Scenes like this were commonplace along the valleys of Brookline in the early 1900s.

The South Hills area, once the picturesque rural breadbasket of the city of Pittsburgh, was also well known at one time as a major source of coal to fuel the city's industry base. West Liberty Borough (Brookline, Beechview, Bon Air) and other South Hills neighborhoods and municipalities, are situated atop the former "Oak Mine".

There were actually a series of Oak Mines along the Saw Mill Run corridor through to Castle Shannon and beyond. Underneath the heart of Brookline are the subterranean passages of Oak Mine #1. Owned by the Pittsburgh Coal Company, the mine ran the length of West Liberty Borough, east to west. The coal was part of the historic Pittsburgh Coal Seam, the largest single, continuous coal deposit in the Eastern United States.

Underneath Brookline, coal was mined using the traditional room and pillar system, whereby rooms are cut into the coal bed leaving a series of pillars, or columns of coal, to help support the mine roof and control the flow of air. Generally, rooms are twenty to thirty feet wide and the pillars are up to 100 feet wide.

A donkey pulls a loaded car out of one of the pit mouths in the early-1900s.

As mining advances, a grid-like pattern of rooms and pillars is formed. When the shaft reaches the end of a panel, retreat mining begins. Workers mine as much coal as possible from the remaining pillars until the roof begins to collapse. When retreat mining is completed, the area is abandoned and sealed off.

In West Liberty Borough, mining operations along Saw Mill Run started in the mid-1800s. By the early-1870s, the mining had progressed into the eastern boundaries of present-day Brookline. Shafts began in the valleys and extended deep into the hills. The coal was extracted using dynamite, picks and shovels, then transported to the mills along the Monongahela River via the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad.

The Pittsburgh Coal Company power station and mine shaft at the Brookline Junction in 1909.

There were four separate small-gauge P&CSRR spur lines that ran along Brookline's valley floors to the main pit openings. These were located behind Moore Park, along Edgebrook Avenue, Whited Street and in the greenway behind present-day Brookline Park.

Inside the mines, mules were used to pull coal cars along dark, dimly-lit passages. Near pit mouths were fields where the animals were brought to rest and graze in the sunlight. One such "donkey field" was located in a clearing on the hilltop above Edgebrook Avenue. That forested area was then known as the "Big Woods". Today it would be in the vicinity of Perrilynn Avenue.

  
A mine shaft along Elwyn Street/McNeilly Road in 1931 (left) and another abandoned shaft, shown in 1937.

The portions of Brookline's Oak Mine along Saw Mill Run were mined out by the early-1900s. By then, work had begun tunneling under the heart of the community, from West Liberty Avenue east to Merrick Avenue. In 1905, the Pittsburgh Coal Company built a power station, mine ventilation shaft, holding tank and storage barn next to the Brookline Junction, at the intersection of Brookline Boulevard and West Liberty Avenue. The power station was in operation for ten years.

During the West Liberty Avenue Improvement Project, in 1915, the power station and storage barn were removed and relocated to Elwyn Street. The ventilation shaft was relocated away from the roadway and remained near the Brookline Junction until the early-1940s.

The Oak Mine in the Brookline area was mined out by 1941. The numerous shafts along West Liberty Avenue, Saw Mill Run and Elwyn Street (McNeilly Road) were boarded up. The mining companies dismantled their buildings, sealed their shafts and moved on to the abundant coal fields further south.

  
A 1910 photo of miners working in one of Pittsburgh's many coal mines.

Over time, most vestiges of the once bustling local mining industry disappeared. Occasionally, an abandoned mine shaft is uncovered during a construction project. More often the reminders of our mining past come in the form of mine subsidence. Underground collapses can cause damage to ground-level infrastructure and homes as the earth settles into the void.

Long-abandoned shafts, which once dotted the hillsides around the community, were still being found as late as the 1980s. Landslides and shifting earth along the hills have occasionally exposed these openings.

As recently as October 2007, a shaft opening was unearthed during the reconfiguration of Library Road in Overbrook, near the intersection with McNeilly Road. We caution anyone that stumbles upon one of these hazards to stay out!

♦ Photos of the Library Road Elwyn Mine Shaft in 2007 ♦

This abandoned mine shaft was unearthed along Library Road during construction in 2007.

