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the roadway, with car tracks in the middle, is more than wide enough to carry all traffic that can ever be concentrated upon it. Whereas, on Sixteenth Street, the traveled portion of the street, including sidewalks and the space for sidewalk trees, is only 80 feet wide; and the remainder is occupied by front dooryards 40 feet deep, which the householders are at liberty to fence and use almost as freely as if they owned them in fee simple. At the same time all the householders are protected against the premature action of any individual lot owner who might see a possible advantage in being among the first to bid for a commercial business by building a flat-house with stores under it out upon the sidewalk line 40 feet in advance of the other houses. This is the sort of thing that is happening every now and then in Pittsburgh on streets where the great majority of the owners would prefer to have the set-back continued for some years longer. In Washington this crowding forward cannot be done; but when a reasonably large proportion of the owners on any street, or any block of a street, are ready for the change, the front yards are abolished and the sidewalk is moved over into contact with the buildings. If a single owner wants to put in a store long before his neighbors are ready to give up their front yards and long before the City is ready to widen the street to increase its traffic capacity, he is of course at liberty to do so; but he must not move forward of the general building line. What he usually does is to abolish his own front dooryard and substitute an extra wide piece of sidewalk paving in place of it, sometimes using the space for outdoor stands, or show cases, to attract trade. He may even be permitted to erect light temporary structures, such as awnings, on the space between his main building and the present sidewalk line, under which, in good weather, he can do a very good business.

There is, then, one course of action which overshadows, in permanent importance and in urgency, all other things that Pittsburgh could do at the present time for the improvement of its main thoroughfare system. That is to establish new building lines, at a suitable distance apart, along all of its present and prospective main thoroughfares which there is any prospect of being able to widen.

Pittsburgh, in common with other cities in Pennsylvania, has a remarkable power, which is of the utmost importance in connection

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Last modified on 22-Dec 1999
Design format: copyright 1997-1999 Bruce S. Cridlebaugh
Original document: Frederick Law Olmsted, 1910