Stevenson Street

Stevenson Street
Neighborhoods	Bluff, Central Business District
Origin of name	George Stevenson
➤ Harriet Street (1830s)
➤ Price Street (until 1881)
Origin of name	William "Billy" Price

Stevenson Street south of Fifth Avenue was originally named Harriet Street. It led through the center of a subdivision of lots laid out by George Stevenson, and by 1852 it had been renamed Stevenson Street.

Dr. George Stevenson was born in York, Pennsylvania, and studied medicine at Carlisle. He served in the Colonial army during the Revolutionary War. He arrived in Pittsburgh in 1794 during the Whiskey Rebellion and became the second physician in the young town (after Nathaniel Bedford, for whom Bedford Avenue is named). He was one of the original members of Pittsburgh's select council in 1816. About 1825 he moved back east, and he died in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1829.

Stevenson Street north of Fifth was originally called Price Street, named for William Price (1759–1855), whose round house here was a well known local landmark. Price was a manufacturer of iron pipes for gas and water; his factory was on Second Avenue east of the present Panhandle Bridge. This factory gave the name Pipetown to this district of the city along the north bank of the Monongahela, between the modern Duquesne University and the river. Price came to Pittsburgh in 1800, by invitation of Isaac Craig and James O'Hara (see Craig Street and O'Hara Street), to make the first attempt to produce flint glass in Western Pennsylvania. In 1808 or 1810 he abandoned the glass business and established an iron foundry on the corner of Colwell Street and Price Street, which was later called the Berlin Foundry. He built his round house, with a round chimney in the center, in 1808 at the corner of the Fourth Street Road (today Fifth Avenue) and Price Street. In 1827–1828 he was in partnership with Robert B. Curling at the Fort Pitt Glass Works (see also Dithridge Street).

"Billy" Price seems to have been quite a character. It was said that his reasons for building a round house were that the devil could not corner him, and that it didn't matter which way the road would eventually go, because any side of the house would be the front. He kept a parrot, trained to call out "Boys in the orchard, boys in the orchard" in response to potential thieves. He regularly delivered his goods to his customers, and once, seeing a doctor marching solemnly in a funeral procession, called out, "Ah, Doctor; I see that, like myself, you are delivering your work."

Price Street was made part of Stevenson Street in 1881.

Bob Regan includes "Stevenson" in a list of streets named for noted historical people; unfortunately, he gives no further details. It is not clear who Regan had in mind—perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894), Scottish novelist, since Regan's list appears to include many other writers. It seems that Regan is in error here, since George Stevenson, the real origin of the street name, is not famous historically.

See also

• Stevenson Place