Brownsville Road

Brownsville Road is a road in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It has had several names over its history, and was also known at the "Red Stone Road" and the "Brownsville Plank Road", or "Southern Anenue".

Pre-history and Eighteenth Century

The road follows the route of ancient trails and footpaths connecting Redstone Old Fort with the "forks of the Ohio", a distance of 26 miles. It later became the road connecting Pittsburgh with Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and from there via Nemacolin's Path to Virginia and points further east. It was a major route for travel by stagecoach and Conestoga Wagon. [cite web |last=M'Murtie |first=Charles R. |title=The Brownsville Road: Redstone Road in Olden Times |journal=The Pittsburgh Press |year=1900 |issue=September 23 |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~susanb/brownsville_road.htm |accessdate=7-01-2008] The road was signifcant during the Whiskey Rebellion, particularly its southern half.

Nineteenth Century

It was likely to be part of the route traveled by Meriwether Lewis from Harper's Ferry to Pittsburgh in 1803. [cite web |last=Gilbert |first=David T. |title=Route of Meriwether Lewis from Harper's Ferry, Va. to Pittsburgh, Pa, |url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/hafe/lewis/travel-route.htm |accessdate=7-01-2008] and was the route along which telegraph lines first entered Pittsburgh.There are relatively few roads connecting the floodplain of the Monongahela River with the higher elevations to the south and west of the river. Originally, Brownsville road connected with the floodplain by the road now known as Arlington Avenue. In 1851 a turnpike company was chartered by the State of Pennsylvania to pave the Pittsburgh end of the road, and to connect it with South Eighteenth Street. [cite web |title=Records of Department of State: Birmingham and Brownsville Macdamized Turpike Road, East Birmingham and Mt. Oliver Turnpike and Plank Road Company |url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/DAM/rg/ys/r26ys14.htm |accessdate=7-02-2008] This explains the current steep and tortuous course of South Eighteenth Street today.Many cemeteries were sited along the road as part of the Rural Cemetery Movement.In the 1880's, an "electric road" was built from Mount Oliver to the Concord Presbyterian Church, an area of Carrick also known as Crailo or Spiketown.

Twentieth Century

Streetcar tracks formerly ran down the road, ending just past the border of Pittsburgh at the "Brentwood Loop"It was part of the route of the '53 Carrick' and the 'Flying Fraction', or 77/54 streetcar runs.

References