Tag Archives: preservation month

Frank Lloyd Wright Pittsburgh

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Design for a Civic Center at the Point

When I started this preservation month project of writing about a different historic Pittsburgh place every day in May, I thought it would be a fun way to share a little bit more about some of the places I have always known in Pittsburgh and to learn more about the history of theses places. Three weeks into preservation month, I have been amazed at the number of new places and local history that I have learned and the willingness of Pittsburghers to share more information.

Today’s post come from The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page. Pittsburgh history lover and fact finder John Schalcosky has been researching and sharing historic Pittsburgh information on Facebook since 2014. Learn more about this fascinating Facebook page of local facts and how John started the site on Episode #31 of the Marta on the Move podcast.

I reached out to John about preservation month and he suggested I take a look at some of the Facebook photo albums that he has put together. I thought I knew about all of the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in and around Pittsburgh but I had no idea that he had designed a civic center for the point.

Frank Lloyd Wright Pittsburgh

In the 1940s the Allegheny Conference on Community Development set out to rethink the land use of the point, the area that we now call Point State Park. Edgar J. Kaufmann, owner of the Kaufmann department store, was on the board of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development commissioned Frank Lloyd Write to create a design for a civic center at the point.

From the The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook Album on Frank Lloyd Wrights design:

Imagine instead of The Point’s Water Fountain, this incredible building was built in its place! Frank Llyod Wright designed this circular building with it being more than 1,000 feet in diameter and 175 feet tall containing an opera house, sports arena, three movie theaters, and a convention hall all wrapped by a spiraling strip of road. During the course ofWW2, federal and local authorities established three goals for the site: “the creation of a park commemorating the site’s history, improved traffic circulation through the construction of new roads and bridges, and designation of a portion of the site for new office buildings, intended to stimulate private interest in the Golden Triangle”.

Read more about this design and see the other photos of Wright’s design on The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

Read more about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Design for a Pittsburgh Civic Center

More Historic Pittsburgh Buildings

You might be interested in some of these Pittsburgh buildings…

Have a building you would like to learn more about? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Pittsburgh Speakeasy

You Can Now Legally Drink at the Speakeasy in the William Penn

This is one of this historic things about Pittsburgh that I think is so fascinating that I assume everyone knows. But I am amazed how many people don’t know that the new(ish) bar in the basement of the William Penn Hotel which is named Speakeasy, really was a speakeasy back in the day.

I love old hotels. I love visiting old hotels. I love the book “Eloise,” which is about a girl who grew up in the Plaza hotel in New York city. I love the stories about the New Yorkers who lived in the Plaza hotel for years. (Check out the story of Fannie Lowenstein, who lived at the Plaza for 35 years and has been described at the Eloise from hell.) A few years ago, I drove cross country with a friend who was moving back to Pittsburgh from San Diego. Each day of the trip as I routed our stops to conveniently be at grand old hotels. The first time I set foot into an Ace Hotel was on the advice of a Twitter follower to visit the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. So of course I love the William Penn Hotel and not just because it has some of the cleanest bathrooms in all of downtown Pittsburgh. If I have to wait for someone Downtown, I will almost always suggest the lobby of the William Penn Hotel.

The prohibition era speakeasy at the William Penn, reopens as “The Speakeasy”

Pittsburgh Speakeasy

 

The Speakeasy is underneath the lobby, if you are entering from William Penn Way, instead of going up the stairs to the reception/Starbucks area, go down the stairs and to your right. After prohibition, the space was used as storage for a number of years. The hotel renovated the space and reopened it to the public as a bar/lounge on December 5, 2012, which was the 79th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition.

From the Trib’s article on the grand opening of The Speakeasy in 2012:

A rear exit opens onto a warren of hallways that led to Oliver Avenue. In the event of a police raid, customers could beat a discreet retreat, Page says.

Here is a video tour of the reopened Speakeasy by WESA in 2012:

Pittsburgh Prohibition Cocktail History

Last month, CityLab, the Atlantic’s blog about all things urban published “The Secret Lives of Speakeasies,” the entire article is about Pittsburgh and that the term “speakeasy” was first uttered right here in here in Western, Pennsylvania:

Whisper “speakeasy” into a search engine of your choice and odds are you will stumble across the story of Kate Hester, the Pittsburgh hotelkeeper at the center of the amusing, possibly apocryphal origin story for the word.

