Day 24: Elliott

This post is part of a series called PGHProject

Unique Streets Walked: 17

Miles Walked: 1.47

Street Names: W. End Overlook, Fairview, Elkton, Comstock, Valonia, Advent, Uvilla, Marena, Marlow, Plover, Parnassus, Lorenz, Ramona, Rue Grande Vue, Najavo, Ironside, Paula

Today my 3-year-old, George and his Strider bike came along with me on my walk in Elliott. Elliott is home to the West End Overlook.

We parked in the Overlook’s lot to take in the great views of Pittsburgh. This area is a popular spot for photo shoots of all kinds. You can see why…

Grande Vue
and George

It was about 25 degrees and George was complaining a little because he is 3. He was also having issues with his dog-chewed helmet. Our pup had gotten a hold of it a few months ago and I didn’t realize he broke the buckle. I ended up carrying it most of the way because it kept falling off. I made sure he didn’t go too fast and stayed safe. Adding a new helmet to my shopping list!

Going down and out of the windy area, lightened George’s mood considerably. He was striding fast enough on flat streets that I had to run to keep up with him. We saw a set of closed stairs off of Advent Street:

We went back towards Lorenz Avenue which is a low spot for Elliot. We had to go down…

and back up

I ended up carrying the bike a lot. Partly because I was afraid he would wipeout on the steep, questionably paved streets and also because he was tired. It’s a good thing that bike is light!

We walked up Valonia and saw that the necessity of a drainage ditch required sidewalk bridges.

George’s carping reached a fever pitch when we saw a grouping of low cacti.

He took one look, dropped his bike, and said “Seeing that makes me not want to ride my bike anymore.”

I picked up the bike and we walked past the Ten Commandments on our way to the car. The Ten Commandment Houses (there are only 9 now) are on Rue Grande Vue and command probably the best seats in the house on fireworks nights.

In the foreground, George, having fallen after getting back on his bike one last time.

I took a look at this area from the 1923 Hopkins Map and it has changed a bit. There was another street called Corfu to the East of the Overlook and some of the street names were different.

This was a fun little walk and I can’t wait to explore more of Elliott. One last word of advice: Before you write about a place, make sure you know how to spell it. Elliott has TWO ‘Ts’ at the end! Brought to you by the fact that I had to go back and edit this whole post to reflect the correct spelling.

After our walk we stopped at Big Daddy’s Donuts in Crafton. YUM!