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Chapter 9. Maturity and Stability: 1910 –1930
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168 maturity and stability c h a p t e r 9 Maturity and Stability 1910 –1930 A fter several decades of expansion, the second decade of the twentieth century marked the end of the North Side’s steady growth. Between 1910and 1930,the North Side’s commercial districts and residential neighborhoods matured with the help of a healthy economy, greater Pittsburgh’s growth, public works projects, and the new city zoning law. Natural disasters helped shape the North Side as well. Pittsburgh always has been most flood-p one in March, as rains and melting snow and ice along the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and their tributaries produce high waters. In the first years of the twentieth century, many Alleghenians and Pittsburghers recalled the flood of 1884,when the rivers reached a 33.3-footflood stage, as the worst in their lifetimes. A few elderly residents had also witnessed the 35-footflood of 1832,which remained the worst on local record. In the new century, destructive flooding became a nearannual occurrence, thanks to shoreline infill and upstream timber cutting. Thus,on the morning of March 14,1907,when the Pittsburgh Gazette warned that a 28-footflood was about to hit Pittsburgh and Allegheny and that waters might rise as high as 30feet, residents may not have been surprised. This flood, however, surpassed expectations, breaking the 1884mark in the early afternoon; the waters peaked at 36.5 feet on M arch 15. The enormous 1907flood hit Allegheny particularly hard, the Pittsburgh Press on March 15calling Allegheny “one of the most disconsolate cities in the country.” Area newspapers likened the Federal Street area, from the river north to Lacock Street, to canal-based Venice. Water reached the tops of the first stories of some buildings; families huddled on upper stories without heat, electricity, or food; police officer in skiffs brought bread and coffee to some of those who were stranded. Fire companies abandoned their stations 168 169 1910 –1930 on River Avenue and at Martin and Corry streets, and Federal Street hotel porters carried guests to safety on their backs. Official at the Western Penitentiary at Woods Run evacuated first-floo inmates to the upper stories. John Adley, who worked on a riverboat that was moored near the foot of Allegheny Avenue, apparently died when the boat capsized. As the waters receded, Allegheny’s lower streets were covered in eight inches of mud. Theoozing sediment contained household goods, pieces of homes, and huge chunks of ice from a floe that had come d wn the river from Armstrong County. To add to Allegheny’s woes, Downtown Pittsburgh’s stores were able to reopen earlier than those in the Federal Street shopping district, and Allegheny’s merchants could only watch as their customers crossed the river for food and dry goods. In the wake of the 1907flood, the Pittsburgh city government formed a commission to find solutions to this perennial problem, perhaps spurred on by the recent annexation of its neighbor across the river. H. J. Heinz, the food Lower Federal Street flooded on arch 15, 1907. Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection, 1901–2002 (715.133438.CP). Ar chives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh [3.137.218.215] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 23:08 GMT) 170 maturity and stability manufacturer, served as president of the commission; other members included department store partner Henry Buhl Jr.; James D. Callery, who owned a River Avenue tannery; and William J. Carlin, president of the Thomas Carlin ’s Sons foundry on River Avenue. ThePittsburgh Flood Commission’s 1910 report found that experts accepted the possibility of a forty-foot flood, noting that property values in the affected areas would be $50million higher if floo ing were less of a threat. The commission recommended solutions including construction of reservoirs to contain floodwaters, reforestation, and raising grades of lower North Side streets. Although expense and landowner opposition made reservoirs unfeasible, the city raised the level of lower North Side streets in the summer and fall of 1911. The area where the city raised North Side streets extended along Federal Street from the Sixth Street Bridge to the Fort Wayne Railroad tracks, and from Federal Street fi e blocks east to Grantham Street. Work crews deposited nine feet of fill in the lowest area, around Federal and Robinson streets; some sections were raised by only one foot. The project required relaying Lacock Street looking east from Grantham Street, July 8, 1911, befor e street raising. Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection...