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DO YOU KNOW HOW YOUR city is Dotted With Districts That Were Given Individual Names in the Olden days and, the Appellations Have Clung to Them During All the Intervening Years. Have you ever stopped to think to hat a large extent it is true that Fort thin "the corporate limits several ayne city of towns, embracing owns," two or three of which are as rge in population and in the volume mercantile business done as most of he county seat towns in, Indiana? And do you know, or have you ever ought of, how these "towns within ort" Wayne". -nicknames, happened, to. them- get Bloom- their ogdale, Nebraska, South Wayne, Spy hun, Westfield, Bowsertown, 'Lakeside, renchtown, Broadway, Forest Park, Cast Side and South Calhoun*-some with yell defined boundaries and others 'not 1 The story suggested by the last quesion--the telling of how these nicknames TO came about--may prove interesting.
Listen while we tell it. All of these "towns" are outside of what is known as the downtown district, which embraces the thickly business dotted store territory and the residence squares between the Pennsylvania railroad I and the rivers, many blocks east and west of Calhoun street. This is the part of the city that the stranger coming here is apt to think, making a casual look about, is all there is of Fort Wayne--in a business way, especially. True, it is a big part of the city, but it is not all by any manner of means. It is only one of the biggest of our big towns.
But the story we started out to tell --- the story of how our suburban towns got their nicknames, and some other fea - tures about them:
BLOOMINGDALE. The story of how Blomingdale got its name is a pretty one. Away back in the years of the past, long after Fort Wayne became a town, however, but very few people lived over there. It was mostly farming land. One of its earliest residents a well known German, Western, the father of Mrs.
George J. Strodel. He was a cab. inetmaker by trade and one of the first men to purchase residence property, in the Ninth ward, at the corner of Third and Barthold streets. He was a great lover of flowers and had them around at different places in his yard, with morning glories covering one side of his home.
But in his passion for flowers he set his heart on having more, and one day while he was over in the business part of town purchased quite a Large amount of flower seed. This he took home, and with it sowed quite a large area of ground. In due time the seed budded and flowered. It was a "blooming sight," as someone expressed it-a bower of beauty that attracted the attention of passers-by. His friends who visited him called his home "a blooming dale," and it continued to be 80 named as the settlement grew in got big ion enough to deserve a name the population and when that part of town residents called it "Bloomingdale."
NEBRASKA.
In just about as commonplace sort of way came the christening of Nebraska, that part of the city one gets into after crossing the Main street bridge over, the St. Mary's river, going westward. There is, however, something of humor in the story of how it came to receive its name. One among the first men to move over into that locality to make it his home Was A. C.
Hutzell. At that time there were not more 'than half a dozen houses round about where resided. It offered, nevertheless, the opportunity for a small mercantile business and 60 Mr. Hutzell established a store there -a grocery, with An assortment of goods also along other lines. Before long the tide from the city began and one after another family moved there.
"Where you moving to?" asked a neighbor one day of one of these movers from the main part of the city. "Out weat," was the reply. "To Nebraska?" was the jocular interrogator's rejoinder. And as the emigration increased it became a common thing for the movers to say, "We are moving to Nebraska," tor at that time the locality was considered 'way out west. Mr.
Hutzell took the cue from these frequent remarks of movers and hung out a sign in front of his place of basiness, reading, "The Nebraska Store." After that everybody spoke of that part 0 ftown as Nebraska.. And the name stuck.
SPY RUN.
SPY RUN. The pioneer past gave the northeast section of the city its name, or rather it and Spy Run avenue were chrietened R.R. MAUME NEBRASKA SIDE SIDE EAST L - PENN EEL VANIA WESTFIELD CLAN CALHOUN MILLE - SOUTH P FRENCHTOWN SIDE IL COLERICKS BURO N 710 MECHANICS WAYNE E BURG D 37. A LiMiTS J LIAIFS LIMITS ON KENTUCK FOREST IDE RUN BLOOMINGDALE "SPY - LAKESID E is situated in a peninsular shaped tract of territory that lays between the St. Joseph's and Maumeo rivers. Each of these suburbs has an efficient electric street car service. Bloomingdale and Nebraska especially are well equipped in business way.
