Fair Avenue

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Fair Avenue
Neighborhood Brookline
Boyd Avenue (until 1911)
Origin of name Mary E. Boyd
Brisbin Street (1911 – ?)

There seems to be some historical confusion about the name of this street. It is almost as if the street has led two parallel lives.

The land through which most of the street runs was owned in 1905 by Mary E. Boyd.[1] Accordingly, when the street was laid out, it was called Boyd Avenue.[2] Brookline was annexed into the City of Pittsburgh in 1908,[3] and in 1911 a city ordinance renamed Boyd Avenue ("from Ray avenue to property line") to Brisbin Street, in order to avoid confusion with Boyd Street on the Bluff.[4] The street is labeled Brisbin Street in the 1928 Hopkins atlas[5] and on a map from 1953.[6]

On the other hand, a 1909 ordinance establishing all the street names in the newly annexed eighteenth and nineteenth wards listed Fair Avenue, "from West Liberty avenue to property line," instead of Boyd Avenue,[7] as did an ordinance the next year officially listing all of the streets in the City of Pittsburgh.[8]

The name Fair Avenue seems to have won out in the end; this is the name shown on modern street signs.

References

  1. Real Estate Plat-Book of the Southern Vicinity of Pittsburgh. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1905. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1905-plat-book-southern-pittsburgh; included in the 1903–1906 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source]hopkins-1905
  2. Atlas of Greater Pittsburgh. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1910. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1910-atlas-greater-pittsburgh; 1910 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source]hopkins-1910
  3. Bob Regan. The Names of Pittsburgh: How the City, Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks and More Got Their Names, pp. 10, 37. The Local History Company, Pittsburgh, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9770429-7-5. [view source]regan
  4. "An ordinance changing the names of certain streets, avenues and alleys in the City of Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1911, no. 558. Passed Feb. 14, 1911; approved Feb. 16, 1911. Ordinance Book 22, p. 498. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the [Select and Common Councils] of the City of Pittsburgh for the Years 1910–1911, appendix, pp. 322–323, Devine & Co., Pittsburgh, 1911 (Google Books 0X0zAQAAMAAJ; HathiTrust uiug.30112108223840; Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1910). Reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post, Mar. 10, 1911, p. 13 (Newspapers.com 86499788), and Mar. 11, p. 13 (Newspapers.com 86499822). [view source]ordinance-1911-558
  5. Plat-Book of the City of Pittsburgh, vol. 6. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1916, revised 1922 and 1928. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1916-volume-6-plat-book-pittsburgh-south-side-southern; included in the 1923 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source]hopkins-1916-vol-6
  6. Alexander Gross. Pittsburgh and Vicinity: Featuring transit lines and house numbers. Geographia Map Co. Inc., New York, 1953. Published with Alexander Gross, The Complete Street Guide to Pittsburgh and 16 Nearby Suburbs: With large map of Pittsburgh and suburbs; streets, house numbers, transportation lines, places of interest, churches, etc., etc., Geographia Map Co. Inc., New York, 1953 (DonsList.net PghStreets1953M). A slightly different version entitled The Premier Map of Pittsburgh and Vicinity is reproduced in Sam Stephenson, ed., Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project, pp. 22–23, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2023, ISBN 978-0-226-82483-3 (LCCN 2022055151). [view source]gross-map
  7. "An ordinance changing and establishing the names of certain avenues, streets, lanes and alleys in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth wards of the City of Pittsburgh (formerly known as the Boroughs of West Liberty and Beechview)." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1909, no. 375. Passed Oct. 14, 1909; approved Oct. 20, 1909. Ordinance Book 20, p. 614. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the [Select and Common Councils] of the City of Pittsburgh for the Years 1909–1910, appendix, pp. 146–150, Devine & Co., Pittsburgh, 1910 (Google Books doQzAQAAMAAJ; HathiTrust uiug.30112108223832; Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1909). Reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post, Nov. 11, 1909, p. 8 (Newspapers.com 86421216), and Nov. 12, p. 11 (Newspapers.com 86421491). [view source]ordinance-1909-375
  8. "An ordinance establishing the names of the avenues, streets, lanes and alleys in the City of Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1910, no. 716. Passed Mar. 31, 1910; approved Apr. 5, 1910. Ordinance Book 21, p. 359. In Municipal Record: Minutes of the Proceedings of the [Select and Common Councils] of the City of Pittsburgh for the Years 1909–1910, appendix, pp. 328–381, Devine & Co., Pittsburgh, 1910 (Google Books doQzAQAAMAAJ; HathiTrust uiug.30112108223832; Internet Archive Pghmunicipalrecord1909). Reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post, Apr. 29, 1910, pp. 12–16 (Newspapers.com 86616256, 86616285, 86616314, 86616333, 86616343), and Apr. 30, pp. 12–16 (Newspapers.com 86616643, 86616672, 86616694, 86616726, 86616748). [view source]ordinance-1910-716