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Mine Rescue Training At Brookline's Oak Mine

The September 9, 1913 edition of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times featured an article about a ten-day conference on mine rescue maneuvers held in Pittsburgh by the Bureau of Mines. The field training was held at Oak Station, the busy mining center located near the bottom of Whited Street in East Brookline. The article is reprinted below.

MINE RESCUE MEN SHOW THEIR SKILL

Delegates To 10-Day Conference Hasten
To Oak Station For Real Work

TO TEST FIRST AID SYSTEM

Canaries Are Part Of Equipment For Detecting
Dangerous Gases Under Ground

Mine rescue workers and first-aid men, representing the federal and state governments and private mine corporations, in conference yesterday morning at the Bureau of Mines Station, Arsenal Park, were told by Engineer James W. Paul, that a disaster had taken place at the Oak Mine, owned by the Pittsburgh Coal Company and located at Oak Station.

Trained to receive such news complacently and with reserve, the workers adjourned the session and met informally to formulate plans of action in the care of the supposed dead and injured. Later they made a hurried trip in a special car to the mine, where they found the specially-equipped rescue car of the Bureau of Mines standing on a railroad siding, and a small crew of smiling first-aid men.

It was the opening day of a 10-day mine rescue maneuver to be conducted at that mine, which was abandoned temporarily one and one-half years ago. Mining engineers and rescue workers from all the coal regions in the country east of the Mississippi River will come to the camp to participate in the elaborate demonstration of mine rescue methods.

James W. Paul, head of the rescue department, with headquarters in this city, will direct the maneuvers. He will be assisted by a corps of engineers and mine foremen from various mining districts throughout the east.

First Aid To Be Tested

Five crews, consisting of five men each, and each under the supervision of a mining engineer, will operate in the Oak Mine in day and night shifts. The work will be continuous throughout the ten days. The crews will work in two-hour shifts, and at the end of the maneuvering it is estimated the mine will be put back into condition for operation.

This work will be the beginning of a series of campaigns to be held in various parts of the country. Similar experiments will be performed in a camp at Trinidad, Colorado, the latter part of this month.

It is the aim of the authorities to establish rescue work in the mines on a definite basis of cooperation between the mine operators, the state mine inspectors, and the rescue workers. The efficiency of first-aid methods will be tested, and the apparatus in vogue will be given severe trials.

Helmeted miners exiting Brookline's Oak Mine after training.

It is understood that the Oak Mine contains a large quantity of black damp and gas, and the officials consider it an excellent place to perform an extensive experiment.

For rescue operations the mine operators will be required to furnish one or more trained crews, and a full set of breathing apparatus. Sufficient supplies to maintain the apparatus for a continuous period of forty-five hours will be necessary.

Canary Birds To Be Used

The government car at the Oak Mine is fully equipped with helmets, safety lamps, oxygen tanks, stretchers, pulmonators, bandages and medicines. Every man in the crew is trained to meet any emergency that might arise at a disaster.

A host of canary birds, used in testing the amount of poisonous gas in the confines of mine shafts, is an important part of the equipment. The birds are taken down into the mine in cages. When they become exhausted, the bearer of the cage knows that he may venture further into the mine safely, but he must not remain there no longer than eight or nine minutes. At that time the worker must leave the mine. The bird is placed in an air-tight oxygen box and resusitated.

It is estimated that the present rescue organizations have decreased death rolls in mining regions more than 200 men each year since their organization. It is said that a life is saved every day through the efforts of the first aid teams in the mines.

The officials of the maneuver and their subordinates will not leave the camp until the experiment is closed. A.A. Krogdahl, first aid miner, of Ironwood, Michigan, who will participate in the experiment, was awarded medals by the Red Cross and the Carnegie Hero Fund commission, before he entered the service of the Bureau of Mines, for saving the lives of fellow miners. He has since rescued men from mines, but his official position has barred him from further awards.

The men at the Oak Mine are: James W. Paul, G.H. Deike, assistant engineer, of Pittsburgh; Edwin Higgins, of Ironwood, MI, Charles Enzian, of Wilkes-Barre, PA, R.Y. Williams, of Urbana, IL, J.M. Booher, Edward Evans, of Pittsburgh, W.J. German, of Kingston, PA, G.T. Powell, of Evansville, IN, Edward Steidle of Pittsburgh, Jesse Henson, of Huntington, WV, W.W. Sullivan, of Ironwood, MI, A.A. Krogdahl, of Ironwood, MI, W.A. Raudenbush, C.O. Roberts, of Pittsburgh, A.I. Young and A.J Strane.

