BRIDGES AND
TUNNELS OF
ALLEGHENY COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA
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Frederick Law
Olmsted
report to the
Pittsburgh Civic Commission
"Pittsburgh:
Main Thoroughfares and The
Down Town District"
1910
00 Cover Page
00 Contents
04 Parks and
Recreation
Facilities
06 Index
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PART IV: Notes on Parks and Recreation Facilities Pittsburgh: Main Thoroughfares and The Down Town District Frederick Law Olmsted report to The Pittsburgh Civic Commission, 1910
of the hollow, a beautiful and secluded little park could be made. It is in the center of thickly populated sections of Rankin and Braddock.
7. Sawmill Run Parkway. -- The Sawmill Run valley, from the West End to Fairhaven and possibly beyond, offers a park and parkway opportunity which should not be neglected until commercial development becomes a serious stumbling block to its realization. It is an interesting valley of varying width and form, enclosed by high, steep banks, occasionally wooded; in some parts it is wide enough only for a drive, while in others large, flat meadows make ideal places for play. And Sawmill Run itself, when it is no longer used as an open sewer, will be an additional element of park value. Surrounded as it is by land accessible to the city and reasonably adapted to residential use, this valley seems an unusual opportunity for effective park service. In taking it for park use, Shalerville and the Bell Tavern settlement would, of course, be excepted; otherwise, the holdings should be continuous from Temperanceville to Fairhaven, and such scattered buildings as would in any way impair the value of the park should eventually be removed. A boulevard thoroughfare should extend the length of the valley, serving not only as a cross-town connection between important radial thoroughfares, but as a link in a circumferential parkway system.*
8. Nine Mile Run Park. -- Perhaps the most striking opportunity noted for a large park is the valley of Nine Mile Run. Its long meadows of varying width would make ideal playfields; the stream, when it is freed from sewage, will be an attractive and interesting element in the landscape; the wooded slopes on either side give ample opportunity for enjoyment of the forest, for shaded walks and cool resting places; and above all it is not far from a large working population in Hazelwood, Homestead, Rankin, Swissvale, Edgewood, Wilkinsburg, Brushton and Homewood; and yet it is so excluded by its high wooded banks that the close proximity of urban development can hardly be imagined. If taken for park purposes, the entire valley from the top of one bank to the top of the other should be included, for upon the preservation of these wooded banks depends much of the real value of the park.
*Part II, Section 71, page 81.
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