Honestly, I stumbled onto the Mexican War Streets thing completely by accident. Was biking through the North Side last Tuesday trying to beat the rain clouds back home, you know? Saw these crazy houses – bright colors, turrets, just old money screaming at you. Figured I should dig deeper. Coffee first, obviously.
The Library Deep Dive Disaster
Grabbed my laptop next morning, headed straight for the Carnegie Library downtown. Thought it’d be easy. Spoiler: it wasn’t. Spent three freaking hours just trying to find anything online in their local history collection. Keywords like “North Side history” gave me pages about steel mills. “Old Pittsburgh mansions”? Mostly Point Park stuff. Felt like hitting a brick wall.
Stumbled upon “Buena Vista Street” references in some dusty property records search. That felt weird. Why Spanish names in Pittsburgh? Started pulling actual microfiche – those things still exist! – and found it. The neighborhood? Named after a war nobody really remembers here, the Mexican-American War back in the 1840s. The streets? Veterans names plastered everywhere: Taylor, Sherman, Monterey. Betcha most folks living there now couldn’t tell you why.
The Real Stories Started Leaking Out
The library stuff was dry as toast. Needed the good dirt. Tracked down a local historian who gives walking tours – guy named Frank, must be 80, knows everything. Met him at that little park on Arch Street. Here’s the gold:
- Soldiers Paying Rent… With Cannonballs? Yeah, Frank swears some veterans who settled there early on, used actual war souvenirs like cannonballs and bayonets as currency when they were short on cash. Probably bar stories, but hilarious.
- Sidewalk Wars: Apparently, the fancy folks in those mansions? Went full petty about property lines. We’re talking actual fistfights over who owned an inch of sidewalk. One dude built his steps overhanging public space on purpose, just to piss off his neighbor.
- The “Lost” Cannibal Theory? Okay, this one’s wild. Rumor mill said a family on Monterey disappeared mysteriously decades ago. Neighbors whispered cannibalism. Likely just someone skipped town on debts, but Frank winked. “Great story, isn’t it?”
Random Graveyard & Photo Fail
Frank mentioned veterans buried nearby in Allegheny Cemetery. Tried finding graves marked for Mexican War service that afternoon. Mistake. Place is huge. Wandered for an hour tripping over unmarked stones. Found exactly one marker mentioning the conflict. Took a picture. Phone died instantly afterward. Typical. No proof for you folks!
Ending With The Irony
Left the cemetery kinda laughing. Place named for this major, brutal war? Reduced to street signs tourists ignore. Mansions built with railroad or banking cash? Paid for by industries fueled by, well, wars elsewhere. Deep? Nah. But it makes you wonder what scraps we’ll leave behind for future bloggers to dig up.
Moral? History’s hiding in plain sight on weirdly named streets. You just gotta trip over it sometimes. Now where’s my coffee?
