Observatory Hill

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Summer 2017 Newsletter
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2016 History Tour

Sunday, July 17 from 1pm to 5pm

Riverview UP Church
3505 Perrysville Ave


On Sunday, July 17th at 1pm you can take the trolley back in time, walk down Riverview Avenue to the Visitor’s Center and hear the story of the  Park and Allegheny Observatory and cap off the afternoon with a visit to Food Trucks parked near the Riverview and Perrysville Avenue intersection.  It’s a Triple Treat: Trolley Ride, Historic Hike and your choice of yummy food truck fare.  Reservations are now available for a donation of $10. in advance and $12.00 the day of the tour. 

Local history guides, led by Allegheny City historian David Grinnell, will take you on a fantastic trolley trip around Observatory Hill sharing stories of the first quarter of the 20th Century when the neighborhood was experiencing a building boom.  Trolley service invited development adjacent  to Riverview Park and beyond the business district to the “end of the line’ at the North End of Franklin Road.  Subdivided into lots that mirrored the park, homes were built along Perrysville Avenue’s Judges’ Row, in the Marshall Fields Plan from Marshall Avenue to Riverview Avenue, and in the Dunlap Place Plan from Cherryfield to East Street at Perrysville. The trolley will visit the Perrysville / East Street and Bonvue Street intersections as well, passing Engine Company 34 and the shops near the fire hall, with new street lighting there.

If you enjoy a stroll, you can accompany tour guides down Riverview Avenue past homes that have been on house tours in recent years, across from the Byzantine Catholic Seminary to the Riverview Park Visitor’s Center. Here you’ll learn more about the park which was founded in 1894 and the Allegheny Observatory of the University of Pittsburgh.  Since it’s telescopes were moved to their present location in 1912, the Observatory has contributed new data in the search for extra solar planetary systems.

So, please join us and listen for the trolley driver to announce ‘ALL ABOARD’ for a fun summer afternoon exploring the past and present of one of Pittsburgh’s greatest neighborhoods, Observatory Hill.