Oakland is Pittsburgh’s academic and healthcare center and one of the city’s major cultural centers. The neighborhood is home to three universities, museums, and hospitals, as well as an abundance of shopping, restaurants, and recreational activities. Oakland is home to the Schenley Farms National Historic District, which encompasses two city-designated historic districts: the primarily residential Schenley Farms Historic District and the predominantly institutional Oakland Civic Center Historic District. It is also home to the locally designated Oakland Square Historic District. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire has Fire Station No. 14 on McKee Place and Fire Station No. 10 on Allequippa Street in Oakland. Bed Bug Exterminator Pittsburgh
Neighborhoods
Oakland is officially divided into four neighborhoods: North Oakland, West Oakland, Central Oakland, and South Oakland. Each section has a unique identity and offers its flavor of venues and housing. Oakland is Pittsburgh’s second most populated neighborhood with 22,210 residents, most of whom are students. Scattered amongst Oakland’s four neighborhoods are 29 distinct flights of city steps – many of which are open and in a safe condition. These Steps of Pittsburgh quickly connect pedestrians to public transportation and provide an easy way to travel through this densely populated area. As of 2020, two public stairways, Joncaire Street (Central Oakland) and Louisa Street (West Oakland), also contain runnels that allow cyclists to transport a bike up or down the flight easily.
History
The name first appeared in 1839 in a local paper, Harris’ Intelligencer. The area got its name from the abundance of oak trees found on the farm of William Eichbaum, who settled there in 1840. Oakland developed rapidly following the Great Fire of 1845 in Downtown Pittsburgh, with many people moving to the suburban territory. By 1860, there was considerable commercial development along Fifth Avenue. In 1868, Oakland Township was annexed just two years after seceding from Pitt Township to the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Twenty-one years later, Mary Schenley gave the city 300 acres in Oakland for a park. Officials bought another 100 acres from her for “Schenley Park.” And Mary Schenley gave another gift: land for Schenley Plaza. At Schenley Plaza, industrialist Andrew Carnegie built a library, museum, and concert hall complex, which opened in 1895.
Oakland has long been considered Pittsburgh’s university center. Carnegie Mellon University is the result of a 1967 merger of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, founded in Oakland in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie, and Mellon Institute, founded in 1913 by Andrew W. and Richard B. Mellon, to conduct industrial research. The University of Pittsburgh, heir to the Pittsburgh Academy that was incorporated in 1787, relocated to Oakland in 1909 from its campus, which was then in Allegheny.
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