The September 10, 1913 edition of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times printed the following update on the maneuvers.

RESCUE MEN ENTER MINE IN REAL DISASTER STYLE

Maneuver Of Federal, State and Corporation
Teams Proceeds At Oak Station

Five teams consisting of federal, state and private mine corporation rescuers, first aid men and mine officials, entered the Oak Mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company at Oak Station yesterday as the first work of a ten-day mine rescue maneuver that is being carried out in connection with the conference of mine rescue workers from various parts of the country at the Bureau of Mines in Arsenal Park. The work is under the direction of James W. Paul.

The teams entered this abandoned, dangerous and gaseous mine by three different entrances just as they would had a real disaster occurred. They were fully equipped with the apparatus for artificial breathing and everything required in their work.

They found much water in the mine and heavy "falls" from the roof, but they managed to penetrate some distance. When the men emerged from their dangerous task they were individually examined by Dr. James M. Bocher, of the Bureau of Mines. He found all of them in good condition, prescribed the diet for each, after so much artificial respiration and ordered them six hours rest, after which they entered the mine again.

There will be a meeting at the Bureau of Mines of the American Mine Safety Association, consisting of the mine rescuers and engineers and officials of private companies September 22, 23 and 24. H.M. Wilson, engineer of the local Bureau of Mines, will preside.

The September 12, 1913 edition of the Pittsburgh Gazette Times printed another short blurb on the mine rescue training.

MINE PRACTICE CONTINUES

Rescue Workers Proceed With Annual
Maneuvering At Oak Station

Mine rescue maneuvers, being conducted in the abandoned Oak Mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company at Oak Station, by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, continued in one of the remote rooms of the mine yesterday. A fire was started in the mine in order to give the men forty-eight hours experience in fighting a mine blaze.

Among the new arrivals in connection with the maneuvering were: G.S. Rice, chief mining engineer of the Bureau of Mines, who returned yesterday from the Pacific coast; J.W. Koster, mine foreman from Illinois' fields; J.C. Roberts, district engineer of the Rocky Mountain region; R.Y. Williams, of the central states, and J.J. Rutledge, of Oklahoma.

Oak Station

Oak Station was one of the primary mining locations along the Saw Mill Run Corridor, which was dotted with operational mine shafts all the way to Bethel Park. In addition to the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad spur line that looped through the Whited Street valley, there was a also small rail hub and loading facility.

This part of the mine was opened in 1902. Most of the nearby coal was mined out by 1910. From the Oak Station pit mouth, long shafts led to the west and south, connecting to other sections of the mine, forming a vast underground labyrinth stretching out beneath the entire Brookline community, and points beyond. The Oak Mine maps that are shown below give a good glimpse of this subterranean world.

What is Blackdamp?

The Oak Mine was chosen as a test location for the mine rescue teams because of the abundance of blackdamp, an odorless and highly toxic gas. The mixture of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and water vapor forms when exposed coal begins absorbing oxygen. It is difficult to detect and can incapacitate an individual in a matter of moments. Wikipedia: Blackdamp.

Since the nearby rooms and shafts had been abandoned for over a year, pockets of the deadly gas had built up in various locations, thus making this section of the room and pillar mine an ideal environment for detection and rescue training.

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A Miner's Best Friend

The only way to combat blackdamp and the other toxic or flammable gases that formed during the mining process was with proper ventilation. Even then, it was possible for pockets of blackdamp to form in certain areas. Because it had no odor, miners could not tell when they were encountering the gas.

Canaries where used as a warning device to detect when oxygen levels reached a low level. The birds would pass out when deprived of oxygen. A human's threshold was much higher, thus the eight to nine minute time-interval between the canary collapsing and the miners having to exit the mine.

After their perilous life and death experience, the birds were duly resusitated in an oxygen rich environment, then sent back to the pit mouth for another trip into the dark underverse. Unfortunately, many of the birds perished in the line of duty.