They have stores of all kinds, a number of them, and some manufacturing 08- tablishments. Bloomingdale has a railroud station, that of the Lake' Shore and Lake Erie railroads. But her citizens are not inclined to bray extensively on that account. for the reason that the depot building over there is about tifty nine years away from the modern type. No legally established lines mark the boundary lines of any of these "towns" of Fort Wayne, except possibly South Wayne, which was once an incorporated town, but is not A0 now.
Their boundary lines Are only imaginary. Hence their limits cannot be definitely designated. However. they can be closely approvi this is what is done in the illustration accompanying. this article.
SOUTH WAYNE.
And now we come to speak of South Wayne, the suburh of beautiful homes. that section of the city which in its old incorporated limits included all that tor ritory south of Freighton avenue. north of Rudisill avenue, east of St. Mary's avenue and west of Hoagland avenue, although now its limits possibly might be extended.
It. wouldn't be hard to imagine how South Wayne got. its name -why it was 30 dubbed. That would be as easy 10 guess a6 to tell why the portion of the state in which Fort Wayne is located is called Northern Indiana. Hence it is not necessary to tell any story along' that line, except to say that when South Wayne some years ago took a notion into its head that it wanted to be incorporated that the name came to its incorporators in a natural sort of a way and it was adopted.
If it had been in the north portion of the city it probably would have been called North Wayne. This incorporation of the town, took place about 1888. The eitizens wanted improvements--better streets, sewerage and water service. They, proceeded to bond town to secure them, and after they were safely under way, the citizens consented to annexation to Fort Wayne, the city, of course, assuming the obligations of the town. Now South Wayne, instead of having an individual government of its own, is a part and parcel of Fort Wayne, just like our other suburban districts.
It wasn't so awful many years ago that its three square miles of territory was forest and field. Even Ernest W. Cook can remember that time. It was so in his young manhood, and he is some distance yet below the three-score mark. In 1888, when South Wayne "seceded by consent" from the city, it had a population of three or four hundred.
has that many thousand. There are more beautiful residences in that part of the city than in any suburban section of Fort Wayne modernly built, bechuse they have been put up in recent years.
"Bloomingdale," "Nebras. ka' and "Frenchtown" Are Examples of TheseSome Features of Their History and the Part They Have Played in Fort Wayne's Growth,
The name is frequently used, though not so often as formerly. Its early residents were chiefly from the "auld sod." "Hungry Hill" is the name given to 1 portion of Bloomingdale wit indefinite boundary lines, an appellation supposed to have stuck to the region from the fact that it is high land and presenta, especially in 8 bleak winter season, some conditions which might lead the unin• formed to believe the name an appro priate one.
However, the people of "Hungry Hill" and prosperous and the name is no more merited than is many another which communities and people carry with them through the world.
Business Centers.
Aside from those which have already been mentioned in detail, there are other business sections of the city, mercantile and manufacturing, which could be included in this article. Broadway has many stores, from Washington street south to the Pennsylvania railroad, with others at the corners where the electric car is taken to Westfield, and at the corner of Creighton avenue, where the turn is made on the Belt line. Then there are many business establishments along South Calhoun street, and Lewis and Barr streete, in Frenchtown, and in the vicinity of the new St.
Andrew's Catholic church, in the eastern part of the city. In fact, very many of the thickly populated neighborhoods in other localities have stores, many being on South Hanna street.
Platted Additions.
Large tracts of land intended for residence" districta are being constantly platted and their lots placed on the market for sale at easy paying terms. This is because of the rapid growth of popu• L lation in the city and the difficulty on the part of newcomers to find homes.
