Source:Fleming-wylie
George T. Fleming. "Wylie avenue home of many officials: Main thoroughfare to Hill district plays prominent part in city's history: Old time memories." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Oct. 24, 1915, sec. 5, p. 2. Newspapers.com 85899235.
WYLIE AVENUE is a commemorative name of a once well-known family in Pittsburgh.
Stephen Wylie, grandfather of the late Gen. John A. Wiley owned in his day much of the hill extending from the present line of Wylie avenue from Francies [sic] street out, and down over the brow of the hill overlooking the Pennsylvania Railroad and Allegheny River, to about where the buildings of the West Penn Hospital once stood.
Sometimes the name of the street is spelled Wiley, but the family name was originally Wylie. The alteration from Wylie to Wiley occurred to please someone's fancy.
Gen. Wiley attested this and once told Stephen Quinon, a former well-known newspaperman of Pittsburgh, that the application of the name to the street was in commemoration of his grandfather.
William Wylie, the father of Gen. Wiley, kept a family history of which the general had distinct recollections. This record proved that the spelling Wylie, as it has remained in the avenue, was the original family name.
The late Matthew Tibby of Sharpsburg, when Mr. Quinon was publishing his historical articles in the Pittsburgh Times and Daily News, in 1896, and subsequently, wrote a note to the Times in which he stated that Stephen Wylie had a son-in-law who was chief of police when Gabriel Adams was mayor of Pittsburgh, but Mr. Tibby had forgotten his name.
Gen. Wiley's Home.
Gen. John A. Wiley was born in the old frame house that stood for many years at the top of the cut near Francis street, on the north side of Wylie avenue. The late George Ewart stated to Mr. Quinon that he remembered John A. Wiley from his school days, and that William Wylie, John's father, was at one time tax collector in Pitt township and moved away from the old home about 1866.
Mr. Quinon stated:
In 1851 Wylie street was opened from Crawford to Arthurs street, at the top of the hill.
Old directories so state.
There may have been an ordinance to that effect, but there are many "hill boys" who have scarcely reached three score who can attest that it was not. These will remember the stone quarry at Tannehill street that closed the street and Keefe's old brick yard that occupied the present line of Vine street in the rear of the abandoned St. Paul's Orphan Asylum and Tannehill street, between that street and Arthurs street.
When Wylie street was put through to Arthurs it was laid out to its present terminus at Herron avenue, but not graded until about 1873. When the three hill streets, Bedford, Webster and Wylie, were graded and paved huge cuts were necessary. Some remain yet and mar the rustic beauty of that section of the hill.
Some Old Records.
The cut on Bedford avenue at Somers street and the cuts on Wylie at Watt street and beyond Francis are yet in evidence.
George H. Thurston's first directory of Pittsburgh, 1856, in the suburban list of residents, under the designation "Pitt township, East Liberty, etc.," gives the name: "William Wiley, gent, Morgan street, Pitt township."
This is in the neighborhood of the old home on what is now Wylie avenue.
John A. Wiley was born in Pittsburgh in 1843, and when the Civil War broke out was residing with his parents at the Pitt township home, now on Wylie avenue. He enlisted April 17, 1861, in Company G, Eighth Pennsylvania Reserves, and served until the end of the war.
He removed to the oil regions after the war and was prominent there for the remainder of his life. President McKinley appointed him a brigadier general of volunteers during the Spanish-American War. Gov. Stuart appointed him major general of the Pennsylvania National Guard in 1907, in which he had served as brigadier general from 1887.
Gen. Wiley died at his home in Franklin, Pa., December 28, 1909, having been retired from active service in the guard but a short time.
Wylie avenue has remained the main thoroughfare to the Hill district, that is, to old Fulton street, now called Fullerton. From there the main road, as of old, goes to Center avenue.
This is not strange when the steep grades of the other streets are considered. Above Fullerton street the tracks and slot of the old cable line are yet in place, and it may be remarked also that they were until the first "Hump cutting" began also in place on Webster avenue at Grant street.
Old Cable Road.
This line, opened about 1890, came in and went out Wylie to Thirty-third street, now Herron avenue, the terminal at the old car barns of the horse line known as the Central Passenger Railway Company.
The dips in Wylie avenue made the maintenance hard and with many turns downtown cables wore out quickly. The tracks turned at High street, now Sixth avenue, at Wood street, Fourth avenue, Grant, Webster, and High, and thence out Wylie, a straight road to the terminal.