It's difficult to estimate the number of miners that were saved by these fearless canaries. But, it is safe to say that until more efficient detection methods were introduced, these little birds truly were a miner's best friend.

The use of canaries in the United States coal mining industry, was phased out in the late-20th century.

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Locations Of Brookline's Oak Mine Entrances
Click on image to enlarge

  
One of the earliest parts of the Oak Mine was this PCSRR spur line and entrance along Timberland Avenue. First
shown on 1876 and mined out by 1890. By 1896 the West Side Belt Railway had laid their tracks along
the Brookline side of Saw Mill Run, utilizing a portion of the old spur line route.

  
Oak Mine entrances along Edgebrook Avenue, shown on an 1876 map and still active in the 1900s. The tracks
ran underground to another mine shaft entrance along Whited Street. Near present-day Hartranft Street
was a large opening in the woods known as the Donkey Field, where the mules were brought to graze.

  
An Oak Mine entrance along Whited Street with a spur line running to the PCSRR tracks, shown on a 1905 map.
This line was Brookline's main coal hub for some time, known as Oak Station.

  
A spur line running to mine entrances in the valley behind present-day Brookline Park, shown on an 1882 map.

  
The Pittsburgh Coal Company power station and ventilation shaft that fed the Oak Mine, shown on this 1905 map.
The power plant was removed in 1915, but the ventilation shaft was moved to a nearby location and remained
until the early 1940s. On the map, Hunter Avenue was redesignated as Brookline Boulevard in 1908.
Later, in 1935, the road became Bodkin Street when the boulevard was rerouted.

  
The Paul Coal Company mine shaft entrance along Stetson Street, shown on a 1916 map. This mine was used
to provide residential heating coal for Brookline and Beechview residents in the early 1900s.

  
A Pittsburgh Coal Company entrance to the Oak Mine southeast of Creedmoor Avenue, shown on a 1916 map.
The shaft opening is across the street from the present-day car wash and auto dealership.

  
Pittsburgh Coal Company entrances to the Oak Mine near present-day Creedmoor Avenue, shown in a 1934 map.

  
The South Hills Coal Company mine entrance and Coal Tipple located near the railroad tunnel along McNeilly Road,
shown on a 1934 map. Coal extracted from this mine shaft was used for residential heating.

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Maps Of Brookline's Oak Mine
Click on image for a larger map

  
A 1905 Map (left) showing the proposed path of the streetcar line next to the Pittsburgh Coal Company mine shaft,
and a 1929 map showing the main shafts of the Oak Mine extending eastwards from the Brookline Junction.

Below are a series of maps showing the layout of the room and pillar mines underneath Brookline. Together, the maps form a 3-by-3 grid that show the status of the Oak Mine in the late-1940s. The maps are coded with letters (A, B, AB, AC, etc) and include dated entries that detail the years that those areas were in operation.

There is an accompanying Pittsburgh Coal Company log detailing the code letters and years that correspond to the map entries, showing when specific areas were mined. The log and maps show that mining in Brookline ended in 1941. The dated codes continue through 1980, as mining operations lasted another forty years in the abundant deposits to the south.

These maps show how extensive the mining operations were underneath the community of Brookline, as well as Beechview, Dormont and Overbrook. It really does look as though Brookline is 95% undermined, supported by an aging network of rooms and pillars.

♦ Interactive Overlay Map Showing Part Of Brookline's Oak Mine ♦

The last recorded mining of the Pittsburgh Coal Seam in Brookline's traditional 19th Ward took place in the area underneath Rossmore, Gallion and Berwin Avenues in early-1936. The South Hills Coal Company, which mined the area in the 32nd Ward underneath Ebenshire Village, closed their Saw Mill Run Mine shaft, located along McNeilly Road between Creedmoor Avenue and the railroad tunnel, in 1941.

The map below is from the early 1900s and gives a bit more detail to the mining operations in the eastern section of the Oak Mine. Many of the street names still carry old West Liberty Borough designations. Some of these are Oak (Whited), Warwick (Wareman), Clifton (Clippert), Chelsea (Chelton), Putnam (Edgebrook), Glenarm (Trenton), Flatbush (Winchester), Wedgemere (West Point), Rossmore (Cromwell) and Gallion (Monitor).

