St Mary of the Mount High School - St Mary Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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The map of Mount Washington and West Pittsburgh and Union drawn in 1872 shows the parish as it was when it was lounded in 1874. You will notice that the names ot the streets are quite different trom those at the present time. For ex- ample, Grandview Avenue was known as High Street. iMerrimac Street was called Maria Street. You will also note that High Street at Maria went back along the hillside. At that time it extended back ot the site ot the high school emerging near Olympia Street. Shiloh Street was called St. Clair Street: Wyoming Street was Washington Street; Natchez was called Neville Street; Belonda was named Bed- ford Street; Grace Street was Railroad Street; Omaha Street was known as White Oak Lane; Southern Street was known as the New Washington Road while Boggs Avenue was Old Washington Road; Amabell Street was Joels Lane; Kearsarge Street was called Kirkpatrick Street; Maple Terrace was Spring Street; LHysses Street was Union Street; Plymouth Street was Pine Street; Sweetbriar Street was Sarah Street; Republic Street was Fulton Street. Most of the changes in the names of the streets in Mt. Washington took place after it was annexed to the City of Pittsburgh because of the duplication of names.

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dred sixteen acres atop Coal Hill for vhich land Kirkpatrick paid five hundred sixty- eight pounds, four shillings and four pence. (Deed Book 27, p. 289 — Register of Deeds Office). Four children were born to the Kirkpatricks — a son, who died at the age of twenty-one, and three daughters, Elizabeth, Mary Ann and Amelia. Elizabeth married Christopher Cowan, a pioneer in the steel industry; Mary Ann married Dr. Joel Lewis; and Amelia, the Honorable Charles Shaler. Dr. and Mrs. Joel Lewis were blessed vith four children — Abraham K., Maria, Mary Elizabeth and Mary Ann. Maria married Thomas Bigham. The home, built by Thomas Bigham in 1849, was to become a landmark in the history of Pittsburgh. Standing on a knoll in the midst of forty-five acres of wood- land, this home of stone and brick served as one of the stopping places in the Under- ground Railway for the Negroes before the Civil War. Though Chatham Village now occupies the land which originally comprised the Bigham Estate, the old mansion still stands and is now used as a club house. Other farms purchased from the Penns in the eighteenth century were the follow- ing: William Boggs: purchased on June 6, 1793, one hundred fifty-one acres and one hundred fifty-two perches for eighty-six pounds, seven shillings and seven pence — designated in the original plan as farm 6; (Deed Book, Vol. 3, page 203.) William Boggs: purchased on July 7, 1794, one hundred acres for eighty-seven pounds, ten shillings — designated as farm 2; (Deed Book, Vol. 3, Page 331.) George Wallace: purchased on March 27, 1794, farm 5 consisting of two hundred forty-five acres and one hundred fifty-two perches which were sold to Samuel Dilworth on August 22, 1795; who in turn, on February 1, 1796, sold to William and David Boggs one hundred eight acres for two hun- dred forty-three pounds and later seventy-one acres and one hundred twenty-six perches for three himdred pounds, ten shillings; (Deed Book, Vol. 6, page 482.) Robert Snodgrass: pinxhased farm 9 on March 27, 1774, for two hundred twenty- six pounds, eighteen shillings and nine pence. (Vol. 3, page 294.) The lots along the Monongahela River at the foot of Coal Hill were sold in smaller lots as compared to the lots on top of the hill. For example, it is recorded that Ephraim Jones purchased lot 56 on August 13, 1793, which consisted of twenty- five acres and one hundred three perches for which he paid seven teeii pounds, twelve shillings and six pence. (Deed Book 2, page 368.) When Ephraim Jones started his ferry service for people of the South Hills district, this ground was used as the ferry terminus. In 1870 the building of the Monongahela Incline, a unique engineering feat, con- sisting of a rail system built on a 38 degree angle up the hillside, made transportation