The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There are scuttles, and then there are scuttles.

Most of my walks over the winter months have been constrained by ice and snow, and the still recovering busted ankle situation. Now that the streets are clear again, one feels unbound. Accordingly, a walk which I’ve been desirous of experiencing was finally at hand, and I had all the time in the world to wander about on the 12th of March, a Thursday.

Fineview is this neighborhood’s name. It’s found on Pittsburgh’s extremely hilly north side, and there’s an ‘overlook’ platform there from which to take in and admire the sights. I wasn’t there to look at Pittsburgh from on high, though, I was on a mission.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I did pop out a shot of the ‘Heathside Cottage,’ which was built between 1864 and 1868, and somehow still stands. It’s not remarkable when an important office or governmental structure from the middle 19th century is encountered, it is so when it’s a private home. Wow.

The path at the outset of this one involved a street called ‘Lanark.’

There used to be a trolley/street car which operated on the 12.5% graded Lanark Street, the Route 21–Fineview line, which was extant until 1966. There’s a video on YouTube, with still photos, from the last day of its service – click here for that.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

So… the first thing I learned on this particular day involved transit, which was the beginning of a series of lessons on this day spent in the university of the street.

This scuttle ended up blowing my mind, as it uncovered a series of historic revelations which I had no suspicion about previously. Serendipity!

I am – of course – putting absolutely zero effort into historic research about Pittsburgh – at all… none, zilch.

One prefers to live in total ignorance, and not attempt to understand the terrain that is found all around me. I’d rather that strangers on the TV tell me things to believe and to be afraid of, instead of seeing them for myself and then reading scholarly texts to intuit their actual history…

Saying that, I’ve got two things which I’m currently reading about… crap… I’m not doing any research! Nothing, nein, nada. My ignorance is palpable.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Walking up the hill on the former trolley route of Lanark Street, you encounter a set of raised sidewalks attached to residences. Empty lots begin to manifest soon after this, and signage becomes scant.

My path had been ‘figured out’ before leaving HQ, and I knew – more or less – where I was heading. A few cars passed me by, but there were never more than four or five vehicles. There were zero pedestrians, bike riders, or even people walking dogs – none of that sort of urban stuff – nor were there indications of morbid habitations, or even homeless encampments.

It felt like visiting Salem’s Lot, during the daytime.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One followed the prescribed path, across these raised pavements, and started for a truly unoccupied section up further. There’s some kind of commercial broadcasting operation up here, supposedly there’s a drinking water reservoir up here, and also a whole lot of abandoned houses are found in the direction which I was heading towards.

This section of Pittsburgh, on the North Side of the City, has a ferocious reputation, but I had zero interaction with anybody up here – good or bad. The people on the TV tell me I’m going to get shot while walking around here.

Barbarians abound.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I had no real idea what I was about to see, or what the research I’m definitely not doing afterwards might reveal.

Suffice to say: cheap Pork knuckles, a huge and populous neighborhood, urban renewal horror stories, and a section of the city which Pittsburgh and the PA state highway people pretty much nuked in the name of ‘progress’… that’s what’s found lurking on the other side of that hill.

Come with? Sounds salubrious, don’t it?

Back tomorrow.

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