The drawing below shows the property lines of James Gordon when the mining rights to his land were acquired by the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad. The document is dated April 22, 1904. The pit mouth shown is located near Marloff Place. It extends into the Oak Mine and proceeds directly under present-day Brookline Memorial Park (Anderson property).

Shown below is a newspaper clipping from 1902 disclosing the purchase of the mining rights to 113.059 acres of land bordering Gordon's to the south. It documents the rights of the company to mine all of the coal in the underlying area and the terms and cost for any surface damage relating to the mining operation.

Another interesting anecdote regarding local coal mining involves the construction of Carmalt Elementary School in the 1930s. Complications arose during construction of the school involving coal mining beneath the spot where the building would be erected.

There was approximately 15,000 tons of coal located 200 feet below the school's foundation and owned by the Pittsburgh Coal Company. In order to assure that the coal would not be mined, which could threaten the stability of the building, the school board had to pay $5390, thirty-six cents per ton, for the rights to the coal.

A similar situation occurred with the former DePaul Institute along Dorchester Avenue. An agreement with the Diocese of Pittsburgh specified that no mining would take place under the grounds of the once-remowned school for the hearing impaired.

  
The South Hills Coal Company on McNeilly Road in 1930 (left), and the Castle Shannon Coal Company along
Library Road in 1931. These companies operated Oak Mine #2 and Oak Mine #3 from 1902 to 1941.

On the site of the former South Hills Coal Company is the equipment lot of Facchiano Construction Company. In 2015
they dug into the hillside to expand the lot and exposed a clearly visible line of coal from the Pittsburgh Coal Seam.

Coal for Heating in High Demand

In February, 1909, the Paul Coal Company was established at the corner of Summerhill (Stetson Street) and West Liberty Avenue. Residents could obtain coal on a very short notice. Robert McKinley, J.C. Crawford and J.C. Davis chartered the company after purchasing the large tract of coal lying beneath the Paul Place plan of lots, and the adjoining property owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Paul.

The main mine entrance was located near Stetson Street. The Paul Place plan of lots would include the homes on Plainview, Woodward and Pioneer, north and south of Capital Avenue. The Paul Farm, located across Pioneer Avenue atop the hill, eventually became the Moore Park and Our Lady of Loreto Church grounds.

  
The Paul Coal Company mine located along West Liberty Avenue and a Fairbanks scale.

A fairbanks scale was placed within easy access of West Liberty Avenue, where the public was able to use it for a nominal price. An electric machine of the Jefferson type was installed for the digging of coal. Power was supplied by the Pittsburgh Railways Company. The electric machine was the first of its kind in use within the city limits and the easy access to coal for heating homes in the South Hills area was a great improvement to local homeowners.

A horse-drawn wagon, loaded with coal, stands at the intersection of Freedom Avenue and Merrick Avenue in 1924.

There had been mining in West Liberty Borough since the mid-1800s. The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad began as a Coal Railroad that operated along the Little Saw Mill Run corridor in Banksville and the Saw Mill Run corridor through to Castle Shannon. There were branch lines that ran into the Brookline valleys, with maps showing them along Edgebrook Avenue and into the Paul property, near present-day Moore Park.

In the early 1900s, the main mining operations, like the Pittsburgh Coal Company, had exhausted their claims. Other local companies, like the South Hills Coal Company along McNeilly Road, and the Castle Shannon Coal Company on Library Road continued operating well into the late 1930s. These local companies became the primary source of coal for residential heating until their claims were exhausted.

Richard Dunn and Donald Fornear in 1943 shoveling coal along Woodbourne Avenue.

Through the mid-1940s, most Brookline homes were heated with coal furnaces. First by horse-drawn wagon, then by motorized transport, home coal deliveries were made several times a year along the neighborhood streets and alleys. Most of the time, the coal was dumped on the sidewalk or along the back edge of the property.

Residents would have to haul the coal to the house, often one bucket at a time, and drop it into a coal shute, which led to the coal cellar off the main basement. Most homes converted to natural gas furnaces in the 1940s and 1950s. There were still a few homes receiving coal deliveries as late as 1970.

For neighborhood children, Coal Delivery Day was a big deal, and a chance to play for a while with the black gold.
Here, young Joe Sabash, his sister and a friend gather near a recently delivered load in 1944. Parents, on
the other hand, weren't so happy about having to clean their filthy hands and clothes afterwards.

