view from top of East Liberty Presbyterian Chuch

Get a Birds Eye View of East Liberty, Steeple Tour of East Liberty Presbyterian Church

The East Liberty Presbyterian Church tower

The East Liberty Presbyterian Church tower (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another one of Pittsburgh’s best kept secrets. I happened to be at East Liberty Presbyterian Church one Sunday morning and I always read the bulletin because each Sunday they put in fun trivia facts about the music and things that happened on this day in history. I noticed they were offering a tour of the building after the service. It was one of those gray summer Sunday’s where I didn’t have anything else planned, so I stuck around and joined a handful of folks for a tour of the building from top to bottom, well it was actually from bottom to top. The tour ended with a hike, well really a climb, up a stunning stair case to the top of the steeple, with an incredible view of East Liberty and surrounding neighborhoods.

You will have to excuse the quality of the photo in this tweet, since it is from 2012, that was several years before I had an iphone and it was likely posted from my little Blackberry pearl phone.

I have posted about past tours at East Liberty Presbyterian Church here before and received many thanks for the tip. The next steeple tour is Sunday, June 11, 2017, details here. Wear pants and closed toe shoes.

English: Ralph Adams Cram, American architect

English: Ralph Adams Cram, American architect (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

East Liberty Presbyterian Church is an architectural gem, designed by famed architect Ralph Adams Cram. The tour gives you a chance to go “behind the scenes” actually, over the ceiling, to see some the interesting structural features. You can read more about Ralph Adams Cram and his work on East Liberty Presbyterian Church in this 2008 City Paper article here.

Roslyn Place: A Street Paved in Wood

Update: The City Council Hearing on the historic designation for Roslyn Place is Tuesday May 9, 2017 at 1:30pm in City Council Chambers. The hearing is open to the public and meeting details from the City Clerk’s office are available online here.

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I know much has been published about this but thought it was worth a repost because it is a unique historic preservation find in Pittsburgh.

An interesting piece of history and a Pittsburgh fun facts, something that just might help you win a trivia game someday. Roslyn Place, a small dead-end street off Ellsworth in Shadyside is one of a handful of streets left that is still paved in wooden blocks, also know as Nicolson pavement.

Wooden pavement on Roslyn Place. Photo Credit: Preservation Pittsburgh.

Preservation Pittsburgh nominated Roslyn Place for historic designation last fall. You can read the entire application for historic designation here.

Some other recent articles about the Roslyn Place and it’s unique wooden pavement:

Where else can you find wooden streets?

There are just a few of these wooden streets that still exists…

  • Chicago still has a few wood block alleys. (More photos on Forgotten Chicago).
  • St. Louis: 10th street between Olive and Locust Streets
  • Philadelphia: 200 block of Camac Street
  • Cleveland: Hessler Court

May is Preservation Month

If you like Pittsburgh history, you might be interested in reading about these buildings and preservation organizations:

Schenley High School & The Schenley Experiment

Next up in our series on historic buildings for Preservation Month is Schenley High School and the release of a new book about the school.

Aerial view of Schenley High School, Pittsburgh, Pa.
I have been interested in learning more about the Schenley High School building for quite sometime. I have never been in the building, but it has been a place that have been wanting to learn more about. Beyond being a beautiful building, Schenley High school served as a model for integrated schools.

I have friends who attended Schenley who incredibly fond of this building and their time spent inside. I know there was quite a debate about closing of Schenley High School, which closed for good in 2011 and was sold to PMC Property Group. As I have been learning more about historic preservation and community spaces, I am interested to learn more about how this went from a top high school to an empty building.

The Schenley High School Building has been in the news recently for a few reasons. It will soon reopen as an apartment building with rentals starting this summer.

The Schenley Experiment

The other reason you may have heard about this building is that it is the subject of a new book, The Schenley Experiment: A Social History of Pittsburgh’s First Public High School (Amazon affiliate link), by Pittsburgh attorney Jake Oresick, who attended Schenley High School. Both the City Paper and NextPittsburgh have published profiles of Jake Oresick and his new book.

If you are interested in hearing more about The Schenley Project, Jake Oresick and a panel of former Schenley High School teachers will be the subject of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lecture’s Made Local event on Monday at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Oakland. The event is free to attend with registration.

A Look Inside Schenley High School

Schenley High School, 1916, Main Entrance Hall

The trailer for the book includes several historic images of the building as well as lots of facts about Schenley High School.

I was hoping to, but unable to find some photos of the pool, which I believe was added at a later date. According to a recent NextPittsburgh article about the apartments, the pool has been replaced by a parking garage.