It would be difficult to name all these. Among them might be mentioned Avondale. Woodland Heights, Eastwood, Hiron's addition, McKinnieville, Belmont, Electric addition--most of them not within limits--all, however, easily reached by the electric car lines, Their platting and the putting of them on the market in proof of the wonderful growth in population that Fort Wayne is making. Capital is not moved to do these things until there is a demand for it. The bald truth is that Fort Wayne needs more homes, and many of our peo• ple are buying homes of their own.
The Evolution of Towns
It would be proper in an article along the lines I have followed to speak of growth of Fort Wayne from early pioneer times to the present, and mention the successive extensions of the city limits. This, however, I will not do in detail, only alluding to it briefly. Kekionga, by which name Fort Wayne was first known, was an Indian village. Then it became a trading post, with few white traders and settlers. Then it became a hamlet, and when the twenties of the last century dawned it was village that in 1826 had a of 200, increased five years population.
Its early business and residence district was around what is now the corner of Barr and Columbia streets. Then as the years passed it extended over onto and up Calhoun street, clustering around the corner of Main. In 1840 the popula• tion was 2.080 and in 1850 it was 4,882. The old business and residence sections of these early years are shown in the illustrations accompanying this article. These are called the old parts of the city, now enlarged and known AA the central business districta, The Fort Wayne today has a population of 75,000.
FRANK DILDINE. thus from the historic stream which formerly ran through the land out there from the north and emptied its waters into the St. Mary's river. This section in the early days was the home of the Miamis. Their village was scattered over its surface.
When the government reservations to them were made one of the men 'to whom a large section of land was given was Captain Wells, A prominent and picturesque character in the history of Fort Wayne. It was known as the "Wells reserve," and a part of was in in now known as Spy Run. His home was along Spy Run avenue. As: a child Wells WAS stolen by the Indians from his home in Kentucky and brought by the Miamis to their village here., He grew up among them and. although a white man.
married an Indian girl, the sister of Little Turtle. When Gen. Anthony Wayne made his expedition against the Indians in this region Wells united his fortunes with the Americans and Cieneral Wayne made him the captain of his scouts"captain of spies,' it WAS called. It WAR because, in after years, that his home was along a little stream in that vicinity, that this stream was given the name of Spy Run. The road througl: there took the same name.
Afterwards. when the pioneers began to locate in. that section, the name Spy Run was used to designate all that section in the northeast. And that name stuck also. It was because that locality was the home of the spies of the American army in the early days of the last century.
Across the River. Each of these suburbs of the city, three of the largest four, the fourth being South Wayne, with Lakeside, one of the most beautiful residence sections of Fort Wayne, are situated across the rivers from the main part of the city. And to reach either of the three the bridges neross the St. Mary's are crossed. Nebraska and Blomingdale are and north of the St.
Mary's, and Spy Run is east and north of the St. Mary's and west of the St. Joseph's. Lakeside
In Reminiscent Mood.
Mr. Cook is one of the oldest living residents of South Wayne. He was born out there, in a dwelling that was only recently torn down near the corner of oldest residents now living Cyrus W. Broadway and Croighton.
"The two other Fairfield and Byron S. Thompson. In a reminiscent mood Mr. Cook said, when spoken to by The Sentinel reporter about early South Wayne. he used to wade through swamps and woods A mile or two long in that part of the city, hunt ing wild game, and there was plenty of it "The forests were thick with many kinds of wild game." he said.
"and the river was full of' fish. When one went hunting or fishing 111 that vicinity then he got. something. With such conditions prevailing now the hunter would think he was in the paradise of hunters." When South Was 11P was incorporated the three trustees were W. J.
Harry Ninde and 0. N. Heaton. The treasurer and clerk was E. W.
Cook. As 19 the case in Lakeside, the citizens of South Wayne refuse to allow a saloon to exist within the confines of their suburb. One man attempted to conduct A saloon in South V Wayne. He didn't run it very long. 'The citizens united in driving him out 1, prosecutions, even going to the extent vi employing deter tives to work up cases against him.
