389, and Alexander Fowler No. 389 [sic]. Here the lots vary, Nos. 391 and 392 are parallel to Fifth and two short lots front on the Diamond. Ephraim Douglass owned Nos. 391, 392, 393. Masson's peculiar handwriting, very small in the reproduction of his map, is some places hard to read the names on lot No. 394 appear to be "Ann and Charles Johston," but there is no "h" in the name Johnston. Douglass was a celebrated hero of the Revolution and a great repute as a leading citizen.
The small square bounded by the Diamond market, Fifth and old Union streets, contained two lots on which Masson neglected to place any numbers. His numbers, 395, 396, 397, are on the lots in the irregular plot bounded old Union, now Graeme street, Fifth avenue, Liberty and Diamond streets. The name, "Eph Paine," is on both ends of No. 395, with the abbreviation "Do" on Nos. 396, 397. No. 398 is Hugh H. Brackenridge's holding, as has been noted.
We may believe the name "Paine" to have been inadvertently written and to have been intended for Blaine. Masson was guilty of mistakes; one has just been cited, "Jonston" for Johnston. On lot 399, Masson spells Brackenridge without the d, but correctly on lot No. 346, on the opposite side of Diamond street, fronting on the square.
We stop today at lot 400, which included the triangle bounded by Fifth avenue, Market and Liberty streets, on which faintly appears on the map the R. Williams, the last name divided thus, Willia-ms.
The agent of the Penns' heirs, Tench Francis, an attorney of Philadelphia, was very liberal in his allowance of area in the lots in the survey of Pittsburgh in 1784. All title searchers know these original lot boundaries were subdivided; many several times, so that the words "being lot or piece of ground in the town of Pittsburgh as marked in Col. Wood's plan of said town No. ⸻ bounded etc.," are of frequent record in old deeds.
Alexander Fowler recorded as the owner of lot No. 390, was one of Pittsburgh's great men of Masson's years. Fowler was an old soldier, an Englishman by birth, who had served in America in the Eighteenth or Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, in which command he held a commission. This he resigned for he was a thorough patriot. Unfit for active duties in the field the Continental Congress appointed him auditor of the Western Department at Pittsburgh. In 1802 Fowler was the commander of Allegheny county's quota of the Pennsylvania militia which consisted of eight regiments. Gen. Fowler was an ardent Republican and a steady contributor to the columns of the Pittsburgh Gazette, and to another paper in the town, "The Fire of Liberty." His writings replete with classic allusions fill many columns of those old papers. He was given to platitudes and was strong of voice in his oratory, and altogether to use an old time and homely metaphor, was "some pumpkins." He left the Republican party and was a bitter opponent of the "Clapboardian Democracy" as he termed the "Clapboard Row Junto," a select coterie of politicians who had their headquarters at the "Sign of the General Butler" a celebrated tavern in the celebrated Row on Market street. A complete story of Gen. Fowler would exhaust the entire allotment of space for today's contribution of Masson map matter.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
