Pittsburgh Main Thoroughfares and the Down Town District / Improvements Necessary to Meet the City's Present and Future Needs

by Frederick Law Olmsted

55. Troy Hill Road.—Troy Hill Road is the thoroughfare to Troy Hill and the ridge to the north in Reserve township. From Ohio Street up to the plateau level it is quite steep, about 8 per cent. The only feasible improvement is to run a new hillside street from Vinial Street at Wooster around the west nose of the hill and up the north side to Lowry at Gardener Street. The gradient can thus be reduced to about 5 per cent. But because of the somewhat limited area to be served by this thoroughfare, and the considerable expense of constructing such a road, this improvement is not urged as of special importance.

56. Lowry's Lane.—From Ravine Street north to the county road, Lowry's Lane, a link in the Troy Hill Road thoroughfare, is very steep (about 10 per cent). From the foot of the hill a street can easily be run around the west side of the hill, reaching the county road at its southern end. By this short detour the gradient will be reduced at least one half. It is understood that the County has already started an improvement of this nature.

57. East Ohio Street.—East Ohio Street with its extensions—Butler Street, Main Street, Freeport Street and the Freeport Road—forms the only thoroughfare from the North Side through Millvale, Etna, Sharpsburg and Aspinwall up the Allegheny River. Most of the way from Troy Hill Road to Etna, the street is in sore need of widening and paving. Where it is adjacent to the railroad one sidewalk can be omitted and that much width saved.

At Millvale the grade must be raised to meet a new approach over the railroad to the Forty-third Street bridge. (Section 6.)

58. Millvale Thoroughfare.—Girty Run valley, at the mouth of which is Millvale, must inevitably be the route of the trunk line for a most important northern thoroughfare system. Thoroughfares following Girty Run and its numerous branches can reach Westview, Perrysville and all parts of Ross and McCandless townships and points north, on reasonable gradients.

From the mouth of the valley up to Evergreen, the present thoroughfare, comprising Grant Street, North Avenue, Klopfer Street, and the Evergreen Hamlet Road, is narrow and in some cases very crooked, and is more or less closely lined with buildings. Improvements on this line have not been studied in detail but much widening and some re-alignment is urgently needed. Probably the widening of Grant Street will be more satisfactory than paralleling it with a new street.

59. Etna Improvement.—Etna is at the mouth of the Pine Creek valley, the route of another very important thoroughfare system. Butler Pike, the Middle Road, Kittanning Pike and the three valley roads following Pine Creek and the two Little Pine Creeks, reaching all available country to the north on easy gradients, converge at Etna.

To avoid the bottle neck at the Spang-Chalfant mills a new street should be run west of the mills from Bridge and Butler Streets over the creek and the railroad, joining Butler Street again a little west of the Kittanning Pike. A branch should descend from this overhead street westerly to the street which parallels the railroad tracks on the south and connects directly with the Butler Pike and the line up Little Pine Creek west.

Further improvements on these thoroughfares have not been studied in detail, but numerous widenings and re-alignments are needed, especially in the Pine Creek thoroughfare.