"The archive, as an institution, is surely a site of memory. But as a tool, it is an instrument for the refinement of desire. Seen from the collective point of view, and keeping the sociality of memory and the imagination in mind, such desire has everything to do with the capacity to aspire."
—Arjun Appadurai in "Archive and Aspiration"
Turn of the Century
It’s 1909, and the spirit of 20th century innovation is still fresh for the small population of newly-christened Brookline. The handful of residents—country folks sitting on acres of unturned land—watch from their rickety porches as bricklayers and pushcarts pave their way to Pittsburgh. They had lived on the brink of the city for year, and now, brick by brick, Brookline finds itself on the inside of the steel town. Tracks from wagons and buggies press into the last of the dirt that will eventually become the Boulevard. Men labor on the new road, muddied up to their knees, their carts muddied up to their spokes. Everyone wears brimmed hats to keep out the August sun. The community may look upturned, but Brookline braces for a bright future. In several years, developers from downtown Pittsburgh will be able to ride into Brookline on a real road. They’ll build homes to house families for generations, and bring businesses the entire city will come to recognize (Figure 1).
Before its annexation into Pittsburgh in 1908, Brookline was part of West Liberty Borough, a then underdeveloped suburb. The construction of formal roads and a single line trolley were the initial steps integrating Brookline into the city. Residential and commercial construction would grow the neighborhood population and jumpstart the urbanization process. However, the southerly neighborhood was still disconnected from the heart of the city. To get downtown, people first had to scale Mt. Washington and cross the Monongahela—a trip that could take more than an hour at the time. Brookline may have been a part of Pittsburgh in name, but it would take several more ambitious construction projects for the neighborhood to feel the connection.
The Twenties
Although Brookliners could access downtown via a streetcar through the South Hills Junction tunnel, the community was still difficult to reach for other motorists. By 1919, the city proposed the construction of a tunnel underneath Mt. Washington, with one end on the Brookline-Beechview border. The tunnels would finally give central Pittsburgh a direct connection into the South Hills and vice versa.
Six million dollars and several years later, the Liberty Tubes opened to traffic (Figure 2). South Pittsburgh’s population—Brookline included—jumped by 200%. The tunnels would continue to develop over the years. Ventilation issues were addressed in 1925, and three years after that, the Liberty Bridge—the final connector from the tunnels and over the Monongahela—was completed. The ease of access made Brookline even more desirable to Pittsburgh’s mushrooming population, some who would find homes at the end of the Liberty Tubes.
Midcentury
Brookline brims with families packed into rows upon rows of brick homes with gambrel rooves. Their view—crisscrossed with telephone wire—overlooks Brookline Boulevard and Pioneer Avenue, all stripped back to the dirt as workers lay streetcar tracks into the city (Figure 3). Schoolboys in caps and argyle socks gape at the construction, and women keep watch from the winding hillside paths down from their backyards. Everyone is excited that the wider roads and improved trolley might make navigating Brookline faster and safer for everyone. It won’t be long until Moore Park springs up along Pioneer Avenue. The same watchful schoolboys, a few years older, will dribble around the basketball court, paddle around the pool, and make their way in and out of the community rec center. And it won’t be much longer until their kids and their kids trample the same playground.
At midcentury, ongoing innovations in the community had turned Brookline from farmland to a bustling city neighborhood in a few short decades. Homes were built as fast as people were moving into them; the expansion of the commercial district around 1940 was much needed. The main drags of Brookline were converted into well-trafficked, four-lane thoroughfares. Every family felt the forward momentum of the community as homes upgraded from coal to gas furnaces and new schools, churches, and parks would crop up year after year. By 1960, the Brookline population would grow to its largest ever—over 20,000.
Today
Brookline’s population has dwindled—along with the rest of Pittsburgh—to around 13,000 residents, but remains one of the city’s largest neighborhoods. But the community is as vibrant as ever, and still as invested in innovation. In 2013, another major construction project was underway: a revamp of the Brookline Boulevard commercial district. Still home to nearly a hundred businesses all in need of a boost, the Boulevard needed revitalization. The new plan would alter traffic flow, parking, walkways, aesthetics—a true overhaul. And although Pittsburghers are always fast to decry roadwork and traffic, the community braced through a long year of paving, repaving, paving some more, and many neon-suited construction workers slaving through the seasons.
At the end of it all, Brookline has never looked more fresh-faced. The widened sidewalks have room for flowerbeds and outdoor seating for diners. The new parking layout is friendlier to drivers, and the new lanes friendlier to commuters. With everything gussied up, the Boulevard is even more a gathering place for the community—whether in solidarity with Brookline business Las Palmas when its residency was threatened in 2015, or during the “Pokémon Go” craze last year. Although it may be off the beaten path for many Pittsburghers, Brookline has earned its place as part of the city through years and years of innovation and change. If history is any indication, this piece of Pittsburgh will aspire to embrace change and always improve upon itself in the name of the community.
Works Cited
Appadurai, Arjun. “Archive and Inspiration.” Information is Alive. 2003. Web.
“The Brookline Connection: A Look Back in Time at Our Community.” The Brookline
Connection. 2016.