A 1902 CITY ORDINANCE PROVIDES THAT STRUCTURES WITHIN PITTSBURGH MAY ONLY BE NAMED AFTER PERSONS WHO LEFT TOWN PRIOR TO THEIR DEATHPITTSBURGH - Board members of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture are thrilled that the Center's namesake left Pittsburgh for greener pastures many years before his death so that the Center could be named after him. Ground was broken for the Center yesterday on Liberty Avenue between Smithfield Street and William Penn Place.
A 1902 city ordinance allows structures within the city limits to bear a person's name only if such person had departed Pittsburgh to assume residency elsewhere prior to his or her death. It is permissible for such persons to be buried in Pittsburgh.
The Center's President and CEO Neil A. Barclay opined that the law is a good one. "The way I look at it, if a person had the good sense to leave Pittsburgh, well, maybe they deserve to have a building named after them."
Barclay noted that numerous famous Pittsburghers are believed to have left town simply so they could have a structure named after them, including Andy Warhol, Rachel Carson, Jonas Salk, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. "August never admitted it to me," Barclay said, "but I think that's why he left, too."
