Source:Swetnam/content
There's a lot of history written in the streets of Pittsburgh—with even a few errors, additions and corrections.
Nearly every war has left its mark in street names, from the French-and-Indian conflict, in which Ft. Duquesne first was set up "at the forks of the Ohio," down to World War II.
Liberty Ave. took its name from the zeal that brought on the Revolution, when the word was a rallying cry, and marked itself on towns and streets all over this district.
During the Prohibition era, when attacks on "personal liberty" by drys had thrown the word into disrepute, an effort was made to change the name to "Freedom St." Happily, it was a complete failure.
Incidentally, it was the thing which most marred Liberty Ave. for years that has made it the fine, wide thoroughfare it is in a city where space too often was forgotten in the early days.
Man on Foot Preceded Trains
Until 1906 freight trains ran on Liberty, preceded for many years by a man on foot, waving a red flag and ringing a bell.
A lot of changes have gone through in street names, some regrettable.
The streets running from Liberty to the Allegheny River were first caled [sic] Point, Duquesne (not Duquesne Way) Marbury, Hay, Evans, Pitt, Cecil, St. Clair, Irvine, Hand and Wayne, mostly for men whose names figure in Pittsburgh's early history.
Then some drab soul gave them numbers instead of names, and First and Second Streets finally disappeared when the Exposition Grounds were laid out.
Later changes gave the names of Barbeau, Fancourt and Stanwix, instead of Third, Fourth and Fifth. Efforts were made to rename the next four Federal, Sandusky, Ellsmere and Anderson to match North Side ones opposite, but they still bear only numbers in the Triangle.
Cities change sometimes so that names are about the only sign of former characteristics.
St. Patrick St., for instance, once was in "Irishtown." Now few of the residents' names are reminiscent of the Emerald Isle.
For similar reasons, a strong effort was made to change Beltzhoover Ave. to Tulane street "or nearly anything else we can spell," a few years ago. Like many another such effort, it failed.
One Traces to a Gun Duel
Sometimes, though, names just change of themselves. A Hill District street named for an Indian girl, "Cuba-You-Quit," long since has drifted down to the commonplace name of "Cuba Way."
Sometimes a commonplace name shields a romantic story. Such a one is Bates St., which runs from Oakland down to the Monongahela River.
In the narrow valley it traverses, the brilliant young newspaperman, Tarleton Bates, was shot to death in a duel in post-Revolutionary days.
The recent war has left at least three names on Pittsburgh streets.
In Oakland, the thoroughfare known as Elsinore Sq. since 1900 was renamed Joe Hammer Sq. in 1944, for Lt. Joseph Hammer, who had lived there all his life, and was killed in Europe.
An unnamed street in Mt. Washington was given the title of Lauria Way at the request of the widow of Pvt. Anthony Lauria, who also was killed in Europe.
Tokyo St., on the North Side, was changed to Tokay, a name it still bears. But an effort to rename Berlin Way, in the Strip, as Moran Way, seems to have failed. The maps still call it Berlin.
Sometimes blunders creep in, nobody seems to know how. For instance, Redoubt Alley, which runs at The Press' side door, and never came anywhere near the old Blockhouse, came to be renamed Blockhouse Way, somewhere between 1800 and 1900.
