
Plummer's Run Creen passing by the Knowston home
on West Liberty Avenue, flowing downhill towards Pauline Avenue.
The South Hills area is well known for its
abundance of streams and brooks that flow through the many valleys and contours of
the rolling hills. Many of the larger creeks, like Saw Mill Run, Glass Run, Streets
Run and Beck's Run, still flow inexorably towards their juntion with the Monongahela
River.
Other smaller tributaries flow down the
valleys towards these larger creeks. Streams like Clairton Run, McNeilly Run and
Little Saw Mill Run flow into Saw Mill Run Creek, so that by the time it meets the
Monongahela in the West End, it is more like a small river.

An 1876 map showing Plummer's Run Creek
running parallel to West Liberty Avenue.
Another little known stream that feeds Saw Mill
Run Creek is called Plummer's Run Creek. It flowed for many years along the path of West
Liberty Avenue and emptied into Saw Mill Run Creek near the present-day Liberty Tunnels.
It was named for Nathaniel Plummer, one of the original local landowners, on whose
property the stream originated (near Potomac Avenue). It is a prominent feature
on old maps from the 1800s.
When West Liberty Avenue was first laid out
in 1839, the Lower Saint Clair Township road was called Plummer's Run. The dirt road,
which ran alongside the creek, took on it's present name in 1876 when West Liberty
Borough was incorporated. Being the main road running through the heart new borough,
it was given the name West Liberty Avenue.

Plummer's Run Creek passing by Capital Avenue in 1915
(left) and ponding by a sewer pipe north of Ray Avenue in 1910.
Homeowners and businesses that settled along
the path of Plummer's Run had small bridges over the stream to access their buildings.
As development increased the small creek became an impediment and, like many of the other
Saw Mill Run tributaries, was diverted underground into the local sewer
system.
For Plummer's Run Creek, this occured in 1915
during the reconstruction of West Liberty Avenue. In the 100-plus years that have since
passed, this once prominent terrain feature, which still flows beneath West Liberty
Avenue, has been all but forgotten.

Plummer's Run Creek at the lower end of West
Liberty Avenue just before it empties in Saw Mill Run Creek in 1915.
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