With a car off the track quite often, a broken grip—a huge, heavy clamp worked by a lever in the car—and the cable breaking with astonishing frequency, the sureness of a ride on the Wylie avenue cable was about as good a thing to gamble on in the way of risk that any sport could desire.
The power house was at Tunnel street, where the stone buildings still stand. In order to pass the vault where the short or downtown cable ended it was necessary to release the grip and permit the car to "drift" over the vault section by its momentum.
Even with all these drawbacks the cable line was a potent factor in developing the Minersville district, or the old Thirteenth Ward, and in the history of that district deserves this mention.
Distinguished Pittsburghers resided on Wylie avenue and for years it was a residence street. A few retail stores, drug stores and groceries comprised the business part.
At the corner of Wylie and Elm street were the livery stables of the McCallin Brothers, William, James and John. Later they moved above Elm street to a large and commodious brick.
Here were headquarters politically of the old Seventh Ward for many years. The old frames at Elm street were razed and the present buildings erected.
Old residents of the Hill will remember the wagon service of the McCallin Brothers in hauling the women's market baskets on market days, Wednesdays and Saturdays, from the Diamond Market. Regular trips were made and on Saturday the small boys, who were permitted to help deliver, were in their element, their reward being the ride on the wagon.
The service extended to Tannehill street only. It did not pay to haul beyond that. Market patrons living beyond Tannehill street had to depend on the horse cars for that. No pilfering was allowed and this rule was strictly adhered to. If a boy was caught extracting a juicy apple or a luscious peach from a basket his days on the Market express were over.
"Pay in Shinplasters."
The McCallin Brothers were honest and faithful. The charge per basket was a dime, paid in a "shinplaster" United States 10-cent note or in pennies. This service ceased about 1870 and was fairly remunerative.
McCallin Brothers were also well-known horsemen and "Johnny" McCallin a noted driver on the track. They were always on hand at the races, especially at Oakland Park, where Maj. Harvey Van Vorhees held forth as proprietor. This park is the site of the Grant boulevard between Fifth and Forbes, and the Hotel Schenley, but that's a Fifth avenue story.
William McCallin was successively coroner, treasurer and sheriff of Allegheny county, and then mayor of Pittsburgh. At the old stable were wont to gather the prominent citizens of the Wylie avenue district to discuss politics and the affairs of the nation and city, and all those who loved a horse gathered there.
Prominent among these were the late Thomas B. Riter, a brother-in-law of the McCallins; Henry P. McCulloch, Hunt P. Butler, depot master at the old Union Station; Col. "Sam" Kilgore, William B. Hays, fire commissioner and subsequently Mayor; City Controller Robert M. Snodgrass, "Charley" Jeremy, one of the best horsemen in the city, and many more.
Henry I. Gourley got his first training in politics under the McCallins, and he made an apt scholar. He was elected first to the Select Council, was president of that body for a number of years, then Mayor and controller.
Inmates of "Mayor's Row."
He had been principal of the Grant School and a schoolbook agent and author of a series of books, which business he maintained until his death in 1899.
Gourley lived in "Mayors' Row," on the north side of Wylie, below Logan street. William McCallin lived in this row also, and two former mayors had resided there, James Blackmore and Jared M. Brush.
We have the latter's name commemorated in the term Brushton, once a borough on the eastern edge of the city and now part of the present Thirteenth Ward.
Blackmore was a Democrat, but very popular. Brush was prominent in the politics of the Republican party for a lifetime. He was a proprietor of a boiler works in lower Penn avenue. Mr. Blackmore was interested in coal mines. He was a son-in-law of Jacob Ewart of Center avenue, Minersville.
Blackmore was three times a candidate for mayor and twice elected. The first time under a special law (April 6, 1867) but held office only a year. Republican leaders in the "State of Allegheny," as Lincoln termed it, could scarcely tolerate a Democrat in the important office of mayor of Pittsburgh.
Blackmore was first elected in 1867, the elections then being held in December. He defeated John W. Riddell, an attorney and a resident of Lawrenceville, but recently annexed to the city with the East End districts. The vote was: Blackmore, 5,638; Riddell, 2,861, giving Blackmore the decisive majority of 2,777.
Battle Cry Futile.
The next year was a presidential year, when Grant and Colfax, and Seymour and Blair were candidates and the former elected.
Then arose the war cry of the Democrats, especially in the "bloody Fifth" Ward, or "Bull Run District," the section about the present Gazette Times Building. This war cry was "Seymour and Blair, and Black-ey-moor-fer Mayor."
