Maps Featuring Swissvale - Can you find your house?

This collection of maps, organized chronologically, each include Swissvale and/or Swisshelm Park in some form - some of the maps focus on a section of the borough and some cover wider areas that include Swissvale. Most of the maps are from digitized historical collections and offer high resolution scans you can zoom into to street-level.

The Hopkins and Sanborn maps are a great starting point if you’re looking for a specific house since they span the years most Swissvale homes were constructed and show individual buildings. More specifically, a recommended starting point would be the 1915 Hopkins maps or the 1926 Sanborn maps. Note that street names may have changed, and there may be small inconsistencies compared to modern maps.

1796 David Rumsey Historical Map Collection The State of Pennsylvania

1834 David Rumsey Historical Map Collection Canal de la Chesapeake a l'Ohio

1851 LOC, Sidney & Neff Map of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, with the names of property-holders : from actual surveys

1862 American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection Map of Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania

1864 P.W. Sheafer Official coal, iron, railroad and canal map of Pennsylvania

1872 Hopkins 22nd Ward. Plate 67

1875 P.W. Sheafer An historical map of Pennsylvania : showing the Indian names of streams and villages, and paths of travel : the sites of old forts and battle fields : the successive purchases from the Indians and the names and dates of counties and county towns : with tables of forts and proprietary manors / by P.W. Sheafer and others

1876 Hopkins Swissvale. Plate 18 & Wilkins. Plate 13 & Part of Pittsburgh. Plate 76 (includes “North Homestead”)

1886 Hopkins Braddock, Sterrett. Plate 15 (most of Swissvale, McCook, Hays, Presbyterian church & parsonage) & Pittsburgh. Plate 32 ("North Homestead," routes down to river/City Farm Station)

1895 Hopkins Real estate plat-book of the eastern vicinity of Pittsburgh - full linked map

• Part of Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, Braddock. Plate 5 (no Swissvale but shows “Western PA Asylum for Deaf and Dumb” in Edgewood)

• Part of Edgewood, Swissvale. Plate 6

• Part of Swissvale, Braddock Twp. Plate 7

• Rankin. Plate 9 (includes Carrie Furnaces)

1896 Sanborn Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Braddock, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (does not show much of Swissvale but includes Carrie Furnaces)

1898 Rainey, Chas. Farm Line Map

1898 Hopkins Squirrel Hill South, Swisshelm Park. Plate 23

1903 Hopkins Real estate plat-book of the eastern vicinity of Pittsburgh - full linked map

• Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, Swissvale. Plate 7

• Rankin, Swissvale. Plate 8

• Rankin, Swissvale. Plate 9 (Woodstock Ave, Ladies GAR, Hawkins, Rankin riverside factories)

• Swissvale, Braddock, Braddock Hills. Plate 12

1904 Hopkins Swisshelm Park. Plate 36 (includes Aurora St steps down to City Farm Station)

1907 Geological 1907 Geological survey

1908 Sanborn Sanborn map - p34 - Carrie Furnaces

1910 Hopkins Squirrel Hill South, Regent Square, Swisshelm Park. Plate 21

1911 Hopkins Swisshelm Park. Plate 40

1914 Sanborn Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Braddock, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

• Not Swissvale but nearby - this map shows Kennywood!

1915 Hopkins Volume 8 – Real estate plat-book of the city of Pittsburgh : Eastern Vicinity - full linked map

• Swissvale, Edgewood, Regent Square. Plate 5 (includes Union Switch & Signal, future site of Regent Park plan, much of the slopes)

• Swissvale, Squirrel Hill, Homewood North. Plate 6 (includes McClure, Monongahela, site of the library before it was built, Schley, Denniston farm)

• Rankin, Swissvale. Plate 7 (includes the train station, Noble St, borough building, Pittsburgh Lamp Brass & Glass, Woodstock Ave)

• Rankin, Braddock, North Braddock, Swissvale. Plate 11 (includes some of the slopes, Woodstock, Ladies GAR)

• Material of Street Pavements

1923 Hopkins Volume 2 – Real estate plat-book of the city of Pittsburgh: East End (South), Wards 7 and 14-15 - full linked map

• Regent Square. Plate 39 B (some of Swisshelm Park, some of Regent Square around Sanders)

• Point Breeze, Regent Square. Plate 38 B (none of Swissvale, over by Forbes & Braddock)

• Swisshelm Park. Plate 39 A

• Squirrel Hill South, Swisshelm Park. Plate 26 B

• Swisshelm Park. Plate 40 A

• Swisshelm Park. Plate 40 B

1925 Pittsburgh Department of City Planning Sheet No. 177 (Regent Square, Union Switch & Signal, Regent Park Plan, some of Monongahela & Whipple; clearly shows layout before parkway construction)

1926 Pittsburgh Department of City Planning Sheet No. 178 (shows most of Swissvale flats before extension of Church St & Mansion Pl)

1926 Sanborn Insurance maps of Braddock, including North Braddock, Swissvale, Rankin, Edgewood and part of Braddock Township, Pennsylvania

1927 Home Owners' Loan Corporation "Residential Security Map" - Redlining map

1938 Archives of Industrial Society (AIS) Swissvale index map

1939 Hopkins Point Breeze, Regent Square, Squirrel Hill South. Plate 16

1939 Hopkins Swisshelm Park. Plate 35

1941 Pittsburgh Department of City Planning Sheet No. 234

1943 Public Roads Administration Pennsylvania transportation map : Highways, railroads, canals, air lanes and dredged channels

1950 Enumeration Districts https://catalog.archives.gov/id/34427590