Frazee Way

From Pittsburgh Streets
Frazee Way
Neighborhood East Liberty
Warp Way (until 1919)
Origin of name Warp threads in weaving

Frazee Way was originally called Warp Way, as shown in the 1924 Hopkins street atlas.[1] Nearby Woof Way and Shuttle Way provide clues to the origin of these names: they are weaving terms. A shuttle, of course, is the wooden piece that holds yarn to be passed back and forth between the warp threads on a loom; the woof, or weft, is the resulting threads that run perpendicular to the warp. So Warp Way and Woof Way are quite appropriate names for intersecting alleys!

Warp Way was renamed Frazee Way by a city ordinance in 1919[2] (apparently the 1924 atlas hadn't yet been updated).

References

  1. Real Estate Plat-Book of the City of Pittsburgh, vol. 3. G. M. Hopkins & Co., Philadelphia, 1924. http://historicpittsburgh.org/maps-hopkins/1924-volume-3-plat-book-pittsburgh; included in the 1923 layer at Pittsburgh Historic Maps (https://esriurl.com/pittsburgh). [view source]hopkins-1924-vol-3
  2. "An ordinance changing the name of Warp way, between North Euclid avenue and North St. Clair street, to Frazee way." Pittsburgh city ordinance, 1919, no. 324. Passed Sept. 29, 1919; approved Oct. 2, 1919. Ordinance Book 30, p. 542. Reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post, Oct. 11, 1919, p. 18 (Newspapers.com 87630100), and Oct. 13, p. 12 (Newspapers.com 87630590). [view source]ordinance-1919-324