Pitcairn’s Time Line of Historical Events

1763- During the French and Indian War a band of Amerind warriors makes camp at a site just north of the Turtle Creek.  After a skirmish, a victorious British expedition comes upon the hastily abandoned camp; its leader, Colonel Henry Bouquet describes the location in his journal as the “Dirty Camp.” The nearby stream is called “Dirty Camp Run.”

1769 – Aeneas McKay, the first European settler in the area is granted a warrant of 300 acres of land known as the “Dirty Camp Tract.”

1789 – A second warrant of 300 acres is issued for the land just west of McKay’s Tract. Eventually becoming the ”McNair Tract,” this land, and its adjacent tract (later to be owned by Michael Wall), will eventually form the core of the towns of Pitcairn and Wall.

1835- McKay’s Tract passes on to John McGinnis who plans to establish a town along the Turtle Creek.

1841 – John McGinnis begins selling lots at the crossroads of Tilbrook and the Great State Road (today’s Route 130); a place he called “McGinnisville.”

1850 – The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) buys a right-of-way 66 feet wide from John McGinnis.

1851 – The PRR begins east-west train service from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.  The first run made a by a PRR train from Pittsburgh is an excursion trip to Turtle Creek.

1863 - During the Civil War, an artillery firing range was set up on the north bank of the Turtle Creek just east of the present-day Mosside Bridge as a proving ground for cannons then being forged at the Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh.

1880  - At the urging of the railroad’s Superintendent, of the Pittsburgh Division, Robert Pitcairn, the PRR begins construction of the Pitcairn Yard on 215 acres of farmland along the Turtle Creek Valley in the vicinity of the Wall Station

1890 -  The village growing up in the vicinity of the Railroad yards becomes known as “Wallurbia”  -- meaning a suburb of Wall.

1894 – The village incorporates as a Borough and adopts name of the Railroad Superintendent, “Pitcairn.”

The first Borough Council is elected; Norris Cameron, M.D., is elected as the first Burgess.

1896 – The Borough builds its first school house (School House #1 on Sixth Street)

1897 – At the request of the Borough council, the PRR changes the name of its depot from Walurbia to Pitcairn.

1898 – Because of a lack of service by local electric companies, the Pitcairn Council floats a bond to finance its own electric plant and distribution system.

1901  - The Pittsburgh and Wilmerding Street Railway Company runs a trolley service along Broadway with a fare to Pittsburgh of 15 cents.

1903 – The new Borough Building is dedicated.

1904 – Broadway, Second and Third Streets are paved; a bridge is built over Dirty Camp Run.

1906 - The first Nickelodeon theater opens on Broadway.

1916 – The Pitcairn High School is dedicated.

1923 – North Pitcairn is annexed

1925 – Household mail delivery begins.

1951 – Pitcairn acquires Sugar Camp to use as a community park.

1955 - The schools of Monroeville and Pitcairn form the Monroeville-Pitcairn joint Schools.  In 1960 the jointure is re-designated as the Gateway Union School District; in 1965 -- the Gateway School District.

1959 – The PRR gives the newly-renovated YMCA Pitcairn Community Building to the Borough.

1970 – Pitcairn becomes part of the Turtle Creek Valley’s “Model Cities” program.

1975 - The Pitcairn Park Building is dedicated, and plans made for a parks system.

1982 – Pitcairn gains 38 acres in the area around the Park Building and Sugar Camp in the north through land annexation from Monroeville.

Sources: 

Pitcairn, Pa., 75^th Anniversary, 1894-1969

Pitcairn Centennial, 1894-1994.