The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As was intoned yesterday, your humble narrator had headed over to Pittsburgh’s East Liberty section to start a scuttle. After a brief distraction caused by a monumental church with a locked door, one set about his plan for the day.

Part of a larger project that involves walking several of the major streets in the central section of Pittsburgh, this scuttle was built around a consequential thoroughfare called Baum Boulevard.

From Google’s AI:

Early History & Naming

• Baum Family Roots: The street is named after the Baum family, wealthy merchants who owned large tracts of land in the area, including the homestead “Friendship”.
• Formalization: First appearing as Baum Street in 1872, it was officially established by ordinance in 1881 and later became Baum Avenue before merging with Atherton Avenue to form the current Baum Boulevard in 1913. 

The Automobile Era

• “Automobile Row”: By the 1910s, Baum Boulevard became Pittsburgh’s hub for the auto industry, attracting many dealerships (Buick, Cadillac, Ford, etc.).
• Lincoln Highway Connection: When the Lincoln Highway route was established through Pittsburgh in 1913, it ran along Baum Boulevard, bringing cross-country travelers and further boosting auto-related businesses.
• Key Landmarks:
  • First Drive-In Gas Station: Gulf Oil opened America’s first drive-in gas station at Baum & St. Clair in 1913.
  • Ford Assembly Plant: A Ford assembly plant, built by Albert Kahn, still stands at Baum & Morewood.
  • Motor Square Garden: The massive, domed building (once a market and later a Cadillac dealership) is a key architectural survivor. 

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One of my ‘little tricks’ when out and marching about is to take photos of street signs at intersections, so I can easily ‘place’ myself in the midst of what’s often hundreds of photos which will land on the computer back home. In the case of this walk, I had more than 700 shots on the camera card when arriving back at HQ.

Now, I didn’t see 700 individual things, rather I usually shot something three or four different ways, since I never really know how these posts are going to hang together until actually constructing them. There’s a lot of ‘pick and choose’ editing going on once the shots hit the hard drive.

Based on what Google’s AI is reporting (above), this carven ‘Baum Street’ cornice stone is likely to have been erected sometime between 1881 and 1913, when ‘Baum Street’ became a ‘boulevard.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The whole walk saw me doing my NYC ‘heel spin’ move, although I wasn’t feeling threatened or overly attracting insalubrious attention. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The church is visible for most of the roughly 1.5 miles of Baum Boulevard.

Apparently, Baum Blvd. is synonymous with shopping for a car to a certain generation of the Yinzers. East Liberty itself is also somewhat synonymous with the auto industry, I’m told. Mechanics, car lots, all that stuff.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s attractive residential real estate visible here and there.

Behind me were public housing projects and a few high density apartment blocks. A significant number of institutions and buildings serving the medical industrial complex can be accessed nearby as well.

Personally, one of the top dogs amongst my team of Doctors can be found about a mile away from here, in Bloomfield.

I’ve driven through this section multiple times, but this is the first time on foot. The land here seems to be on the plateau where several steep hills meet. It’s relatively flat, by Pittsburgh standards.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Two things here. First off, while waiting for a traffic signal to change in order to get a ‘clean shot’ of what was clearly a monumental structure that the supermarket chain was housed in, conversation was struck up with some random guy who was also waiting for the light to change so he could go shop. Jeff, that was his name.

It was like meeting myself back in Long Island City, and the guy was actually the neighborhood historian who displays an amazing range of detail and recall. After about twenty minutes, I had to excuse myself from his fascinating conversation about the history of East Liberty and ‘Auto Row.’ Now I know what that’s like.

Unrelated to this fellow, a post from interestingpennsylvania.com discusses the history of this building, which was built as a Dodge automobiles dealership back in 1934. Truth be told, I wish that I had found that great site before the walk, but there you are.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

More of that fine residential housing stock along Baum Blvd. is above, but the green and white one seems to host a real estate agent’s offices. Baum Blvd. intersects with nearby Bigelow Boulevard.

Back tomorrow with more.

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