Hester appeared in what can only be described as a prototypical trend piece for The New York Times in July 6, 1891. The story goes like this: Hester owned a saloon in McKeesport, just southeast of the city, that sold booze in defiance of a state law that upped the costs of licenses for alcohol so much that it was nearly prohibited. When customers got too rowdy, Hester would hush customers with “speak-easy, boys!” to avoid attracting the attention of authorities; the expression soon spread to the city, and the nation. “Some day, perhaps, Webster’s Dictionary will take it up,” the yarn concludes.

CityLab’s Andrew Small traveled to Pittsburgh to visit our speakeasy inspired bars, including the Speakeasy at the William Penn and Accasia on the southside. Small also met up with John Schalcosky, who updates the Facebook Page, “The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh.”

New Book Explores Pittsburgh Cocktail History

Local authors, Cody McDevitt and Sean Enright, have recently published a book on the history of cocktails in the steel city, “Pittsburgh Drinks: A History of Cocktails, Nightlife & Bartending Tradition.” You can read an excerpt of “Pittsburgh Drinks” on Littsburgh and listen to an interview with Sean and Cody on episode #80 of the Marta on the Move podcast.

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East Liberty 1935: Subterranean Public Bathrooms

Today’s post comes from East Liberty Valley Historic Society Facebook page. ELVHS added some helpful captions to this photo of Penn Ave from 1935. This is the section of Penn Ave where Target is now located. One of the questions on the Facebook post asks if these bathrooms still exist underground. It would be interesting to find out if these were filled in or if there are still bathrooms under Penn Ave. A different take on the Pittsburgh Potty.

I don’t believe any of the buildings in this photograph are still standing today.

You can find more information about Joyce McClements on this family genealogy website here. It looks like after the fire, the restaurant relocated to the Kenmawr building at Walnut & Shady.

This is the current view from the intersection where Shady meets Penn.

The roads in the 1935 photo are different than today. Frankstown Road no longer intersects Penn Ave.

Catahecassa Springs Monument

Catahecassa Fountain in Schenley Park

Update May 15, 2019: Please visit Very Local Pittsburgh for an updated version of this story. 

While running the 5k for Race for the Cure this morning in Schenley Park, I paused to take a photo of the Neill log house in Schenley Park. The Neill log house stands out and is hard to miss, mostly because a little house on the prairie style house surrounded by chain link fence in the middle of a gold course. Two weeks ago I wrote about the John Woods House, which is considered to be the second oldest house in the city of Pittsburgh. The Neill house is considered to be the first.

Catahecassa Springs Monument

Photo of Catahecassa Springs Monument from May 14, 2017.

What I ended up photographing was the monument in front of the Neill house, something that I had never noticed before. Today was the 25th anniversary of the Race for the Cure and given the number of pink ribbon t-shirts in my drawer, I have certainly walked past this place at least a dozen times before. But this is the first time I noticed this stone monument.

There are only a handful of Google search results on “Catahecassa Blackhoof,” all of which note there is a historical marker at this location, but give little other information. As soon as I realized it was a marker for a spring, I knew where to look. In February, City Council voted to approve the following springs as historic landmarks in the City of Pittsburgh:

  • Howe Spring (Shady Side)
  • Voegtly Spring (Spring Hill)
  • Catahecassa Spring (Schenley Park)

The entire nomination form for the Catahecassa Spring is available on the Preservation Pittsburgh website here. By the way, if you are looking for some extensive in-depth reading on local historic landmarks, the “Documents & Archives” section on the Preservation Pittsburgh website contains links to all of the recent nominations that they have submitted.

The Catahecassa Spring monument was built in 1906 to create a public water fountain at the existing Snyder Springs in Schenley Park. These fountains were used by visitors to the park. At some point the spigot was removed and catch basin filled in.

Postcard of Catahecassa Fountain that was included in the nomination for historic designation.

