A pleasure drive should extend from one end of this valley to the other. The route of this drive has not been studied. At the northern end, however, there is no apparent obstacle to reaching any of the important thoroughfares, such as Penn Avenue or Forbes Street. At the other end there is a good chance to extend a parkway down the river as a riverside drive,[27] connecting at the Glenwood bridge with a proposed boulevard thoroughfare to the down town district.[28] This would furthermore be a desirable link in a circumferential parkway system which it is not unlikely will some day extend southward from the Glenwood bridge, and ultimately connect with the Sawmill Run parkway above proposed. (Section 7 above.)
9. Squaw Run Park.—Northeast of Aspinwall, the valley of Squaw Run with its tributary, Stonycamp Run, would be ideal for park use. It has great beauty and variety of landscape. It has fields for playing as well as woods and a brook. It is secluded and by its wooded banks can always be kept so, even when the higher land about it is commercially developed. It is none too accessible at present, but it is in a clean and beautiful region, well adapted, topographically, for residential use, and such development will inevitably follow the improvement of transportation facilities to the business districts of Pittsburgh. The park will then supply the local needs of the surrounding communities, and, furthermore, it will be easily reached from many parts of the city. A parkway thoroughfare should extend up the valley.[29]
10. Guyasuta Park.—Just west of Aspinwall is the valley of Guyasuta Run, a beautiful wooded ravine well suited to give holiday enjoyment to the people. It is already used extensively for this purpose, and it should be saved for the people for all time.
11. Allegheny River Parkway.—A riverside thoroughfare is described on page [79] (Part II, Section 61), running from the Sharpsburg bridge up the Allegheny River to Hoboken or Montrose. This should certainly be treated as a parkway, for opportunities to take advantage of the river in this way for public enjoyment are rare in Pittsburgh. Connections should be made into the Guyasuta Run and Squaw Run valleys.
12. Beechwood Boulevard.—From Highland Park to Frankstown Avenue, Beechwood Boulevard follows the bottom of a valley. The plateau land above is thickly settled, and the valley banks are mere dumps of the most unsightly and objectionable character, which rob the Boulevard of much of its value as a pleasure drive. These banks are commercially of little use. In some portions of the valley there is sufficient depth of private property between the Boulevard and the foot of the bank to give usable frontage on the parkway, but the location, in the bottom of a valley, is so undesirable for house sites that a very cheap and unsightly development is apt to take place. This would be even more damaging to the pleasure drive than the present conditions. It is urged, therefore, that this whole valley from the top of one bank to the top of the other be taken as an essential part of the present parkway.
Lincoln Avenue bridge over Beechwood Boulevard, at Silver lake, Pittsburgh
13. Negley Run Parkway.—It is further urged that the entire valley of Negley Run be added to the park system. This would be part of the plan for extending a thoroughfare parkway from Beechwood Boulevard up this valley and along Princeton Place to the heart of East Liberty.[30]
14. Silver Lake Playground.—Partly as an improvement to Beechwood Boulevard, but chiefly for its own sake, Silver Lake, together with the enclosing valley and its banks, should be taken for park purposes. It is an attractive spot in the midst of a closely built up section which has no local parks. Though small, it could well supply much of the need for recreation in the immediate neighborhood.