Source:Many-streets-soon-vacated
"Many streets are soon to be vacated: Pennsylvania railroad will secure permission to begin improvements: First step in the big plan: Corporations and surveys committees both assent: Baltimore & Ohio also will spend money here—traction railway refused an extension of time." Pittsburg Post, Sept. 24, 1898, p. 9. Newspapers.com 86372452.
The first public step by the Pennsylvania railroad looking toward the extensive improvements contemplated by that company for Pittsburg was taken yesterday before the surveys and corporations committees of councils. The improvements contemplated are those that have been under consideration for a long time by the company, and comprise not only the new Union station for this city, but a new freight depot and yards and a system of elevated tracks and approaches, to cost all told more than $1,000,000. The present yards and freight depot at New Grant street, as has been fully published in "The Post," are to be abandoned, to make room for the new station, and new new yards are to be established between Sixteenth and Twenty-first streets and Pike street and Allegheny river.
The petitions and ordinances considered by the committees are, vacating Seventeenth street, in the Tenth ward, between the north line of Pike street and the Allegheny river; Eighteenth street, Tenth ward, from the north line of Pike street to the south line of Railroad street, formerly O'Hara street; Nineteenth street, Twelfth ward, from the north line of Pike street to the south line of Railroad street; Twentieth street, Twelfth ward, from the north line of Pie street to the south line of Railroad street; Bindley alley, north from Pike street, between Twentieth and Twenty-first streets, a distance of 240 feet, to the intersection of an unnamed alley; unnamed alley, Twelfth ward, west from Twenty-first street, a distance of 120 feet.
All of Them Granted.
All of these petitions and ordinances were passed upon and recommended favorably to councils, as was a grant to the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company to lay an additional track along and upon Pike street, giving the company a double track along that thoroughfare.
Robert Pitcairn, superintendent of the Pittsburg division of the Pennsylvania railroad, made a statement to the committees that embraced all the features of the improvements referred to above. The abandonment of the present freight yards of the company at Grant street, he stated, was necessary, to give all the lines of the Pennsylvania system proper approaches to the new station and depot. He stated further that all the property directly interested in the vacations was owned by the company except one or two pieces, to which title had not yet been acquired, but the owners had given their assent to the closing of the streets, and had so petitioned. There was no objection urged in or out of committee by any of the people of the two wards against giving up the streets, and the property immediately adjacent, said Mr. Pitcairn, would receive benefits it would not otherwise get. The south side of Pike street, he stated, would be filled with commission houses, which would prove of more value to the property than the present structures occupying the ground.
H. K. Porter & Co. were granted a franchise for a switch track to connect their works with the Pennsylvania railroad, along Colton and Hemlock streets, in the Seventeenth ward.
Grants to the B. & O. Road.
The Baltimore & Ohio railroad was granted the right to use the Monongahela wharf, between Water street and the present location of the passenger and freight stations of the company, on which to erect a new freight depot. The company will, as has been stated previously in "The Post," spend several thousand dollars in the new improvement.
The ordinance extending the time for the completion of the track of the Brownsville Avenue Street Railway Company on a portion of Arlington avenue was referred to a special committee. This action means the practical killing of the ordinance, and as a consequence the company which desired the extension will commence work on the improvement Monday morning. The franchise was granted by councils October 4, 1897, and the company has already received one extension of time, and desired a second extension for the reason that the money necessary to build the new track was needed in making betterments of the present system. The refusal of the committee to recommend the extension forces the company to commence the improvement at once.
The following ordinances were affirmatively acted on: Establishing the grade of Kirkland street, Willard street to Homewood cemetery; of Lloyd street, Willard to Reynolds; of Fisk, Liberty avenue to Penn; of Frederick street, Friendship avenue to Coral; of Tennis, Lincoln avenue to Dagg alley; of Willard street, Dallas avenue to Homewood cemetery; of Shetland street, Larimer avenue to Lenova street; of Holtz alley, Reed to Rose; of Transit alley, Fifth avenue to Torrens street; of Cicero alley, Maple to Emerald; of Orion street, Madison to Webster avenue; of Wayne street Harmer to Brereton; of Stack alley, Gangwish to Friendship avenue; of Breedshill street, Rebecca to Atlantic avenue; changing the name of Richardson street, in the Thirty-eighth ward, to Dewey avenue; locating Sumner street, from Cobden street to Cologne street; Sylvan avenue, from Hazelwood avenue, 280 feet south; Fair Oaks street, from Beechwood avenue to Hastings street; Willard street, from Dallas avenue to Homewood cemetery; Murtland avenue, Penn avenue to Homewood cemetery; Fisk street, from Liberty avenue to Penn; re-locating Gettysburg street, from Fair Oaks street to Reynolds street; Beatty street, from Penn avenue to Baum; re-establishing the grade of Victoria street, from Darragh to Lathrop.
