32nd Street

See also South 32nd Street, which was named 32nd Street until 1881.

32nd Street
Neighborhoods	Polish Hill, Strip District
Origin of name	Sequential numbering up the Allegheny River
➤ Wilson Street (until 1868)
Origin of name	James Wilson

The seven streets from 26th Street to 32nd Street were originally named for seven of the nine Pennsylvania delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence, in the order of their signatures: 26th Street was Morris Street, for Robert Morris; 27th Street was Rush Street, for Benjamin Rush; 28th Street was Morton Street, for John Morton; 29th Street was Clymer Street, for George Clymer; 30th Street was Smith Street, for James Smith; 31st Street was Taylor Street, for George Taylor; and 32nd Street was Wilson Street, for James Wilson. (The other two Pennsylvania signers, Benjamin Franklin and George Ross, were skipped because Pittsburgh already had a Franklin Street and a Ross Street.)

Bruce S. Cridlebaugh suggests instead that Wilson Street may have been named for Col. George Wilson, a Westmoreland County judge in 1773. But the names of these streets together, and their order, makes it clear that they were named for the signers of the Declaration.

In 1868, Pittsburgh's modern sequence of numbered streets was created by renaming all the streets perpendicular to the Allegheny River; Wilson Street became 32nd Street.