Allegheny Commons - City of Pittsburgh

United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration FormNPS Form 10900 OMB No. 10240018 (Expires 5/31/2012)Allegheny CommonsName of PropertyAllegheny County, PACounty and Statebeginning of Allegheny Commons’ transformation to a park to its modification during the urban renewal ofPittsburgh’s North Side. Because its period of significance ends more recently than 50 years ago, the parkmeets Criteria Consideration G for its inclusion of integral elements which contribute to its significance incommunity planning and development and in landscape architecture.The historical development of the park took place in a number of phases. The first phase began in 1788 withthe surveying of Allegheny City to include 102 acres of “commons,” or grazing land for the use of all residents,and drew to a close with the urbanization of Allegheny in the mid-19 th century. The second phase, from 1867to about 1910, encompassed the transformation of Allegheny Commons from disused common grazing land toformal Victorian park and the heyday of that park in its original design. A third phase began with a newemphasis on parks as places for active play and recreation during the Progressive Era and continued throughthe early modern period that coincided with the Great Depression. A fourth phase was marked by the urbanrenewal efforts that resulted in the demolition of much of central Allegheny City and the most recent majorimprovements, executed in a modern design vocabulary, to West Common. Today, public emphasis is on therestoration and preservation of the Park as an urban green space, recreational amenity, and historic designedlandscape.Historical Narrative Phase 1: Allegheny Commons, 1788-1866The Allegheny Commons were first set aside as common pasturage for the residents of the township ofAllegheny, PA, as part of a formal plan for that town drawn in 1788. David Redick, a surveyor under contractwith the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, laid out a town of 36 square blocks surrounded by 102 acres –including the existing Commons – allocated for public grazing. The commons lay between the town and the“out-lots” that were originally intended for farming so that farmers could drive their animals to the common landto graze.As Allegheny grew rapidly during the early-to-mid-19th century, the town proper (the “in-lots”) filled up, and thepopulation spilled across the commons into new residential neighborhoods that were built on the old out-lots.During this period, the commons acreage was used not only for pasturage but for various military andinstitutional purposes: a block house, built sometime during the 18 th century as a refuge from NativeAmericans, was later converted to the first day school on the north bank of the Allegheny River, and the firstchurch in the community, a one-story frame Presbyterian meetinghouse, was erected in 1815 at the site of amilitary camp used by United States soldiers during the War of 1812. During the Civil War, the commonsaccommodated a camp and training area for Union soldiers. No visible traces of these early features on thecommons survive.As Allegheny grew and urbanized, the town sold off the southern part of the commons for residential andcommercial development, on or just north of Monument Hill next to what would become West Common. It alsoceded 10 acres inside the western section of the commons for the construction of Western Penitentiary, a stateinstitution completed in 1826 to the design of the Philadelphia architects William Strickland and John Haviland.The massive penitentiary housed Rebel soldiers during the Civil War and continued to dominate WestCommon until its demolition in 1888. The penitentiary was the first of three civic institutions to occupy this site(its successors, a conservatory and an aviary, being more consistent with the later transformation of thecommons into a public amenity).In the meantime, the first railroad in the area was built into Allegheny by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, andChicago Railroad in 1851. The town provided a right-of-way across the western portion of the commons forthe rail line. Though later depressed, this feature remains in active use today. Likewise, some of the publicstreets that crossed the original commons still pass through the park.15