'They succeeded in their efforts. The saloon keeper got out of business. Since then there hasn't beene a saloon in South Wayne.
LAKESIDE. What WAR once known as the tract of land on which the historic "Apple chard," famous for its great public gatherings and picnic events- -in long ago days the camping grounds of the Miami Indians--is now beautiful Lakeside.
The rivers skirting its borders and the Mttle lake at its eastern limits suggested its name--a most appropriate one--for life over there 18 a good deal like living along the lake to which many of our people go for their summer resort homes. Lakeside inaugurated the suburban residence park boom that has contributed so much to the growth and advancement of Fort Wayne. "Its conversion from field and forest to town of beautiful homes and paved streets, with all the advantages city life, was the work of the Fort Wayne Improvement company and it has been done in the last twenty-two years. It was in the early part of the year that the company, composed of a number of representative citizens, with A view of making it a residence portion of the city, purchased its 10 acres- known a8 the old 'Loree farm -paying $75,000 for it. There were in the neighborhood of one hundred stockholders in the com.
pany and its first officers were: President, D. N. Foster; secretary, C. A. Wilding; treasurer, G.
W. Pixley. Then, | on April 26, 1890, it was platted, improved in many ways and the sale of lots began. Dikes constructed atong the river banks removing the fear of the over flow of the waters, with many city improvements made since its replatting, sewerage. lighting.
paving of streets. etc., contributed to the sale of lots and it wasn't long before there WAs a great building boom in that. part of the city. It is close to the main business center and the electric car service makes its ex• treme limits easily reached. Purchasers, A 8 rule.
have rected modern homes, and today Lakeside is settled with resi dents the majority of whom are the owners of their homes. The investment made by the improve ment company mured not only to it 4 stockholders but also to the benefit of the city and the hundreds of lot pur chasers, Very fou of the lots platted when the addition was put the mar ket remain unsold. Originally a com on pany with nearly a hundred stockholders. ita stock is now mostly owned by S. M.
Foster. who was one of the original stockholders. Lakeside has no saloons. It never will have any Into every deed that: has been made for A lot purchased, or which will be Bold. is written a clause that forever prevents the purchaser, his assigns or heirs.
from erecting on the lot A building to he 1140d for the sale or manufacture of intoxicating liquors. Lakeside, therefore will forever be "dry" territory. It i- more secure in this re spect than South Wasne, which only has uncertain public sentiment 34 it a safe guard.
FOREST PARK.
Leading off from Lakeside, east and A little north.
one geta into what. ¡A known as Forest Park. which is assuming great. metropolitan of the garbs and beautiful is destined one most home districts of the city. It has already been admitted as one of the city additions.
Formerly its 160 acres of land was the old Taber farm, later the Wichman farm, it having been purchased from Mr. Wichman by' the Forest Park Improvement company some six vears ago. This com pany, of which Judge W. J. Vesey is president and Louis F.
Curdes secretary manager, immediately had it platted and some of its principal streets paved, devoting two lots near its main entrance, off State atreet, to A park. Its boundaries are Kentucky avenue on the west, Walton avenue on the east, Lake avenue on the south and State street on the north. Already many modern homes have been built. On one street alone these homes represent a value in the erection of the buildings of $100,00. The addition has water and electric light privileges.
WESTFIELD.
When the Fort Wayne Rolling mills established its great plant here some twelve years ago, it gave birth to new town just off the southwestern limits of the city, For years it has been called the "Rolling Mill district.", Recently, however, it Was Westfield, and that should be the aC+ cepted one, nuthough people will persist in speaking of it as. "the Rolling Mill district." The name Westfield was given the dis trict, soon after the Presbyterian denomination located and built a church edifice within its limits. the Grace chapel. A pretty little edifice of which the Rev.
T. P'. Potts is pastor. At a public meeting of some residents the name was suggested and unanimously adopted. It is not within the corporate limits of the city, which end at the east banks of St.
