Market Square - Where the City Began

Stop on Haunted Pittsburgh Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You are standing in Pittsburgh's oldest public square. When George Woods and Thomas Vickroy laid out the street plan in 1784, they set aside this block as a common, and early residents called it the Diamond. It quickly became the heart of town. The first Allegheny County courthouse and jail stood here in the 1790s, and the square was home to the Pittsburgh Gazette, first published in 1786, the first newspaper west of the Allegheny Mountains.

The courts moved up the hill to Grant Street in 1836, but the crowds stayed. Find the Original Oyster House, which opened on October 12, 1870, and is Pittsburgh's oldest bar and restaurant. Before it, the Bear Tavern stood on the same spot.

Ghost hunters have surprisingly little to say about Market Square, and that is part of its charm. For more than two centuries people have come here to trade, argue, eat and celebrate. If this square is haunted, it is haunted by noise.

Getting here: Walk one block north on Market Street, about 1 minute, into the open plaza of Market Square.

Did you know?: When the Original Oyster House opened in 1870, oysters sold for a penny each and a glass of beer cost 10 cents.

Photo op: Stand in the middle of the square facing the Original Oyster House, with the glass spires of PPG Place rising behind the old storefronts.