Lawrenceville’s Breezeways, Passageways, and Easements

In walking, biking, or driving through the streets of Lawrenceville, have you ever noticed the passageways (aka “breezeways” in real estate jargon)? These narrow pathways lead from the street to the backyards of the adjoining row houses and come in two variations.

The first is a simple space between two sets of row houses. The second type is a corridor or tunnel between two connected row houses and of these there are two flavors—the street level tunnel and the underground tunnel (down a few steps, through the houses, and back up to the backyard). The straight-through passageway will take valuable living space from one (or both) of the houses, while the underground passageway will take space from the basement(s).

Many are gated—some practical, some ornate, and some whimsical. While these passageways allow access to the backyards, more often than not they are now storage areas for trash and recycle cans, bikes, ladders, building materials, and more.

Lawrenceville is blessed to have a fairly level topography, allowing its streets to have been laid out in a grid pattern (excepting Penn Avenue!), with the 3x, 4x, and 5x numbered streets running perpendicular to the river, and Butler, Davison, Plummer, Carnegie, et al. running parallel.

Bisecting these main streets are the alleys (or “ways” in Pittsburgh’s vernacular). If the spacing between the main streets is narrow, the garages, parking pads, or backyards of the row houses on the main street abut the alley. If the spacing is wide, then another set of row houses will front the alley.

What may not be readily obvious is that the breezeways from these row houses do not, in many cases, connect to just their backyards but to a walkway that extends through the backs of all the rear-facing row houses. If you look carefully, some of these pathways will exit out to a street or alleyway.

These pathways are in fact rights-of-way that are spelled out explicitly in many deeds. For example: “Together with and subject to a certain easement or right of way 4 feet wide extending through and across the rear of the premises herein above described and through the approximate center of Lot No. 22 aforesaid, from the dividing line between Nos. 21 and 22 to the dividing line between Lots Nos. 22 and 23 in said Plan, a distance of 50 feet, … said easement and right of way being herein established for the purpose of ingress, egress, and regress of all properties adjacent thereto.”

Many deeds, though, do not explicitly spell this out. Some reference long-forgotten surveys, and some have been lost over time as lots. These backyard easements are slowly disappearing, as they become overgrown, are fenced off, and adjacent homeowners mistakenly expropriate the property for their grills and sheds.

The historical question is, Why do these breezeways and rights-of-ways exist? Not much written can be uncovered, but asking longtime residents have revealed a number of conjectures.

The first and obvious reason is one of safety. If there were a fire or an emergency in the street that prevented one from leaving via the front door, these passageways would allow egress from the back door to a street via another path.

Another reason dates back to when Lawrenceville was a working-class neighborhood. When the millworker, rail worker, or factory worker would come home, the passageways allowed them to come in through the kitchen rather than soil the living room.

In these turn-of-the-(last)-century row houses, the kitchens would have had coal stoves and iceboxes. The deliveries of ice and coal could happen via the passageways, again keeping them from coming through the living room.

The last reason came from an electrician who grew up in Lawrenceville: Houses at that time did not have individual plumbing and there would be a common outhouse along the right-of-way that all could access.

I’m not sure if any—or maybe all—of the reasons are valid. Next time you are out and about, look at these fascinating breezeways and see if you can find the easements that exit out onto the streets.

David Conover is a local historian and writer who regularly contributes to the Lawrenceville Historical Society periodical Historical Happenings.