To give some historic context to this fountain, I’ve put together a timeline of key date about info about Chief Catahecassa, Schenley Park and the monument:

  • 1755 – Shawnee Chief Catahecassa was present at General Braddock’s Defeat during the French and Indian War. (Nomination p. 11)
  • 1795 – Catahecassa represented the Shawnee at the signing of the Treaty of Greeneville
  • 1826 – Mary Elizabeth Croghan is born.
  • 1845 – At the age of 15 Mary Elizabeth Croghan elopes with Captain Edward Schenley who is 43 years old.
  • 1889 – Mary Schenley gives 300 acers to the City of Pittsburgh which will be developed into Schenley Park.
  • 1890 – First reference to Snyder springs in Pittsburgh Daily Post article dated June 12, 1890.
  • 1902 – Schenley Golf Course, now know as the Bob O’Connor Golf Course opens.
  • 1906 – Of the extra money left over from the Fourth of July Celebration, $900 was given to erect a public fountain in Schenley Park. (Nomination p. 10)
  • 1906 – Sunday, September 23, the Pittsburgh Gazette Times Newspaper publishes article on the Catahecassa fountain that will be built at the Snyder Springs in Schenley park. (Nomination p. 58).
  • 1907 – May 28, Pittsburgh Press publish photo of completed fountain at Snyder Springs. (Nomination p. 24)
  • 1922 – Fountain was damaged and repaired (Nomination p. 18)
  • 1985 – Schenley Park is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
  • 1996 – Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is founded to restore and protect Pittsburgh’s parks.
  • 2017 – Pittsburgh City Council give historic designation to Catahecassa Springs.

While Schenley Park is over 100 years old, it is interesting to see that many of the efforts to designate the park and monuments are only in the past 20-30 years.

Have you seen a Pittsburgh monument that you would like to learn more about? Leave a comment below.

Maxo Vanka Murals

Maxo Vanka Murals & St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale

Today’s preservation month post is inspired by the Millvale Musical Festival, which is happening on Saturday, May 13. Millvale continues to gain popularity as a destination for breweries, music, community projects and some impressive community events. If you are headed to Millvale then you need to know about the Maxo Vanka murals, which might be one of the best kept secrets in Pittsburgh.

If you are headed to Millvale for the music festival, you might want to take a little break to check these unique works of art. Even if you are not headed to the music festivals, the Maxo Vanka murals are worth an hour of your Saturday. More details on visiting the murals below.

Photo credit: St. Nicholas Church website.

From Route 28, St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic church looks like an unassuming church building that is tucked away on the bluff. Inside the church, the decor is anything but ordinary, the walls of the church are covered with 25 murals by the artist Maxo Vanka. What makes these church murals unique are the political statements found in several of the scenes. The Maxo Vanka murals have been compared to the works of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and some of the murals of the Works Progress Administration artists.

Maxo Vanka Murals

Croatian Mother Raises Her Son for War, Maxo Vanka, 1937. Photo credit: Society to Preserve Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka.

All of the murals can be viewed online here.

The other unique thing about the murals is that they have their own nonprofit that works to preserve, restore and promote the murals to an audience outside of the congregation. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka was founded in 1991 and has worked to put the murals on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you are interested in learning more, start with the SPMMMV website at vankomurals.org.

Pittsburgh filmmaker Kenneth Love made a documentary about the murals in 2012, “Maxo Vanka’s Masterpiece: The Murals at St. Nicholas Church”. You can purchase a DVD of the documentary from the church.

Visiting the Maxo Vanka Murals

Docent led tours are held every Saturday at 11am, Noon and 1pm. Tours last about an hour. Note that tours may be cancelled or postponed due to parish activities. It is recommended that you register in advance for tours. Private tours are available on request.  If you are visiting Pittsburgh on a weekday, be sure to reach out for a tour or if the church is open, you should be able to stop by and see the murals in person.

More information on the VankaMurals.org website. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka is also on Facebook.

WPA Murals in San Francisco’s Coit Tower

Detail of one of the murals in Coit Tower.

Last November, I had the good fortune to visit San Francisco. San Francisco has a nonprofit, SF City Guides, that offers free walking tours of a variety of places around the city. Since it was raining we opted for the indoor tour of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. If you enjoyed seeing the murals of Maxo Vanka, I highly recommend a visit to Coit Tower to see the fresco murals from the Works Progress Administration artists. The skill of the fresco artists is impressive and these murals also contain many political messages.

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