Pittsburg's Main Intersection Changes All Four Street Names

At downtown Pittsburg's main intersection, every direction gets a different name. Go north and it is Mount Pleasant Street. South becomes Rusk, east becomes Jefferson, and west becomes Quitman. The names point toward the towns those roads once served.

Downtown never took the usual courthouse-square grid. Pittsburg was already platted and growing before Camp County chose it as the county seat in 1874. As Quitman heads west toward the railroad tracks, it bends about 45 degrees northwest. Storefronts and setbacks follow the crook.

The blocks have another unusual feature. Buildings facing Jefferson and Quitman do not back onto narrow service alleys. Church and Marshall streets run behind them, and another row of buildings faces those secondary streets.

That layout carried a harder history. During segregation, white customers used the Jefferson and Quitman entrances while Black customers used Church and Marshall to enter the same businesses.

The National Register district counts 88 resources, 67 of them contributing, from a period stretching from 1862 to 1965. Its street plan carries roads, rail, county government, commerce, and segregation in the same few blocks.