# Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in the 1910s

> A small Upper St. Clair place on the rural South Hills edge, between farms, coal patches, roads, and Pittsburgh’s expanding reach.

- Place: Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (40.304, -80.087)
- Years: 1910 to 1919
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/bryn-mawr-pennsylvania/1910s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Bryn%20Mawr%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=40.3040,-80.0867&year=1915

## Looking around

You stand in Bryn Mawr, a named place inside Upper St. Clair Township[1], not in the Main Line town of the same name. The land is part of the South Hills, with Thompsonville, Lawrence, McMurray, Bethel Park, Hendersonville, and Bridgeville only a few miles off[1]. Around the township are farms and coal-patch settlements[2], and the old Washington Road still matters as a route through the country. Toward Bridgeville, older mining history sits close by: mines near Bridgeville once employed 150 men[3] and shipped coal out by rail. The nearest incorporated borough, Bridgeville, had broken away from Upper St. Clair in 1901[2], seeking its own paved streets, water, sewage, and schools. By 1913, the edge begins to change as a first major residential development rises along Washington Road near streetcar service[4]. This is still not a dense suburb; it is a place being pulled from farm-and-mine country toward Pittsburgh’s suburban orbit.

## Work: Farms, mines, Pittsburgh jobs

The local world was still described as farms and coal-patch towns[2], with mining close enough to shape daily life. Nearby operations had counted 150 men and 150,000 tons a year[3] in the county history.

## Roads & news: Roads and rail mattered

Upper St. Clair lay on the old Washington Road[3], and rail lines threaded the nearby valleys. The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway passed through Bridgeville[2], though its big ambitions collapsed after bankruptcy.

## Home & table: A suburb begins

The township was not yet the later affluent suburb; in the decade, a first major residential development appeared along Washington Road near streetcar service[4]. That put Bryn Mawr near the change from farm-and-mine country to Pittsburgh commuter belt.

## Money: Living wages were debated

A Pittsburgh reform account treated $6 a week as a minimum individual wage and $11 as a family living wage[6]. That standard came from the industrial city nearby, not from a Bryn Mawr wage book.

## Who lived here: Old settlers, newer migrants

For Pennsylvania in 1910, foreign-born whites were 22 percent of the urban population and 13.9 percent of the rural population[5]. Across the state, the largest foreign-born groups included Austria, Russia, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Hungary, and England[5].

## Law & power: Township rule, male votes

Bryn Mawr sat under Upper St. Clair township government, while nearby Bridgeville had left the township in 1901[2] to manage borough services for itself. In 1910, political citizenship was sharply gendered: Pennsylvania counted male voters, while women still lacked the vote[5].

## What people feared: Disease and industry

The Pittsburgh district’s dangers were not abstract: reformers warned that typhoid fever and industrial accidents shattered working families[6]. In 1918, nearby Pittsburgh suffered 806.8 excess pneumonia-and-influenza deaths per 100,000 over 24 weeks[7].

## Year by year

- **1908** (nearby): The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway entered bankruptcy, curbing its Bridgeville-area development plans.[2]
- **1910** (the country): Pennsylvania’s census year recorded a state shaped by migration, schooling, industrial labor, and male-only voting rolls.[5]
- **1913** (here): Freehold Real Estate Company began Upper St. Clair’s first major residential development along Washington Road.[4]
- **1914** (the world): World War I began in Europe, news that mattered in a state with many European-born residents and families.[5]
- **1917** (the country): The United States entered World War I, bringing draft registration, war work, Liberty Loan drives, and casualty lists into Pennsylvania communities.
- **1918** (nearby): Influenza struck Pittsburgh with one of the worst urban death rates measured in the United States.[7]
- **1919** (the country): Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment and sent woman suffrage to the states for ratification.[5]

## What the sources say

- The mapped Bryn Mawr at 40.304, -80.087 was a populated place in Allegheny County within Upper St. Clair, not the better-known Bryn Mawr near Philadelphia. (from the sources)[1]
- Nearby places listed for Bryn Mawr include Thompsonville 1.4 miles southwest, Lawrence 1.8 miles west, McMurray 1.8 miles south, Bethel Park 3 miles east-northeast, Hendersonville 3.5 miles west, and Bridgeville 3.8 miles north-northwest. (from the sources)[1]
- A local history says that around 1900 the remainder of Upper St. Clair Township outside Bridgeville was a collection of farms and coal-patch towns such as Essen and Beadling. (inferred)[2]
- In an 1889 county history, mines near Bridgeville were reported as employing 150 men, producing 150,000 tons annually, and requiring 64 cars for rolling stock. (from the sources)[3]
- Bridgeville seceded from Upper St. Clair Township and incorporated as a borough in 1901, just before this decade. (inferred)[2]
- Freehold Real Estate Company built Upper St. Clair’s first major residential development in March 1913 along Washington Road, close to streetcar service. (from the sources)[4]
- The 1910s were a turning decade in Upper St. Clair: farming and mining remained visible, while streetcar-linked residential development began to pull the township into Pittsburgh’s commuter belt. (inferred)
- The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway passed through Bridgeville before following Millers Run west, but its larger local development plans were checked by the railway’s 1908 bankruptcy. (inferred)[2]
- Upper St. Clair was a post-village on the old Washington Road and had once been a station on the Pittsburgh Southern Railroad. (from the sources)[3]
- Essen post office, in the township’s coal-mining landscape, had been established in March 1884. (from the sources)[3]
- A nearby Beadling mining operation was reported in the 1880s as producing 400 tons daily and employing 150 men. (from the sources)[3]
- Pennsylvania’s 1910 census bulletin reported that children aged 6 to 14 attended school at a rate of 86.5 percent statewide. (from the sources)[5]
- In Pennsylvania in 1910, foreign-born whites were 22 percent of the urban population and 13.9 percent of the rural population. (from the sources)[5]
- Among Pennsylvania’s foreign-born white population in 1910, the largest birthplaces were Austria, Russia, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Hungary, and England. (from the sources)[5]
- The 1910 census counted 2,309,026 Pennsylvania males aged 21 and over; women could not yet vote in Pennsylvania state or federal elections. (from the sources)[5]
- A contemporary Pittsburgh social survey used $6 a week as the lowest fair individual wage and $11 a week as the lowest fair family living wage. (from the sources)[6]
- That same Pittsburgh reform account warned that low wages, typhoid fever, and industrial accidents were shattering working families in the Pittsburgh district. (from the sources)[6]
- Pittsburgh’s 1918 influenza epidemic had the highest excess pneumonia-and-influenza mortality among 43 studied American cities, at 806.8 excess deaths per 100,000 over 24 weeks. (from the sources)[7]
- Pittsburgh’s first influenza case date in the 1918 study was September 4, its mortality acceleration date was September 27, and its first nonpharmaceutical intervention was October 4. (from the sources)[7]
- No detailed online description was found of Bryn Mawr’s own houses, stores, churches, or school in the 1910s. (not known)

## Sources

1. Bryn Mawr Populated Place Profile / Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Data. HomeTownLocator. https://pennsylvania.hometownlocator.com/pa/allegheny/bryn-mawr.cfm
2. Part 13 – Incorporation of a New Borough — 1900 to 1910. Bridgeville Area Historical Society. https://bridgevillehistory.org/bridgeville-history/part-13/
3. History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Part II: Upper St. Clair Township. Allegheny County PAGenWeb, 1889. https://www.allegheny.pagenweb.org/Individual_Townships/Upper_St_Clair.html
4. Upper St. Clair Background. Township of Upper St. Clair, 2022. https://cms8.revize.com/revize/usctpa/news_image/ROBBConsulting_UpperStClair_09.06.22.pdf
5. Bulletin 359: Population—Pennsylvania, Composition and Characteristics of the Population. United States Census Bureau, 1913. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1910/bulletins/demographics/359-population-pa-composition-and-characteristics.pdf
6. Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying Cheap. Project Gutenberg, 1912. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43040/43040-h/43040-h.htm
7. Nonpharmaceutical Interventions Implemented by US Cities During the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic. JAMA, 2007. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/208354

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in the 1910s", https://yorehistory.com/place/bryn-mawr-pennsylvania/1910s