This imposing (for 1860) edifice seems to have stood at the lower end of Fifth Avenue. From a Directory of Pittsburg and Allegheny Cities for 1860-1861.
-
Brewer’s Block, Fifth Avenue
-
Pittsburgh in 1860
Advertising William Schuchman’s lithography, from a Directory of Pittsburg and Allegheny Cities for 1860-1861. -
Washington Crossing the Allegheny, 1753
From American Scenery, 1854 (almost exactly a century after the event depicted here). —Young Washington’s raft capsized on the way over, and he nearly drowned. He could have just used the Fortieth Street Bridge, but George had to do everything the hard way.
-
Hotel Schenley
From the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Blue Book, 1899-1900. This building is now the William Pitt Student Union, having been absorbed, like much of the rest of Oakland, into the University of Pittsburgh.
-
Liberty Market
From the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Blue Book, 1899-1900. The Liberty Market was brand new when this ad ran. It failed as a retail market, but soon began a long association with the automobile industry that left it with the name Motor Square Garden. In 1988 it was redeveloped as a shopping arcade; once again, it failed as a retail space, and now it is known to most Pittsburghers as the headquarters of the local AAA affiliate. The building, currently having some restoration work done, looks almost exactly the same now as it did in 1900.
For those who wish to appreciate the details of the carriage trade lining up in front of the building, old Pa Pitt has provided an enlargement of the picture from the advertisement (click on it to make it very much bigger).
-
Hostetter’s Celebrated Stomach Bitters
Patent medicines were an important industry in Pittsburgh a century and a half ago. This advertisement appeared in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, August 13, 1864.
-
The New Smithfield Street Bridge
“Pennsylvania.—New Steel Bridge Recently Erected Over the Monongahela River at Pittsburgh.” From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, August 11, 1883. Note that the bridge is half today’s width; the upstream half was added later.
-
Flood of 1883: Inundation of Herr’s Island
From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, February 17, 1883. —This would be a rotten thing to happen to all those expensive townhouses today.
-
Flood on the Allegheny near Kittanning, 1883
“Breaking of the Ice Gorge Near Kittanning,” from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, February 17, 1883. —The engravings in Leslie’s are always lively and show considerable care for accuracy.
-
Eagle Cotton Works