But it was a futile cry, for Blackmore's term shortened by the legislative enactment necessitated his second candidacy and he went down in a Republican tidal wave, defeated by his near neighbor, Jared M. Brush (their residences four doors apart). The vote this time was: Brush, 7,275; Blackmore, 5,722; a large increase, about one-third over the previous year's vote and a majority for Brush of 1,553.
Blackmore was again a candidate in 1871 and was successful over Capt. Benjamin W. Morgan, but the vote fell off from 1868. The figures are: Blackmore, 6,166; Morgan, 4,830; Blackmore's majority, 1,336. He served out his term and was succeeded by William C. McCarthy in 1875, it being McCarthy's second term. McCarthy defeated John B. Guthrie, father of ex-Mayor George W. Guthrie.
William McCallin defeated Bernard McKenna in 1887 and Gourley the late Judge John H. Bailey in 1890. Commencing with Brush's term the duration was three years. It is now four, since Mayor Magee's incumbency.
Col. "Sam" Kilgore, the title coming from his command of the Fourteenth Regiment in the National Guard of Pennsylvania, was first county treasurer 1871–1874, and in 1878 was elected city treasurer. During the Civil War he served as captain of Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was severely wounded at the battle of Peebles' Farm, Va., September 30, 1864. He was brevetted major for gallantry in action.
Something Doing.
To write the politics of the city is not the scope of this article. Sufficient the above to show there was always something doing in a political way in the old Seventh Ward part of Wylie avenue and a little in the Eighth (above Logan street), not to mention the Eleventh and Thirteenth, all fertile fields for politics with many Elis "getting there" in good shape.
The history of Wylie avenue is not complete without mention of the Good Intent Engine Company, whose house stood below Logan street a few doors, on the south side of the street. It was a typical engine house of the volunteer department days, a two-story brick with a bell tower.
The company never owned a steamer and for some years prior to 1870, when the paid department was instituted, the Good Intent boys ran only the hose carriage which carried about 500 feet of rubber hose and was pulled by ropes in a double line. They had sold their hand engine and never got rich enough to buy a steam engine.
It was the custom in the volunteer days to run to the nearest engine house on discovering a fire, and ring that house's signal on the bell, first giving a long series of wild clanging. The signal was taken up by the other houses, which rang their bells and kept them ringing. Allegheny companies took up the alarm and rang also.
Alarm Outlasts Fire.
This meant that alarms were frequently kept going for some time after a fire was out. The fire alarm system instituted in 1866 changed this.
When the men went out with the apparatus it was the duty of any boy in the neighborhood to keep the bell ringing, the doors of the houses being left wide open. All the boys in the old Franklin district can testify to having rung the Good Intents bell until the firemen returned and stopped them.
The Good Intent's house was a good rallying and recruiting station in the Civil War days, like all the other engine houses, and most of the Good Intent fellows went into the One Hundred and Second Regiment under Colonel, later Gen. Thomas A. Rowley. The old house was torn down about 1871 and a store arose on the site.
Wylie was a street noted for the residences of physicians. Old-time medical men who had their homes on lower Wylie were Dr. A. M. Pollock, William A. Hallock, M. O. Brown, W. Snively and Alexander Black, the latter, a brother of Col. Samuel W. Black, maintaining his office and residence next to David Reed's, one door below Congress street, on the north side. A church is now on the Reed property.
Down at Federal street, now called Fernando, on each corner there were frames, an icehouse on the lower corner and an old frame row on the upper.
These latter buildings were torn down in the '70s to erect the present building, which now stands with a mansard but originally was without one. It was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1887.
Start of College.
The upper stories were occupied by the Catholic College at its inception a few years previously, which moved to Bluff street about 1883, changing the corporate name to the Pittsburgh College of the Holy Ghost, and a few years ago to the present designation, the Duquesne University of Pittsburgh.
Across where the old ice house stood the late Adam Mercer Brown built a fine home, which still stands, many years, however, with a store front. Mr. brown [sic], better known as Maj. Brown, will be remembered as the first "recorder" of Pittsburgh in 1901. He was succeeded in a few months by Joseph O. Brown, and he by William B. Hays, and then the term recorder was dropped—and we have had our mayors since.
Maj. Brown was the father of Judge Marshall Brown.
William B. Hays in his youth lived in Wylie avenue in the block above Logan street, on the right side going up.
Charles A. Colton, founder and many years secretary of the Dollar Savings Bank, lived two doors below Hays. Thomas B. Riter, "Sam" Kilgore and David Fitzsimmons lived in this block.