Pittsburgh Arts & Entertainment Winter 2013 | Page 18

Street views

The Mexican

WAR STREETS
After returning from the Mexican-American War in
1848, Gen. William Robinson Jr. plotted an area of
land in Pittsburgh, naming all of the streets after war
battles and military leaders.
Today, many of those historic Victorian-era houses
still stand in the North Side, along with the street
names such as Buena Visa, Monterey, Resca, Palo
Alto, Taylor, Sherman and Jackson.
The 25.6 acre neighborhood is filled with stately row
houses, community gardens, tree-lined streets and
alleyways. Some of the 335 buildings have been
remolded in the 1880s, 1890s and 1920s.

A resident takes a stroll down a sidewalk along the colorfully
painted houses in the Mexican War Streets.

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Originally known as the Buena Visa Tract, the area
was used to stable horses and raise livestock. After
the Civil War, construction began and in the late
1800s, the structure of the neighborhood looks
much like it does today.