Market Square, Pittsburgh
Market Square
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| Location | Market Square in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
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| Built/founded | 1890s |
| City designated | December 28, 1992 |
| PHLF designated | 2009 |
Pittsburgh's Market Square is a public space located in Downtown Pittsburgh at the intersection of Forbes Avenue (originally named Diamond Way in colonial times) and Market Street. The square was home to the first courthouse, first jail (both in 1795) and the first newspaper (1786) west of the Atlantic Plain, the Pittsburgh Gazette. A public/private modernization in the late 2000s has re-established the square as a social and cultural hub. A great number of restaurants, ranging from fast casual to fine dining, cafes and retailers occupy ground level buildings immediately facing the square, while housing units and offices occupy upper levels.
John Campbell and Thomas Vickroy, while creating the city block plan for streets in Pittsburgh's core, created Market Square in 1764. It was known originally as "Diamond Square" or "Diamond Market" for the Scotch-Irish idiom "Diamond" representing a public commons or square.
By the mid-1790s, the first Allegheny County Courthouse was constructed in Market Square. It was occupied until 1836 when construction completed on a Grant Street complex several blocks away.
On December 7, 1791, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania gaveled in its very first session at the square.
On July 8, 1794, the newly formed "borough" of Pittsburgh established a "Public Market House and Stalls" on the eastern half of the square. It also was the site of the original city hall for the borough and then city of Pittsburgh until May 22, 1872 when the second city hall opened at Oliver and Smithfield. The Courthouse was abandoned at the square in 1836 after the completion of a new county seat, and sold to private interests at auction on August 11, 1841.
On May 26, 1858 the city hall/courthouse was the host of the conference of Presbyterians that led to the merger forming the United Presbyterian Church of North America.
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