"Here's a view of it from the railroad tracks/busway: http://retrographer.or..."
"Oh yeah, meant to say "Yee Hong Laundry" which is a business visible in the center of the photo. The 1929 business directory had a section for laundries, and then a second separate section for "Chinese Laundries"! It was in the latter..."
"The vantage point is roughly north of the corner of Bedford and Elm.
Elm ran parallel to Washington one block east (under the Civic Arena).
Washington Park and Central High were located between Bedford and Grant Blvd (now Bigelow), on the flat and valley now filled with the Crosstown Blvd connector.
Map here: http://images.library...."
"The vantage point is roughly the corner of Bedford and Elm, the building in the background is the former Central High School.
Elm ran parallel to Washington one block east (under the Civic Arena).
Washington Park and Central High were located between Bedford and Grant Blvd (now Bigelow), on the flat and valley now filled with the Crosstown Blvd connector.
Map here: http://images.library...."
"For some reason Streetview is on "Our Way" Alley but claims to be 5th ave, odd.
Tag is correct, found Yee Hong at 1743 5th ave in 1929 City Directory, Dinwiddie is just out of frame to the right, people in forground are boarding streetcar in front of Fifth Avenue High School. "
"I didn't realize this before, but Ellsworth Ave. used to extend across the railroad tracks through to where Whole Foods/Borders is now. You can see this bridge pretty good in this photo: http://images.library...."
"Alright, here’s my best guess, and I think it’s a good one.
This building sat facing Acorn St, in the middle of the intersection of what is now Saline and Alexis St in the Run section of Greenfield, and was then the intersection of Alexis and the unopened Right of Way of Forward Ave (which did in fact continue all the way out to Squirrel Hill but has not done so since the Parkway was constructed).
There is no other explanation I can come up with for why they are putting a sewer main under a building!
Here is a map of Greenfield Sewers, showing that line: http://www.pgh2o.com/m...
And here is a map of the neighborhood in 1904 showing buildings in the right of way, I think there may even be a manhole drawn in front of the building in question, meaning this construction was replacing an existing line:
http://images.library....
"
"This part of Webster Street is no longer called Webster, I think this is where it would have been taken though. You can see Webster and Tunnel on the map here:
http://images.library...."
"Elevated Rail. Think about a world where downtown is still full of manufacturing, the density of the city starts to trail off into suburbs in Oakland and Lawrenceville, and there is no such thing as interstate trucking...
There were several different railroads running elevated and at grade to multiple train stations (Pennsylvania, B&O, Penn Central, and this line served the Wabash Terminal on Stanwix)...
Totally different world.
I was also looking at the new years edition of the 1911 Pgh Press recently and listed fatalities of the previous year which included hundreds of railroad, more than 100 traction (streetcar), even a couple dozen elevator fatalities! It was pretty amazing... less homicides though. "
"So was that a Robert Moses style elevated highway or just a rail line?"
"Diamond Street now Forbes Ave:
http://images.library...."
"Looks like the Squirrel Hill Cafe hasn't changed a bit since 1969, or the News Stand for that matter"
"Couldn't find any clues on this map. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough:
http://images.library...."
"Not sure where the photographer would have been standing when they took this. You can see a bit of the contemporary bridge in the distance above the busway. "
"Looks like they are taking the opportunity to clean some soot of the building too. Either that or they just exposed some stone that had not been stained yet"
"What is that large building in the distance in the old photo?"
