Brownsville Road has been referred to as the spine of Carrick. It is a major road through Mt Oliver and Brentwood as well. Brownsville Road provides the eastern border of Knoxville.

Mt Oliver

The road begins in Mt Oliver Borough, where South 18th Street ends after winding its way up out of the South Side.

Knoxville

Brownsville Road is the southeastern border of Knoxville.

Carrick

In Carrick, Brownsville Road continues through several business districts, including the Carrick Dairy District.

Numerous retail businesses have opened along Brownsville Road in Carrick.

Carrick is a community of predominantly middle-income homeowners, with a commercial strip along the neighborhood’s Brownville Road ‘spine.’

Department of City Planning (1974), cited by the Carrick-Overbrook Historical Society

51-Carrick buses travel Brownsville Road around the clock.

Over the years, Carrick Tree Tenders have planted 200 trees, mostly around Brownsville Road. Trees beautify the area and improve the environment.

Regular trash clean ups throughout the year have also help with the appearance of Brownsville Road in Carrick.

Brentwood

When Brownsville Road leaves Carrick, it enters Brentwood Borough.

The road crosses Saw Mill Run Boulevard.

Brownsville Road Continues

After leaving Brentwood, Brownsville Road works its way through the South Hills – the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh – and ends at Brownsville, Fayette County, PA.

History

Long ago, Brownsville Road wasn’t traveled by cars or buses. No trolley tracks ran down the center of the street. There were no stagecoaches or Conestoga wagons on it. It was a path that Native Americans followed as a trade route.

Following the Revolutionary War, Pittsburgh defined the westernmost part of these United States – everything west of PA was, officially, territories to be settled. Brownsville Road was heavily used by settlers traveling west to settle in the Northwest Territory – lands that eventually became parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The road was important for mail delivery. It was a place to change horses.

Along with being a nationally important road, Brownsville Road served as a trade route for local farmers and merchants. When Carrick was mined for coal in the 1800s, it was transported on Brownsville Road. It was a dirt road. When it rained, commerce bogged down until the road was paved with bricks.

Portions of Brownsville Road were paved with wooden planks to make it more usable in bad weather.

During the 1800s, people traveling to Pittsburgh on Brownsville Road often stayed at the Point View Hotel. At the time, the stretch of Brownsville Road where the hotel was situated was part of Baldwin Township. Brentwood Borough came into existence in the early 1900s.

When the Carrick Municipal Building was constructed in the early 1900s, it made sense to locate it on Brownsville Road. The building is still there – although it hasn’t been used for borough business in nearly a century and hasn’t been a city firehall for sixty years.

When paving bricks became available, Brownsville Road was paved with them. Old photos of Pittsburgh Railways streetcars at Carrick-Overbrook Historical Society show bricks that remained after asphalt became the common way to pave streets.

Old Pittsburgh Railways trolley tracks ran down the center of Brownsville Road until recent times. The tracks ended just past Pittsburgh city limits at the Brentwood Loop. The Carrick-Overbrook Historical Society has pictures of Brownsville Road with the tracks.

Historically significant places in Pittsburgh and the region are identified by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. They honored two buildings along Brownsville Road in Carrick. One is at St. Basil’s Roman Catholic Church, 1735 Brownsville Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15210, which was built in 1923. The other is at Concord Elementary School, 2350 Brownsville Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15210, which was built in 1939.