North Hills Mysteries: Roads to Nowhere

Spring is approaching at a rapid pace. Warmer weather brings plenty of chances to go for a run or a walk around your favorite community. For those of us no longer living in Pittsburgh, good travel weather brings a great excuse to come home for a while. I’ve been counting down the days until my week in Pittsburgh for some time now and can’t wait to come home in time for Easter and the Pirates’ home opener.

I’ve got a list of things to do already: spend some time with the family, catch up with my friends, visit some of my favorite places around town, and take a nice walk around Perrysville.

As I do, I’ll certainly come across some of the streets that make me scratch my head. This, my fellow North Hillers, is where you come in. I’ve been looking for an explanation on these streets for some time and am hoping you can help me out.

1. Cedar Drive - The Missing Section
Growing up on Grandview Avenue, Cedar Drive was a part of my daily life for years. I walked along this street every time I went to Scharmyn Park, passed it every time I headed south on Grandview, and trick-or-treated at these residences come October. For years, I’ve wondered why this little bisector was never finished.

Cedar begins at the terminus of Valley Drive, then bisects Willow until it hits Homer. Suddenly, Cedar Drive ends. Walking through the trees that separate Homer from Grandview, one finds Cedar suddenly begins again at Grandview, then terminates as a cul-de-sac after veering north.

What’s with the section between Homer and Grandview? At one time, there was a yellow sign warning of a petroleum pipeline underground at either end of the missing segment of road, but surely there are other lines that go underneath pavement. How else can that pipeline continue past there?

My only guess is a property dispute, but even then, I think anyone could see that continuing the road makes perfect sense.

We need an answer here. I’ve been bugged by this hole in the road for years.

2. Longvue Drive - Another Missing Section
Head a bit to the east and you’ll find another street with the same problem: Longvue Drive. It begins at Bernice and looks to terminate at Hillcrest. Driving through either way, however, reveals that it doesn’t make a complete run--yet it looks as though it should.

In 1991, a house was constructed on the parcel that would have most logically connected the two ends of Longvue Drive, making the “unified Longvue” something that will likely not happen. This house is far newer than the others on the street, most of which were built in the 1950s or 1960s. This raises a question--what took so long to put a house on this parcel if it was really available for this long?

Could there have been some dispute over the property prior to the construction of the house? If not, why was Longvue never built as a through street?

Again, your input is needed to crack this case.

3. Good Way versus Good Lane
Talk to someone who’s been around Perrysville for a while and they’ll refer to a street called Good Way. It doesn’t exist on a current map, but did on the 1940 map I have studied extensively. Good Lane is the current name of the road, although I’m not sure when the road changed designations.

The question, again, is everyone’s favorite of the 5 Ws--why? What was wrong with simply referring to it as a “way”? All these years later, we still have people calling it by the old name out of habit!

4. The Unbuilt Streets of Atlantic Avenue
Remember when we looked at the mysterious non-construction of the streets off Atlantic Avenue in the fall? I was recently looking at a map of Perrysville to adapt for a social studies lesson and found, much to my surprise, that the framework for the streets and alleys proposed circa 1940 are on the map! Pull up Vater’s Hardware on Google Maps and see for yourself--there are obvious “ghost streets” on there, as though they could still be developed in the future.

Granted, the old map was drawn 73 years ago, but it’s never too late. If I ever get into the development business, you can make a safe bet I’ll try my best to get that land for the purpose of plopping down reasonably-sized, fair-priced houses just as the original developers had intended. (I actually think building smaller houses that aren’t townhomes would be a great idea in 2013--time to call up my contractor and realtor friends and get this party started!)

Still, what’s with these roads appearing on the map? First Street was indeed built, and some of these streets cannot be constructed due to St. Teresa occupying a portion of where they appear on the map (yet the outlines still show up anyway), but I always thought you had to actually build the roads to get on a map in any way, shape, or form.

Even stranger is the Allegheny County Assessment map. The roads are also on there, as are the plots of land. The old plots of land, which are divided into large lots instead of smaller ones, actually overlap the portion of the property used by St. Teresa. Atlantic Avenue, according to this map, was designed to eventually terminate at Link Avenue.

Again, why not build and develop these roads? We have enough housing on the east side of Perry Highway, so let’s fill up the west while we’re at it!

5. The Conrad Avenue Bridge
Revisiting another topic from last fall--Conrad Avenue. Looking at the Google map reveals what looks like a small parcel of land between Neola Circle and Second Street. As anyone who has walked along here knows, it’s a small access “bridge” for foot traffic between the two roads. Originally, it was proposed as the beginning of another street that eventually became Neola Circle: Conrad Avenue. Conrad was part of the original proposal for the Neola neighborhood (much of which was heavily reworked after World War II).

Stranger still is the Allegheny County Assessment map, which shows this land bridge as part of Neola Drive itself, just as Conrad Avenue was supposed to be.

Why, then, wasn’t this portion of the road built for traffic?

6. Smith Drive
We will conclude our six pack of mysterious Perrysville roads with Smith Drive, which begins at Jackson Street behind Brandt’s Funeral Home. According to the maps, it is supposed to bisect both Celmar and Malvern before terminating at Good Way/Lane (depending on whether or not you adopted the new name) directly in front of the old Dempsey house. The Dempsey house was a bit of a hindrance to the completion of the construction of this road, although it looked to be the way to best get to this haunted residence prior to its demolition in 2011. Still, it could have been built if the developers got creative, perhaps using some land from the parcel next to the house of horrors.

With the site of the gruesome 1934 murder gone, why not complete Smith? There are some obvious obstacles here, such as the safety concerns involving the Good Way/Lane hill and the fact only left turns would be permitted. Still, why not finish the street, even if it’s just to make a good access road for pedestrians? It seems unlikely anyone will build on the old Dempsey site (of course, stranger things have happened--who would have imagined someone buying and renovating the Beverly Hills Hotel?) so if there’s ever a time to consider linking this road, it’s now.

Six road mysteries to boggle your mind, North Hillers. Join me next time with another mystery, hopefully once we’ve answered all of these tough questions!