Neighborhoods
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
This article was floating around the interwebs last week and I made a mental note to grab it and share it with you in the event you didn't see it. It's called How 65 Pittsburgh Neighborhoods Got Their Names and it's full of surprising information.
I'll share a few of my favorites with you, but I recommend checking out the full article.
Lawrenceville: Don't give up the ship!
Obviously I am starting with this one. The article shares:
Army Col. William Foster (father of Americana songwriter Stephen Foster) named it in honor of Captain James Lawrence, commander of the U.S.S. Chesapeake,whose dying command of “Don’t give up the ship!” was one of the rallying cries of the War of 1812. It was appropriate for a neighborhood that housed a munitions factory that helped arm the military until it was destroyed in an explosion in 1862.
Garfield: In Honor of An Assassination
I think my friend Eleanor's Trousers will gain ample President's Day Twitter material from this article. As the story goes, this neighborhood was named after good old Jimmy Garfield.
The granddaughter of John Winebiddle, who owned much land in what is now the East End, sold the area that is now this neighborhood to the city in 1867. Pittsburgh divided it into lots for sale, the first of which was purchased on the day James Garfield was buried. The first lot-buyer named it in honor of the recently assassinated president.
Elliot: Poor Elliot
I'm to 100% certain of where this neighborhood is. If Mr. Elliot had his way with the naming, I am certain they would be more popular.
In 1785, mill owner and ferryboat operator Daniel Elliot was granted two tracts of land here and named them Elliot’s Design and Elliot’s Delight. No one but him, apparently, was willing to call them that, so they eventually became simply Elliott.
Other fun facts include that George Washington influenced the naming of Bloomfield, Banksville was once a settlement know as "The Experiment," and Friendship was home to the Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers.
Read the full article here.