Grandeur of the Sycamore

With its large girth, white bark, and buttonball seedpods the Sycamore has been a beacon along the Ohio Country's rivers and streams. To travlers and searchers of an earlier age the Sycamore was a marker of good moist soil and marked a way to a source of water.

While the soils of Lawrenceville were once lush and fertile, the are no longer. Rocks and waste and useless soil filled the river plain and lowlands to make way for railroad tracks and factories. But the hardy Sycamore still finds enough soil to take root. This tree is located on the rocky bank at 57th Street, behind Allegheny Cold Storage.

At this time the Sycamore with pale bark and its buttonballs stands out among the gray of the other trees.

You can imagine that once a grove of these Sycamores, bigger and wider than this one, grew on these flatlands.

Across the River from there is a lowland area where Sycamore can once again thrive among its other water loving woodland trees such s the River Maple. The area downriver of the mouth of Pine Creek is where sediment from the Creek has collected high enough to allow for a small almost native riparian woodland habitat.

When I return on my hike I will take a closer look.

Wainwright's Island

Throughout much of the 19th century and Island remained in the Allegheny River from the approximate line of 41st Street to 34th Street. The Island was variously called Wainwright's or McCullough's Island.

Historian's speculate that this was the Island that saved George Washington and Christopher Gist from the icy waters of the Allegheny during their journey as diplomats to the French in the winter of 1754. Here is George Washington's version of the story:

The next day we continued travelling until quite dark, and got to the river about two miles above Shanapin's. We expected to have found the river frozen, but it was not, only about fifty yards from each shore. The ice, I suppose, had broken up above, for it was driving in vast quantities.

There was no way for getting over but on a raft, which we set about, with but one poor hatchet, and finished just after sun setting. This was a whole day's work: we next got it launched, then went on board of it, and set off; but before we were half way over, we were jammed in the ice, in such a manner, that we expected every moment our raft to sink, and ourselves to perish. I put out my setting pole to try to stop the raft, that the ice might pass by, when the rapidity of the stream threw it with so much violence against the pole, that it jerked me out into ten feet water; but I fortunately saved myself by catching hold of one of the raft logs. Notwithstanding all our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft and make to it.

The cold was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist had all his fingers, and some of his toes frozen, and the water was shut up so hard, that we found no difficulty in getting off the island on the ice in the morning, and went to Mr. Frazier's.

The back channel (where the water was "shut up so hard") was filled in during the heyday of industrial growth after the Civil War. Maps from the early 20th century show the filled in channel as controlled by the City of Pittsburgh...hmmm. Time has wiped away that memory.

But public property does not just drift away...and there are some interesting legal cases that are interpreting ownership and jusridiction of formerly navigable waters. I will address theses in a later blog entry.

Allegheny Riverfront Vision

A post from last week made mention patiently awaiting the ecological restoration concepts of the Allegheny Riverfront Vision. I did not have to wait much longer as it was released on Monday. This is an impressive document striving to push and pull the neighborhood back toward the RIver connection it enjoyed prior to the industrial revolution.

This blog should refer back to it during the Lawrenceville portion of the walk...and perhaps as a model for elsewhere along our Riverfront.

Spring has Sprung Early

A brief warm spell and it was time for my first riverfront hike since Dec 31. I return to 43rd Street, which ends with one of the more dramatic ad hoc overlooks of the River.

This is a view over to Millvale and the Sternwheelers taken during the gray of December 31. The second picture was taken on Feb. 13. The Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute located on the downstream property. The Urban Redevelopment Authority assisted with site control and construction financing. That provided the opportunity to set aside the River Edge for a trail. This was the first foray for the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in the former industrial center of Lawrenceville.

The church visible in Millvale is the St. Nicholas Croatian Church which houses the beautiful and passionate murals of Max Vanko. This blog will have more to say about those on the return hike down the right descending bank. But don't wait for a visit.

After the Civil War the covered Ewalt Bridge made this connection. The Bridge lasted until the 1930s when it was replaced by the Washington's Crossing Bridge.

Prior to the Civil War Andrew Klomen and Henry Phipps owned a a mill in Millvale (hence the name). During the hectic days of the Civil War they sold and went into partnership with Andrew Carnegie and others to construct larger mills on the Lawrenceville side of the Allegheny River. This is the beginnings of the Carnegie industrial dynasty.

