Allentown is a neighborhood located in southern portion of the city of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Allegheny County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia Co ...

. The ZIP code used by residents is 15210, and has representation on the Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 3 (Central South Neighborhoods).

History

Beltzhoover Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare that separates Allentown and

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

(to the east) from Beltzhoover and Mt. Washington (to the west). The city of Pittsburgh expanded and absorbed these areas lying southward of the original city of Pittsburgh. Allentown was carved out of St. Clair Township, which was one of the original townships of Allegheny County. On April 26, 1827, Joseph Allen, an Englishman, purchased the land that would eventually be known as Allentown from Jeremiah Warder. Incorporated on March 2, 1870, and annexed by the City of Pittsburgh on April 2, 1872, Allentown was settled by many skilled German immigrants who established businesses. Welsh, Irish, and English settlers made up the second largest immigrant population. Allentown developed quickly due to its convenient location to

downtown Pittsburgh Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose ...

as well as due to the available transportation. Two main roads south from Pittsburgh merged on the hilltop in Allentown: Washington Road (today’s Warrington Avenue) and Brownsville Turnpike Road (today’s Arlington Avenue). The neighborhoods were connected at first by horse-drawn streetcars and later by the electric

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

. In 1888 Allentown became the first site west of the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

to operate an electric streetcar. Ever since then the trolley, or ‘T’, has run up Warrington Avenue, Allentown's main thoroughfare, keeping hilltop residents connected to downtown Pittsburgh. Today, though, the T does not make any stops in the neighborhood, and the line (most recently known as the Port Authority's Brown Line) is used as an emergency route when the South Hills Transit Tunnel is closed. In the past, there were also five inclines that served Allentown, the most famous of which was the curved

Knoxville Incline The Knoxville Incline was a broad gauge inclined railway that ran between Pittsburgh's South Side and Allentown neighborhoods. The incline was constructed in 1890 and had a track gauge of . The charter was in planning as of January 1890, wi ...

with a station at the intersection of Warrington and Arlington Avenues. Several bus routes, and many more roads connect the neighborhood with the downtown, South Side, and beyond.

References

External links

Interactive Pittsburgh Neighborhoods Map
{{Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh Populated places established in 1870 1872 disestablishments in Pennsylvania 1870 establishments in Pennsylvania

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links