Mary's river. 'The town is west of the river. There are several business houses in the section, three of which are saloons. The manufacturing industries are the Fort Wayne Rolling mills, the Van Arnum Manufacturing company, the Hanna- Brackenridge company And the American Steam Dredge company, all of which have a tendency to bring increased population. the street car service extend 111 g to ate western limits.
Westfield 16 growing. Many of the Rouma: working in the rolling milla live out there. n4 do employes of the other companies having factories located within 11 limita.
BOWSERVILLE
It may be of interest 10 many who have grown accustomed to referring to the region about, the plant of S. F.
Bow Her & serville." to know that they snaking two mistakes." The first error 15 due to the fact that the real Bow serville 18 a very small section nt Bloomingdale, bounded by First street. Third street. Wells street and the alley between Orchard and Clark streets. This little section was first platted by J. C.
Bowser. And at that time waR christened Bow serville 'The second error is due to the fact that the portion of the city surrounding the Bowser plant 18 In 1 re ality Frenchtown. This section is. in general way. bounded on the north by Buchanan street and the Pennsylvania tracks, on the east by Savannah avenue.
on the south by Pontiac street and on the west by John street. When this tion was first bottle.. the larger portion of its residents were of French descent; hence the name. It has developed into one of the most desirable residential sections of the city.
Some Lesser Sections.
Away down in the southeast corner of Frenchtown is Colericksburg, NO named when it W'A9 first platted, although the name has now all but vanished. The piece contains only two squares and 15 bounded by Antoinette. Savannah and Pontiac streets and Walton avenue. A little section of the south side. bounded on the north by Pontiac street.
on the east by Lafayette street, on the south by Esmond street and on the wes. by Calhoun street, was called Mechanicsburg by those who platted it. but its name is spoken no longer. When Francis LaSelle platted the section bounded on the north by La Selle street, on the east by Hanna street, on the south by DeWald street add on the west by Lafayette street, the name La Selleville WAR placed on record, but it has not been firmly recorded in the minds of the pregent residents that it is ever spoken. Irishtown is a section juat south of the Pennsylvania and Wabash tracks, extending westward from Calhoun street. BOWSERVILLE. Cobbling is recognized, as a trade in the vocational Buffalo. Several schools are set aside for teaching trades to young boys and girls, and the latest addition to the course is one in cobbling. A competent.
instructor has been engaged to teach the young men how to repair shoes. There are a numher taking up the course. and it is cer• tain that the trade will not become extinct with the young generation studying the principles of rejuvenating old shore. Shoe Retailer.
Update 5-22-20: Special thanks to Randy Harter over on the You are positively from Fort Wayne, if you remember. . Group for providing a link to the Sanborn maps. I was off on my numbering quite a bit. The 1890 Sanborn map of Fort Wayne will be exactly what I need for this part of the project!
As part of my research for the book, I am reconstructing the Irishtown neighborhood, using old Fort Wayne City Directories ( the predecessor of what would become the phone book in the 20th century). An interesting problem cropped up in my map project. The addresses are listed in the city directories, however the street numbering format has changed over the years. What was once Welch's Hardware Store at 190 Calhoun Street, is now Welch's Ale House (formerly CS3) at 1915 S Calhoun Street. Same building, different address number. So is it just a matter of multiplying the old address by a factor of ten? Kind of, but not exactly. One of the city directories explains how the streets are numbered. Calhoun Street begins at the St Mary's River and extends to the city limits. So what I need is a second vector to give me a baseline. In another directory, the Fort Wayne Sentinel building was omitted from the directory. The folks who created the directory were kind enough to include the Sentinel on an omissions page. It is listed as being on the east side of Calhoun Street between Wayne and Washington. A subsequent city directory lists the address as 107 Calhoun Street. So I was able to use the Sentinel and Welch's to estimate the address numbering system used before it changed in the early 20th century. Now that's just Calhoun Street. I still have dozens of other streets to figure out. Definitely not something I anticipated when I started the project, but fascinating (to me) nonetheless.