The Town Of Reflectorville
(1890-1920)

The exact year that the small town of Reflectorville came into being is not known. The hamlet was located on Oak Hill between the lower end of Whited Street and Edgebrook Avenue, along Saw Mill Run Creek. Using real estate advertisements and old maps as a reference, we can assume that it was approximately 1890.

This part of present-day Brookline was then situated in the northern tip of Baldwin Township, along the border of West Liberty Borough and Carrick Borough. Part of the Reflectorville area spread north of the border into the nearby boroughs, along the Saw Mill Run corridor. To the south was the neighboring township mining settlement of Fairhaven.

Thomas Bailey And David Moon

Much of the land that comprised Reflectorville was owned and developed by Thomas Flanner Bailey and David G. Moon, the president and treasurer of Pittsburgh's highly successful Bailey Reflector Company. Their business is the origin of the town's unique name.

The Bailey Reflector Company was located in Pittsburgh, on Second Avenue, and manufactured ornamental oil, glass and kerosene silvered lighting fixtures and chandoliers that were popular in churches and commercial establishments throughout the United States. Bailey Reflectors also found a market for their products as far away as Japan.

In the 1880s, with the mining industry venturing into the region south of Pittsburgh, the two businessmen acquired a substantial land tract along the Saw Mill Run corridor with the purpose of creating a residential development in the rural South Hills suburbs.

Construction of Reflectorville began in 1890 and continued for the next thirty years. As Pittsburgh expanded through a series of annexations, the small town was eventually absorbed into the city limits.

By that time, the men who had orchestrated the birth of Reflectorville had long since passed on. David Moon died in 1906, at age seventy-three. Thomas Bailey, aged seventy-seven, followed in 1915. The Bailey Reflector Company was sold by the Bailey family in June 1916.

Housing For Mining And Railroad Families

In the 1890s, coal mining was the primary enterprise along the Saw Mill Run corridor. There were several active Oak Mine shafts in operation. On either side of Reflectorville were the mine entrances along Hughey Road (Edgebrook) and Oak Street (Whited). The Oak Street Station was one of the largest in the valley and included a small rail yard.

The vast majority of those who settled in Reflectorville were the families of the men who worked in the mines, along with a number of railroad employees.

On September 12, 1892, an ad was placed in the Pittsburgh Press for lots in Reflectorville. Just two and one half miles from downtown, these lots were ideally located along the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad, which offered passenger service to and from the city.

The advertisements proclaimed that lots in Reflectorville had excellent drainage and unsurpassed views of the Saw Mill Run valley. They also provided a clue pointing to the year to when construction of the village began, stating that since 1890 the number of homes built had risen from eight to seventy-two.

Reflectorville In 1896

Reflectorville first appeared on plot maps in 1896. The hamlet consisted of the housing tracts known as the Bailey and Moon #1, Bailey and Moon #2, Magaw/Goff and Zimmerman Plans. Bailey and Moon also had a third small tract of homes across the border in West Liberty and the Zimmerman Park Plan also stood slightly north of the border in Carrick.

An 1896 map showing the town of Reflectorville, built on Oak Hill along the Saw Mill Run corridor.

The layout of the Reflectorville streets in many ways mirrors the present-day road network. The exception was the streets along valley floor. These stood between the tracks of the West Side Belt Railroad and those of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad, running respectively on the western and eastern hillsides along the broad corridor.

Where Saw Mill Run Boulevard runs today was a gridlike network of streets, including First and Second and Third Avenue, which followed the course of present-day Ballinger Street. Intersecting these roadways was the Township Road, or the Warrington Avenue Extension, which ran north towards West Liberty Avenue and Pittsburgh. To the south was the Library Road Extension that led to Fairhaven.

Oak Elementary School, shown here in 1930, was built in 1908. It was originally called the Reflectorville
Public School and replaced a small schoolhouse that was built in the early-1890s.

Along Third Avenue was a small school house, called the Reflectorville Public School, for the children of the miners. At the corner of Elm Street (Zimmerman) and Walnut Street (Hallowell) stood a Methodist Church. This was the forerunner of the Brookline United Methodists, who in 1907 moved to a stone chapel located at Brookline Boulevard and Wedgemere Avenue.