Pittsburgh Valve Foundry & Construction Company

This concrete pier below 26th Street is identified on the 1912 Flood Commission map and is located adjacent to the property of the Pittsburgh Valve Foundry & Construction Company.

This is the retaining wall built to stabilize the railroad tracks servicing all of these industries. When was this wall built? How much longer wil it hold? Who will be responsible when it falls...and maybe we should just let it fall. It may start to recreate some of natual riparian habitat.

The Allegheny Riverfront Vision Plan addresses some ecosystem restoration ideas and I patiently wait.

Shannopinstown

In the mid- 18th century, before the region became the epicenter of frontier wars, the population was concentrated along the Allegheny River. Shannopinstown was a village of the Lenni Lenape, natives were moved west as the Europeans settled in the Delaware Valley. The exact location of the village is not exactly known but the descriptions of the early fur traders and scouts (including the French under Celeron in 1749 and Christopher Gist for the Ohio Company of Virginia in 1750) seem to point to an area of present day 32nd Street.

This would be an ideal spot to settle as a large flat area along the River and fed by streams coming from springs in the hill.

This map from 1816 shows the stream emanating from the hollow behind the Iron City Brewery site and curving across the flats to reach the River approximately near 33rd Street. To view the area discussed zoom in to the upper right of the map. The stream is long forgotten by most as it was culverted throughout the industrial era. But it still existing below ground. The first picture below is near the source of Two Mile Run, along the railroad tracks not far from the tunnel beneath Center Avenue. The second picture is the mouth of the old stream (culverted many years ago) near 33rd Street.

Bayardstown

A beautiful late fall day provided the opportunity to hike from 23rd Street to 31st Street. The downriver portion of this walk remains in the first Borough of record in the area.

In his 1989 book, Miscellaneous History of Lawrenceville, Joseph A. Borkowski describes the area:

Northern Liberties was organized and laid out in 1816 and existed until March 1837 when it was annexed by the City of Pittsburgh. It was located on the southern bank of the Allegheny River bounded by Pennsylvania Canal (present Eleventh St.) extended to Grant Blvd. (presently Bigelow) followed eastward to a point midway between 25th and 26th Streets hence along Allegheny westward to Eleventh Street.

Later it became popularly known as Bayardstown for George A. Bayard, who owned several substantial tracts of land.

Recently, it has been referred to as 'The Strip,' whose boundaries are limited to present 27th Street.

Most of the inhabitants of old Bayardstown were from Northern Ireland. They wore stove pipe hats, large boots, frock coats and pantaloons with a barn door flap in front.

The streets of Old Bayardstown were all paved with cobblestones which were gathered by men and boys from the river bottom and sold to street contractors. (Miscellaneous History of Lawrenceville, page 9).

Remnant of barge moorings or a tipple between 25th and 26th street provides an overlook.

Bayardstown quickly became the location of foundries, glass works, and machine shops.

In the 1890 Hopkins Maps the Pittsburgh Junction Railroad is along the river edge...and is often drawn within the boundaries of the River. This railroad is resting on fill. Most of the riveredge property through this area is composed almost entirely of fill used to raise the land above the floodplain.

Pennsy Park -- A Top-down Development Flop

In hindsight it is easy to second-guess their optomism...but in 1966 leaders of the Allegheny Conference and the local Philanthropy/Corporate Community fell into a big vision trap.

In the spring of 1966 Pennsylvania Railroad owned most of the property on the edge of downtown from 11th Street to 21st Street. The properties along the Allegheny River were a railyard and the railroad still owned its station...the current Pennsylvanian. The executives at Pennsylvnia railroad foresaw that the economy was changing and they needed an infusion of cash to maintain solid balance sheet. The strategy was to propose something huge and hope the money starts to flow them.

So, with an assist from the Regional Industrial Development Corporation in May 1966 they announced this hulking vision of a 148 acre and multi-million redevelopment --Pennsy Park.

It appears no investment was forthcoming, the railroad industry continue to collapse and by the 70s the Pennsylvania Railroad did not even exist. Eventually the successor railroads were forced to sale the real estate under duress, and the Buncher Company was in the right spot to purchase.

The best investment for them was surface parking and that use still remains. Through the years various redevelopment proposals were made and received various levels of support. But often opposition developed, sometimes from agencies arguing that development here will accelerate the demise of the Golden TRiangle. It has been a struggle to have the 10 blocks from the Convention Center to 21st Street redeveloped.