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History of Bellevue Borough
Before 1795 this area was all wilderness, without a single settler north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, and not more than two cabins in what later became known as Allegheny City.
After the Revolution this land was offered to the soldiers who had come home from the war, bankrupt. The Pennsylvania currency in which they had been paid was practically worthless.
Depreciation certificates were issued to them in amounts representing the estimated difference between the paper currency and hard money. The first sale took place near Sewickley where the land sold at 28 cents per acre.
The first owners of the 640 acres of this land, now known as Bellevue, were James Robinson and Hugh Henry Brackenridge.
Robinson, a soldier, was one of two settlers living on the North Shore of the Allegheny River across from Pittsburgh in 1799, the year he received his patent. He operated a tavern and a ferry at the north end of the present Sixth Street Bridge. His son, William, 14 years old at this time, became the first Mayor of Allegheny City in 1840. Their only neighbor on that side of the river was J. Lichtenberger who was growing buckwheat on Smokey Island.
Robinson’s grant was 412 ½ acres known as Sandy Bottom or the western half of Bellevue. A local historian recalls that before Monroe Avenue was opened to traffic between Meade and South Jackson, a huge sand bank operated there. The sand from that bank, he said, “is scattered through the mortar of half the residences of Bellevue standing at the beginning of the present century.”
Brackenridge, a chaplain in the Revolution, received his patent for “Sidney” in 1792; half of his 400 acres was in Pine Township. We are concerned with the 227 1/2n acres in Ross Township which became the eastern half of Bellevue, adjoining what now is Pittsburgh.
Neither of these men kept their land. By the early 1800’s it was laid out in five farms. Their owners were Bellevue’s original settlers.
Andrew Jackque (Jack), a Frenchman, owned the land south of Lincoln Avenue from South Fremont to Jackque’s (Jack’s) He had brought his family over the mountains in a Conestoga wagon and wanting to locate near the river, settled in the run. Here he built a grist mill and a stone house. He also operated a tavern on the river, on the trail from Fort Pitt to Fort McIntosh. He is considered Bellevue’s first settler.
In the middle 1800’s the farmlands of Ross Township were beginning to attract well to do businessmen in Pittsburgh. The five farms were subdivided and the homes of early Bellevue began to appear.
The next issue became municipal improvements from Ross Township in return for their tax money. But Ross Township was developing to the north, along the Venango Trail, which is now Route 19, and ignored the complaints from this section. On June 8, 1867, a majority of the property owners petitioned the court to become the Borough of Bellevue. The name was suggested by J.J. East, a French scholar and linguist, meaning beautiful view. The East home stood on a terrace at Lincoln and Florence Avenues. Their were 33 property owners who signed the petition.
Attorney Thomas M. Bayne was the legal representative of the property owners. The petition could not be presented until the borough population was at least 300, according to the law. While the population was only 299, Mrs. East was expecting so the plans went ahead.
In granting the petition, the Court set September 11, 1867 as the date for the first election and designated the store of Henry Williams as the place. The Court further decreed that Richard Straw be the Judge and Thomas Bakewell, Jr., and J.J. East, be the Inspectors for the election.
A School Board was elected at the same time.
The Borough now has 9,194 people in the Borough with 2,768 properties. Although a great percentage of these properties are multi-units the Borough is encouraging potential buyers to convert these units back to single family dwelling units. |