The first bank on Fourth Avenue opened in 1830, and the street was soon a preferred address for financial institutions. Then an earthshaking discovery in western Pennsylvania helped to transform the thoroughfare into the city's version of Wall Street.
In 1859, the world's first successful oil well was drilled near Titusville. Barrels of oil were rolled from the derrick to steamboats and shipped down the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh, where seven refineries were built within a year to turn the crude into lamp fuel. Suddenly Pittsburgh was awash in oil money.
Traders swooped in to make deals for the sticky barrels offloaded at the wharf. Eventually they needed an organized market to set spot prices and contracts for options and futures on the commodity, so they established a petroleum exchange.
Meanwhile, more banks began to cluster along Fourth Avenue to serve the capitalists funding the drilling, refining, and other industries. The petroleum exchange moved here to join them, and added stocks and other securities to its offerings, eventually becoming the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange.
Along this street, banks and developers looked to lure prestigious clients with extravagant buildings. By 1910, Fourth Avenue was overshadowed by a new architectural phenomenon sweeping the country — skyscrapers. Each was dressed up in Renaissance and Classical styles then considered the height of fashion. Today, over a century later, most of these earliest highrises of Pittsburgh have been preserved.
