Boundary Street

Boundary Street
Neighborhoods	Central Oakland, Greenfield, North Oakland, South Oakland, Squirrel Hill North
Origin of name	Eastern boundary of Pitt Township

Boundary Street is so named because it was formerly the eastern boundary of Pitt Township, separating it from Peebles Township and the borough of Lawrenceville to the east. Today it runs along or very near the official boundary between Oakland and Squirrel Hill.

The 1852 map of R. E. McGowin shows that Boundary Street originally ran the entire distance from the Allegheny River to the Monongahela River, following roughly the route of modern 33rd Street and Sassafras Street to the CSX railroad tracks in Skunk Hollow, then along the Norfolk Southern tracks and the East Busway past Centre Avenue to about Amberson Avenue, then in a straight line to the bend in Neville Street south of Fifth Avenue, and from there down Junction Hollow and Four Mile Run to the Monongahela. For a city founded between two rivers, Pittsburgh has had surprisingly few streets that run from one river to the other: today only Commonwealth Place and Stanwix Street do so.

The northernmost piece of Boundary Street was renamed 33rd Street in 1868. Other sections gradually disappeared. Today Boundary Street has two disconnected segments: one that leads down into Junction Hollow from Neville Street, and a short piece farther south in Four Mile Run. The part of Boundary Street between these segments was closed in the 1970s. By 1996 the land between these two halves of the street had been covered by gravel and dirt fill, with uncertain plans for the future. The Junction Hollow Trail, connecting the two segments, was built in 1999; the soccer field there was opened in 2001.