Sláinte! Rob Stone is ALL about Fort Wayne”s historic Irishtown Neighborhood—hear our conversationon on his journey & what he has discovered today during Morning Edition & ATC.
After 27 years as an information technology professional, Rob Stone figured the pandemic was the perfect time to reassess.
Stone loved studying human history, so he started taking anthropology classes at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He’d been writing history-based articles for years as a hobby, using the pen name O’Donoghue because it was his grandmother’s maiden name.
As part of his new academic direction, Stone started researching to write a book on the history of the Irish in Fort Wayne. About a year-and-a-half into that process, he came across a News-Sentinel article at The History Center that included, “The section of the city immediately south of the Pennsy Shops became known as ‘Irish Town.’”
On Oct. 1, a Fort Wayne organization will host an event that looks to remember Irishtown, a forgotten Fort Wayne neighborhood with history “too rich and too vibrant to lose,” according to the organization.
ARCH, a historic preservation organization in Fort Wayne, will host the Irishtown Trolley Tour and Festival, which will offer trolley rides and self-guided neighborhood walks that teach guests about the history of Irishtown.
Irishtown used to roughly make up the land south of downtown from Baker Street to Pontiac Street and from Fairfield Avenue to Calhoun Street, said ARCH Executive Director Connie Haas Zuber.
Haas Zuber said many Irish immigrants helped construct the Wabash & Erie Canal, and those immigrants mostly settled down in what became Irishtown.
“It just so happened, though, that the Irish families tended to clump — as immigrant groups do — in this area just immediately south of what was then a tiny Fort Wayne,” Haas Zuber said.
As Irish immigrants continued to settle into Irishtown, Haas Zuber said the Irish community also had a hand in Fort Wayne’s locomotive industry.
Haas Zuber said by the 1880s, there were 1,100 Irish immigrants living in Irishtown in addition to descendants of Irish immigrants who were born in America.
The Becker House, located at 425 W. Williams St., is in the heart of what once was Irishtown and is documented by the National Register of Historic Places. According to the National Register of Historic Places, the Becker House was built in 1886.
“[Fort Wayne] continued being a good place to get a good job and to bring your family, and Irish people kept coming here,” Haas Zuber said.
However, by around the 1920s, Haas Zuber said Irishtown was starting to be rebuilt and the Irish community started dispersing to other parts of Fort Wayne, which caused the memory and Irishtown to fade away over time.
Some of the Irishtown staples Haas Zuber said have been lost to time include Irish-based fraternal organizations, a grocery store and an ice cream factory.
Even the name itself is no longer used, as the area considered to be Irishtown is now divided into two neighborhoods: Hoagland Masterson and Williams-Woodland Park.
Irishtown Plaza, located at Fairfield Avenue and Taylor Street, sits in the heart of what once was Irishtown.
However, she also pointed out that some remnants of Irishtown still remain including St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and some houses that are either documented by the National Register of Historic Places or have been around since the 1860s.
The Irishtown area (also known as Hoagland Masterson Neighborhood Association and Poplar Neighborhood Association) in the Packard Area Planning Alliance (PAPA) was settled over 170 years ago, much of it by Irish immigrants who built Fort Wayne's canals and railroads. The Irishtown Neighborhood, home to St. Patrick's, the Irishtown Shamrocks Baseball Team, and many other Irish businesses was well documented until the mid-1920s, when the area lost its historic name and much of its identity was forgotten. Only recent archeological and historic preservation work has uncovered the neighborhood's past.
The Packard 2030 Neighborhood Plan was adopted last year. It included identifying and marketing the Irishtown area as a vibrant multicultural corridor and historic neighborhood located south of downtown along Fairfield Avenue.
We are excited to see these new markers installed today to begin celebrating our vibrant history in Fort Wayne. Special thanks to the City of Fort Wayne Government Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services and Public Works Right of Way for supporting this action step in the plan.
