Allegheny River Boulevard

From Pittsburgh Streets
Allegheny River Boulevard
Neighborhoods Highland Park, Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar
Origin of name Allegheny River

Allegheny River Boulevard is named after the Allegheny River. The name Allegheny is of Native American origin. According to William Bright, the source may be the Lenape (Delaware) language, an Algonquian language, in which Alligewi Hanna means "river of the Alligewi," a people said to live in the Ohio River valley.[1] Annie Clark Miller describes the Alligewi as "a tribe of gigantic stature who were skilled in the arts of defensive warfare."[2] A 1936 article in the Post-Gazette claims that the word Allegheny means "the best and fairest street" in the Lenape language, and goes on to say that a people by that name lived on the river bank.[3]

The native peoples considered the Allegheny to be the same river as the Ohio. See East Ohio Street for more about the name Ohio.

References

  1. William Bright. Native American Placenames of the United States, p. 33. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8061-3598-4. [view source]bright
  2. Annie Clark Miller. Early Land Marks and Names of Old Pittsburgh: An address delivered before the Pittsburgh Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution at Carnegie Institute, Nov. 30, 1923, p. 6. Pittsburgh Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, 1924. Historic Pittsburgh 00awn8211m; Internet Archive earlylandmarksna00mill. [view source]miller
  3. "Street names sketch history of city: Tribute to many pioneers dimmed by time." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 26, 1936, anniversary section IV, p. 16. Newspapers.com 88921069. [view source]street-names