![]() ![]() In 1914, both George Westinghouse and his wife Marguerite died, and their son and only child, George III, inherited Solitude, along with the rest of the family’s fortune. In fact, by the time of the next plat map was drawn in 1923, much of its the grandeur was already gone. Yet the area’s gilded age didn’t long endue. Heinz’s Greenlawn has taken over nearly the entire city block, boasting its own three-wing conservatory and large stables.Ī string of handsome homes have been erected along nearly the entire east side of Lang Avenue from Penn Avenue to Homewood station.Īnd while the housing development envisioned for the Westinghouse plan is still on the map, few of the lots seem to have been purchased. purchased a house and parcel along Penn Avenue and starts to steadily expand its footprint on that block.īy 1910, the neighborhood has reached its zenith. Note Gordon Street, which now runs from Murtland west along the tracks.Īnd there’s Greenlawn, the Heinz estate which took root in 1892 when H. The property between Murtland and Dallas has been divided into lots for residences, and several homes have been built. North Lang Street now has an arched stone bridge over the tracks into Homewood. Solitude remained unchanged on the plat map of 1905, but other transformations are happening in the area. Still no sign of the Heinz estate, Greenlawn, which would be created in the block across Thomas Boulevard to the north of Solitude. Interestingly, there is no indication of the three natural gas wells Westinghouse had drilled in 1884 on the south strip of the property along Thomas Boulevard. The block of Macpherson Boulevard that previously crossed the estate has been turned into a “paper street.” Although other records show that the then 21-year old George Westinghouse purchased the 5-acre parcel along the tracks in 1871 (that’s the unassigned square), his name did not appear on the map drawn the following year.Īt this point, Lang Avenue and Murtland Street run from Penn Avenue to level crossings at the rail tracks into Homewood, but neither McPherson nor Thomas Boulevards have yet to appear.ĭuring the ensuing decade, as Westinghouse’s fortunes ballooned, so did his real estate holdings.īy 1882, he owned not only the full 5-acre rectangle between the tracks and McPherson Boulevard, but also half of the 5.2 acre tract on the south side of McPherson, which now appears on the map as a proposed street, along with Meade Street two blocks south.įurthermore, Westinghouse has acquired all of the property between Murtland Street and Dallas Avenue from the tracks to Penn Avenue.īy the time the next plat map was drawn in 1890, the Solitude estate has been defined in its entirety, with the grand house, the stables (with underground laboratories), and a garden conservatory, and several outbuildings. ![]() Here’s how the property was recorded on the 1872 plat map. ![]() Yet, ten years later, the area was already being defined and updated, if somewhat belatedly. The Civil War was raging and the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which has ever since defined the real estate, had been laid down less than a decade earlier. Here’s how that same acreage was allocated in 1862, when the earliest map of this part of then semi-rural East Liberty Valley was recorded. Using the excellent on-line tool Pittsburgh Historic Maps, which correlates historical city plat maps over a Google overlay, one can easily peel back the layers of time. While Westinghouse Park is now more than 100 years old, its history can be traced back more than 150 years. Here’s how the park looked from above in 2018.Īt 10.2 acres, Westinghouse Park covers an entire city block, bounded on the north (top) by the rail line/busway, Thomas Boulevard on the south (bottom), North Lang Street on the east (right), and North Murtland Street on the west (left), both of which run one block more to Penn Avenue.īut that’s not the whole picture of course. Today’s Westinghouse Park is situated in Pittsburgh’s East End area, in the neighborhood of Point Breeze North and adjacent to Homewood. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |