Board of Viewers Case Files

From 1870 to 1970, the City of Pittsburgh maintained case files of reports made by boards of viewers, which were responsible for assessing damages and benefits arising from street improvements. Such improvements included street grading, paving, curbing, vacating and widening, as well as water line and sewer construction. By 1891, cases assessed by viewers also included condemnations via eminent domain for bridges, public parks and water works. For most of the century covered by this documentation, boards of viewers consisted of three court-appointed city residents on a case-by-case basis (though each board was often appointed to multiple cases). The viewers received fees for their service from the city treasury, which were added to their assessment reports.

Laws governing street improvements and viewers in Pittsburgh changed according to acts of state legislature. An act of March 15, 1847, P. L. 376 (which supplemented an 1845 act that permitted Pittsburgh to annex two surrounding districts) provided for viewers to “inquire what damages the owner or owners of lands, houses or other property may sustain by reason of the opening of any street […], taking into consideration the advantages that may accrue to any person petitioning for damages; and the said viewers shall further proceed to ascertain as far as possible the names of all the owners of lots or parts of lots who may receive any benefit or increase of value to their property.” The viewers presented their reports to the court of quarter sessions of Allegheny County, where the cases were adjudicated.

An act of January 6, 1864, P. L. 1131, authorized the Select and Common Councils of Pittsburgh to open, widen and extend new streets as they deemed necessary. According to the act, the Councils were to enact any such improvement by an ordinance that would “fix the location, breadth and length of the [street, lane or alley], and appoint three discreet, and disinterested freeholders, of said city, as viewers, to view the premises, appraise the damages and make the assessments.” The viewers presented their reports to City Council, which approved or voided the viewers’ assessments. Property owners could then make appeals in the court of quarter sessions. In 1871, the power to appoint viewers was transferred from City Council to the court of quarter sessions, which appointed three freeholders of the city to serve as a Board of Viewers for one-year terms. Council continued to approve or nullify the Board’s assessments, and appeals were made to the courts.

These procedures remained in effect until an act of May 16, 1891, P. L. 75, granted municipal corporations in the Commonwealth the power of eminent domain:

“All municipal corporations of this Commonwealth shall have power, whenever it shall be deemed necessary in the laying out, opening, widening, extending, grading or changing grade of lines of streets, lanes or alleys, the construction of bridges […], slopes, embankments and sewers, the changing of water courses or vacation of streets or alleys, to take, use, occupy or injure private lands, property or material, and in case the compensation for the damages or the benefits accruing therefrom have not been agreed upon, any court of common pleas of the proper county […], shall appoint three discreet and disinterested freeholders as viewers, and appoint a time not less than twenty nor more than thirty days thereafter when said viewers shall meet upon the line of the improvement and view the same and the premises affected thereby.”

After investigating an appointed case, the viewers were to submit to the court a report “showing the damages and benefits assessed […], along with a plan showing the improvement, the properties taken, injured or destroyed, and the properties benefited thereby.” Appeals were filed in common pleas court and heard at trial.

The 1891 law enabled the city to accelerate street improvements and to finish previously stalled projects. In order to keep track of the improvements and resulting assessments and appeals, an office of the Chief Clerk “to and for the various boards of viewers of public improvements” was established (via Ordinance 420 of 1891), which received viewers’ reports, made them available for public inspection, and submitted them to the court for approval. By 1895, this office expanded into a Bureau of Viewers in the Department of Public Works that included four clerks, two stenographers, two messengers, a draughtsman, and appropriations for viewers’ compensation.

In 1912, the Bureau of Viewers was transferred to the Department of Law, where it became known as the Bureau of Public Improvements. The Law Department abolished this bureau in March of 1934 as part of a departmental reorganization, and its duties were placed under the supervision of a Law Department clerk. The viewers’ reports continued to be maintained in a relatively consistent manner by clerks in the Law Department until about 1970. The resulting collection of nearly a hundred years of viewers’ reports was eventually transferred back to the Department of Public Works, which maintained them in three locations until they were consolidated and transferred to the City Archives in 2018.