Grant Street

Grant Street is the main government and business corridor in Pittsburgh. It is home to the global headquarters of Mellon Financial, U.S. Steel, Koppers Chemicals, Federated Investors, and Oxford Development. It also is home to the seat of Allegheny County, City of Pittsburgh and the regional Federal Government offices. It is part of the Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District.

Grant Street was named after British Major General James Grant, who was defeated by the French at that location during the French and Indian War. The street's location on "Grant's Hill" strangled growth in downtown Pittsburgh, leading to several attempts in 1836 and 1849 to regrade the area to remove the hill. The successful removal of the hill in 1912 cost $800,000 ($19.9 million in 2017 dollars), plus $2.5 million in reimbursement costs for property damaged by the project ($62 million in 2017 dollars). For example, the project removed 16 feet of hill near the Allegheny County Courthouse, meaning that the former basement became the modern ground level. The extreme south end of Grant Street—near the Monongahela River and Boulevard of the Allies intersection—was home to Pittsburgh's Chinatown from the 1880s until the 1950s.

Grant Street has long been a central area for civic events, including longtime Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor David L. Lawrence's funeral procession in November, 1966 attended by Robert F. Kennedy, Mayors Joseph Barr of Pittsburgh, Jerome Cavanaugh of Detroit, James Tate and Richardson Dilworth of Philadelphia, Govs. William Scranton, James Duff, Ray Shafer and John Fine along with President Lyndon Johnson staff members Robert Kintner and Marvin Watson, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall.

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