Pearce Mill Road: A Civil Works Administration Project

This road was among the first sites in the county to benefit from the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a New Deal program. Work began in late 1933 and provided much needed employment to over a hundred men. Pearce Mill Road is at the heart of North Park; starting in the south at Babcock Boulevard and leaving park property when it intersects with Brown Road in the north. Some of North Park's most popular sites lay along this road; the Boathouse, Rose Barn, Administration Building, Marshall Lake, and the Ice Rink. The CWA worked on road grading and drainage, and also helped to create Lake Marshall further down Pearce Mill Road.

President Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration on November 9, 1933 through Executive Order No.6420B with the intention to immediately put the unemployed to work at projects across the nation. A few weeks after the CWA was created, Allegheny County submitted a $31,000,000 plan to fund improvements across the county, including the road improvement project on Pearce Mill Road in North Park. The plans to put men to work on North and South Park road projects “were the first to be approved in the county.”¹

Just over a year prior, on November 1, 1932, the County Commissioners discovered a letter from the recently-fired first Parks Director, Paul B. Riis, asking for funds to correct a dangerous entrance to North Park, where Pearce Mill Road begins off of Babcock Boulevard. With the support of the new Parks Director, Alexander M. Marion, $2,300 was committed to the cause. The project took off in December 1933, when over a hundred men paid by the CWA began the road grading and drainage project. The County’s construction plans for Pearce Mill Road, dated December 1933, called for over two miles of work on the entire stretch of Pearce Mill within the boundaries of North Park. These plans included the relocation of the road from beside the creek behind the Park Office to above the office and nearby residences. 

Even when the temperatures dipped to almost zero on December 11th, seventy-five workers continued the work while 100 completed a similar project on Catfish Run Road in South Park. Rates for the work varied from 50 cents for a laborer and up to $1.20 for a skilled worker. They usually worked a 30 hour work week; at times this meant 10 hour days three days a week, or two shifts of men working 5 hour days six days a week. There was only one accident that made the local papers; two workers were injured in January 1934 when a "dynamite blast that propelled a hugh [sic] slab of rock upon them as they crouched behind a tree.”² It is unclear if the accident occurred on the road grading and drainage project or on construction of Lake Marshall, a CWA project that was also underway at that time. Otherwise the work was considered a success, with The Pittsburgh Press reporting in March 1934 that the “CWA work is advancing by years the beautification and utilization programs at North Park and South Park.”³

Pearce Mill Road at Babcock Boulevard continues to be one of North Park's main entrance ways. In June 2021 another significant investment was made on the stretch between Babcock Boulevard to the Boathouse through a $2 million grant from the PennDOT Multimodal Transportation Fund. This project, which wrapped up in December 2021, included; widening the road, installation of additional designated bike and pedestrian lanes, slope and drainage improvements, and milling and paving.

1. “3,400 Going Back to Work Over County,” Pittsburgh Press, November 26, 1933.

2. “Two CWA Workers Hurt in Rock Blast,” Pittsburgh Press, January 14, 1934.

3. “Review of CWA Here Cites Aid Given Business,” Pittsburgh Press, March 7, 1934.

“175 CWA Workers on Jobs in Parks: Chill Blast Fail to Keep Men Indoors.” Pittsburgh Press, December 11, 1933.

"'Ghost' of Riis Wins Park Fund." Pittsburgh Press, November 2, 1932.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. Executive Order. "Establishing the Civil Works Administration, Executive order 6420B of November 9, 1933." https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-no-6420b.

Shanley, Stephen G. "Work on Part of Pearce Mill Road in McCandless to Begin June 14." Allegheny County Press Release, June 3, 2021. https://www.alleghenycounty.us/News/2021/Public-Works-2021/6442474807.aspx.