The Irishtown area connecting the Poplar Neighborhood Association and the Hoagland Masterson Neighborhood Association in the Packard Area Planning Alliance (PAPA) was settled over 170 years ago. Early Irish immigrants built Fort Wayne's canals and railroads. Irishtown was home to St. Patrick's Catholic Church, the Irishtown Shamrocks Baseball Team, and many other Irish businesses.
The Packard 2030 Neighborhood Plan adopted Irishtown with historical markers along the Fairfield Avenue corridor just south of downtown thanks to the City of Fort Wayne Government Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services and Public Works Right of Way. Learn more about the Packard Area Planning Alliance (PAPA) or participate in ongoing planning for your neighborhood.
Where is Irishtown? From 1880 to 1912 the neighborhood changed. At its height in 1880, the neighborhood spanned East to West from Calhoun to Fairfield and North to South from the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks to around Dewald Street. By 1912, it covered East to West from Calhoun to Hoagland streets and as far South as Dewald Street.
Note: The Google Map screenshot is from my research, based on Fort Wayne residents born in Ireland from the 1880 U.S. Census.
The other three photos are from The Fort Wayne Sentinel
Sat, Aug 10, 1912 ·Page 9.
This home used to be 406 Dawson St. It was likely built c1901 by John Baltes, a contractor and brick layer. In 1901 Mr. Baltes won the contract to build the foundation of the new St Mary's School at the corner of Lafayette and Jefferson. This is lot 26 in Chute & Prince's Addition platted October 12, 1854.
ARCH Fun & Free Lecture: Rediscovering Fort Wayne’s Irishtown June 4, 2024 College TV Fort Wayne on YouTube
Presented by Rob Stone It’s thrilling to learn who lived in your historic house before you did. Imagine what you learn when you study a whole historic neighborhood’s heritage! That’s what Rob Stone has done and is sharing with today’s delighted residents — and with ARCH’s lecture guests. Where was Irishtown? Who lived there?
Today's shoot was fun. A little windy. Low flying aircraft warning (helicopter). Otherwise a very productive flight. Shot some great video that will appear in Episode One of my series on the Irish in America. Special thanks to Mike for driving me around to the locations and being my second set of eyes.
This is lot 17 in Hoagland and Williams addition, platted 4/4/1863, formerly 123 Williams St. The lot was advertised for sale in 1865. The first mention of someone living here was in 1872 when Theodore Herring, a fireman for the Wabash RR, lived there. Almost every year there was a new resident here, in keeping with the more modern, transient character of the residents of the neighborhood.
This house is a true piece of Irishtown. In August 1873 James McNulty transferred the lot to Mary Ann McNulty. In 1874...
This house is a true piece of Irishtown. In August 1873 James McNulty transferred the lot to Mary Ann McNulty. In 1874 Mrs. Ann/Annie McNulty, a widow, lived here with John McNulty, a plumber with A Hattersley, and Michael McNulty. Ann was born in Ireland in 1811. In 1880, John Scully and his wife Ann lived here with their family. John was born in Sligo, Ireland, where he was a horseman, and he worked for the Pennsylvania Co for many years. John was described as "well and favourably known throughout this community."
This is the George A Frank House built c1888, lot 89 in Williams Addition platted March 7, 1870. In September of 1873...
This is the George A Frank House built c1888, lot 89 in Williams Addition platted March 7, 1870.
In September of 1873 Jesse L Williams transferred the parcel to John Stits. It changed hands several times before George Frank bought it from Thomas M Glenn for $700 in April 1887. George married Katie Becquett, quite a charming young lady, in October 1884. This house was built c1888 and the Franks lived there from 1889-1901. George was a telegraph operator for Penn&Co RR.
By 1916 the home was a rental, with rooms advertised for rent.
The John T and Johana Kelly House, c1882, is back on the market after a renovation! John was a blacksmith for Pittsburgh...
The John T and Johana Kelly House, c1882, is back on the market after a renovation! John was a blacksmith for Pittsburgh Shops. John and Johana were both born in Ireland and both died of influenza.
