Lawrenceville (Pittsburgh)

Upper Lawrenceville
Neighborhood of Pittsburgh
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Allegheny County
City	Pittsburgh
Area
• Total	0.405 sq mi (1.05 km2)
Population (2010)
• Total	2,669
• Density	6,600/sq mi (2,500/km2)

Central Lawrenceville
Neighborhood of Pittsburgh
Row houses are common throughout Lawrenceville.
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Allegheny County
City	Pittsburgh
Area
• Total	0.963 sq mi (2.49 km2)
Population (2010)
• Total	4,482
• Density	4,700/sq mi (1,800/km2)

Lower Lawrenceville
Neighborhood of Pittsburgh
Shops and professional offices along Butler Street.
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
County	Allegheny County
City	Pittsburgh
Area
• Total	0.43 sq mi (1.1 km2)
Population (2010)
• Total	2,341
• Density	5,400/sq mi (2,100/km2)

Lawrenceville is one of the largest neighborhood areas in Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located northeast of downtown, and like many of the city's riverfront neighborhoods, it has an industrial past. Lawrenceville is bordered by the Allegheny River, Polish Hill, Bloomfield, the Strip District and Stanton Heights. The city considers Lawrenceville three neighborhoods, Upper Lawrenceville, Central Lawrenceville, and Lower Lawrenceville, but these distinctions have little practical effect. Accordingly, Lawrenceville is almost universally treated as being a single large neighborhood.

Lawrenceville was founded in 1814 by William B. Foster, father of composer Stephen Foster, who was born there in 1826. It is named for Captain James Lawrence, hero of the War of 1812, famous for his dying words, "Don't Give Up The Ship!" Lawrenceville was selected as home to the Allegheny Arsenal, due to "The area's accessibility to river transportation and its proximity to what was then the nation's only iron producing district". Incorporated as a borough on 18 February 1834, Lawrenceville was annexed to the city of Pittsburgh in 1868. One of the original buildings, a log home built in the 1820s, survived until July 2011 at 184 38th Street.

As seen on older maps, two sizable islands once sat opposite Lawrenceville in the Allegheny river: Herrs Island (now known as Washington's Landing), which stretched from roughly 28th street to 37th street, and McCullough's Island (sometimes labeled Wainwright's Island or "Good Liquor" Island), which stretched from roughly 35th street to 40th street. Washington's Landing is named after an event in 1753 in which George Washington was thrown from his raft while crossing the Allegheny River and scrambled to safety on a nearby island. However, Washington did not actually land on Washington's Landing—he landed on McCullough's Island. Although Washington's Landing still exists, McCullough's Island, which sat much closer to the mainland, does not. It is not clear what happened to McCullough's Island. It is possible that it simply eroded away into nothing, or—considering how narrow the channel was between it and Lawrenceville—it might have been incorporated into the mainland.