One can assume from the number of buildings shown that the area was served by a variety of merchants and markets that catered to the needs of the growing Reflectorville population.

Part Of Overbrook Borough

The town of Reflectorville continued to develop during the early years of the 20th Century. Nearby mining operations went on for another decade and the population more than doubled. By the time the shafts had been mined out, this tiny corner of Baldwin Township had evolved into a thriving community.

In 1908, West Liberty Borough was annexed into the City of Pittsburgh. Reflectorville was now bordered to the north and west by the emerging neighborhood of Brookline.

In 1912, there was a proposal put forth by officials from the town of Fairhaven to break away from Baldwin Township and form a new borough that would include Reflectorville, Fairhaven and Castle Shannon. The measure was put to a vote and failed due to objections from the residents of Castle Shannon, who prefered to form their own independent municipality.

While the issue of creating a new borough remained in the news for the next several years, home construction in Reflectorville continued. When the Pittsburgh Railways Company established their high-speed traction line along the P&CSRR right-of-way, the quick and reliable public transporation brought a surge of development.

Finally, in 1920, Reflectorville became the First Ward in the newly formed Borough of Overbrook, which extended from the city line at Edgebrook Avenue along the Saw Mill Run and Library Road corridors to the border of Castle Shannon.

Added To Brookline Census Tract

The most comprehensive developmental change to occur within the borders of the former town came in 1929, when Saw Mill Run Boulevard (PA State Route 51) was built. Many of the homes lying along the valley floor were razed to clear a path for the broad four-lane highway.

The following year, in 1930, the Borough of Overbrook voted for annexation into the City of Pittsburgh. The adjacent Borough of Carrick had been annexed three years earlier, in 1927. After this southward expansion, Pittsburgh City Council instituted some territorial adjustments to the borders of these new municipal wards.

The majority of Overbrook's First Ward (former Reflectorville), was added to the census tract of the Brookline community. This included all of the land east of Saw Mill Run Boulevard. The property to the west of Saw Mill Run Boulevard was assigned to the Carrick neighborhood.

A Lasting Reminder Of Reflectorville

It has been nearly a century since the small village of Reflectorville became a part of the distant past. The town's brief thirty year legacy will, however, be remembered in the naming of one of the bridges along Saw Mill Run.

The Reflectorville Viaduct was originally constructed over Edgebrook Avenue in 1872 by the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad. Reflectorville Station was a stop along the line. The bridge and car stop became part of the Pittsburgh Railways transit line in 1909.

  
The Reflectorville Viaduct, across Saw Mill Run from Edgebrook Avenue, shown here in 1929.

The bridge was replaced in 1929 and remained in service until decommissioned in 1993, with Reflectorville Station as a popular stop along the way. The bridge was rebuilt once more in 2004 for the modern light-rail transit line and is still referred to as the Reflectorville Bridge. The car stop was eliminated.

Ironically, the bridge that memorializes the name Reflectorville, was always located just outside of the town's traditional borders, in the Borough of Carrick.

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Some Old Photos Showing The Reflectorville Area

A 1928 photo showing homes along the lower end of Edgebrook Avenue. Beyond the bridge is Beech Street, which leads
into Reflectorville. For a fair distance after the bridge, Edgebrook formed the northern boundary of the town.
The homes to the immediate right were in Carrick Borough, but still considered part of Reflectorville.

  
Reflectorville homes along Ensign Avenue (left) and Second Avenue, shown in 1928.

The same Second Avenue homes, shown in 1929. Some to the right that stood in the path of the highway were razed.

  
Looking under the Oak Viaduct (left photo) and over the Charles Street (Colerain) bridge, in 1928, at the intersection of
Second Avenue and Oak Street in Reflectorville. This is the present-day junction of Whited Street and Saw Mill Run
Boulevard. The right photo shows a home along Oak Street located where the Jack Maggs Agency stands today.

The Saw Mill Run Creek bridge and the Oak Street home shown above, now a Brookline residence, in 1934.

  
Two photos from the late-1930s looking past the Oak Viaduct into the former town of Reflectorville.
In 1930, all land shown to the left of Saw Mill Run Boulevard became part of Brookline.

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1905 Reflectorville Plot Map