I am looking forward to reading Oresick’s book and learning more about this building and how it came to be that it went from a model for public education to a financial liability for the Pittsburgh school district. It is interesting to see how much Pittsburgh has changed over the past 6 years since Schenley closed.

Do you have some photos of Schenley High School to share? We would love to post them here on the blog and share with Preservation Pittsburgh. Leave a comment below or send an email to info-at-IheartPGH.com

May is Preservation Month

Check out some of the other historic buildings and preservation groups we have posted about for preservation month:

Urban Hike Heads to Allegheny Center & Deutschtown (Jane’s Walk Pittsburgh)

Urban Hike is a free guided walk around one (or several) of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. The guided hike is led by a group of volunteers who carefully research each route and invite experts from the neighborhood to come speak to the group on local history and neighborhood development. If you like history, exploring or you are looking for a way to learn more about Pittsburgh, then Urban Hike is for you.

I have attended many of the past Urban Hikes, which has led to discovering all kinds of secrets about Pittsburgh. The John Woods House, aka the 2nd oldest house in Pittsburgh which I posted about earlier this week was a find from the Urban Hike in Hazelwood two years ago.

The first Urban Hike of the 2017 season will be exploring Allegheny Center & Deutschtown. If you aren’t familiar with these neighborhoods, they are on the Northside, just North of the area where PNC Park is located.

Urban Hike = Jane’s Walk Pittsburgh

English: Mrs. Jane Jacobs, chairman of the Com...

English: Mrs. Jane Jacobs, chairman of the Comm. to save the West Village holds up documentary evidence at press conference at Lions Head Restaurant at Hudson & Charles Sts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This Saturday’s Urban Hike coincides with Jane’s Walk. Jane’s Walk is an annual event in celebration of Jane Jacobs, author of the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Amazon affiliate link), which many consider this book to be the bible of urban planning. Jane’s Walks are free walking tours talking place in cities across the globe to support walkable neighborhoods and to encourage people to learn more about their communities. Pittsburgh has hosted several Jane’s Walks over the past decade and this weeks Urban Hike is currently the only Jane’s Walk scheduled for Pittsburgh.

Interested in learning more about Jane Jacobs? Pittsburgh Filmmakers will be showing the documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City from May 12-May 18, 2017.

Urban Hike: Allegheny Center & Deutchtown

  • Date:Saturday, May 6, 2017
  • Start Time: 9:30am
  • Starting Point: Arnold’s Tea on East Ohio Street

Check out the email from Urban Hike and the Facebook event for more information and parking suggestions.

Follow: @UrbanHikePGH @JanesWalk

East Liberty History & Upcoming Lectures on George Washington & Frederick Scheibler, Jr.

The East Liberty Valley Historic Society is a nonprofit that exists to document and share the history of the East Liberty neighborhood and surrounding areas. East Liberty is a particularly interesting area of Pittsburgh when it comes to development as it has many buildings from the time East Liberty became a fashionable suburb for some of Pittsburgh’s wealthiest families who were looking to escape the congestion of Downtown Pittsburgh in the 1850s. East Liberty is also the site of a massive Urban Renewal project in the 1950s.

The East Liberty Valley Historic Society has been documenting and sharing information about the neighborhood from both of these eras and everything in between.  You can read a detailed history of East Liberty from the 1700s to today, on the East Liberty Valley Historic Society website here. Follow East Liberty Valley Historic Society on Facebook for more photos and history of East Liberty.

East Liberty Valley Historic Society Spring Lecture Series

There are two more lectures in the East Liberty Valley Historic Society Spring Lecture series that may be of interest to Pittsburghers looking to learn more about history and local architecture.

George Washington: Here on Business

Presented by Miles S. Richards, Ph.D., author and retired Faculty Member, University of South Carolina and Midlands Technical College.

  • Date: Friday, May 5, 2017
  • Time: 7:30-9pm
  • Location: East Liberty Presbyterian Church (use entrance on Highland Ave)
  • Facebook Event

Apartment building on Highland Ave designed by Frederick Scheibler.

Architect Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr. and His Work in the East End

Presented by Martin Aurand, Author and Principal Architecture Library/Archivist, Head of University Libraries Arts Library and Special Collections Department, Carnegie Mellon University.

  • Date: Friday, June 2, 2017
  • Time: 7:30-9pm
  • Location: East Liberty Presbyterian Church (use entrance on Highland Ave)
  • Facebook Event

Looking for more historic preservation events? Join the Pittsburgh Historic Preservation MeetUp group.

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