Mellon Park is a park in the Shadyside and Point Breeze neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, straddling both sides of Fifth Avenue, from approximately Shady Avenue to

Penn Avenue Penn Avenue is a major arterial street in Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg, in Pennsylvania. Its western terminus lies at Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh. For its westernmost ten blocks it serves as the core of the Cultural District with ...

, the western corner abutting

Pittsburgh Center for the Arts The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA) is a non-profit community arts campus that offers arts education programs and contemporary art exhibitions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It also provides services and resources for artists th ...

building. The park is home to the Walled Garden and holds events throughout the year. It is also home to several recreational facilities. A number of public buses serve the area. The park is on the list of landmarks recognized by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF).

History

The park was established in 1943, on the grounds of the former estate of

Richard B. Mellon Richard Beatty Mellon (March 19, 1858 – December 1, 1933), sometimes R.B., part of the Mellon family, was a banker, industrialist, and philanthropist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Biography He and his brother Andrew Mellon, sons of Judge Tho ...

. His was the largest mansion in Pittsburgh. The mansion was built by Italian immigrants from New Kensington, PA, under the direction of Monsignor Nicola Fusco. These industrious men then built the monumental

Mount St. Peter Church Mount Saint Peter Church is a Catholic Church at 100 Freeport Road in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. The church is located along the Allegheny River and is approximately north-east of the city of Pittsburgh within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gr ...

New Kensington New Kensington, known locally as New Ken, is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It is situated along the Allegheny River, northeast of Pittsburgh. The population was 12,170 at the 2010 census. History Like much of Westmoreland Cou ...

, which still stands and functions to this day from the materials of the Mellon Mansion. The gardens were originally designed in 1912 by

Alden and Harlow Longfellow, Alden & Harlow (later Alden & Harlow), of Boston, Massachusetts, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Margaret Henderson Floyd, ''Architecture after Richardson: Regionalism before Modernism--Longfellow, Alden, and Harlow in Boston and Pittsbu ...

. Several other architects added their own touch to the landscape, including the Olmsted Brothers and some seventeen years after the garden began, Vitale and Geiffert. After Mellon's sixty-room home was brought down during World War II, most of the garden still remained and was transformed into a city park known now as Mellon Park. The park also contains the Phipps Garden Center and

The Walled Garden

The Walled Garden is surrounded by walls of brick and limestone and is one of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

design. The garden's fourth wall was part of the Mellon mansion before its demolition in the 1940s. A fountain stands between the garden and the rest of the park. Vitale and Geiffert were behind the planning of this garden. The Mellon Park Project wanted to create a memorial in memory of Ann Katherine Seamans, who frequented the Walled Garden repeatedly after being introduced to it in kindergarten. Janet Zweig, an artist chosen by the project team, turned the floor of the garden into an exact replica of the sky in Pittsburgh on the day Ann was born. There are 150 stars, and each is a light in the ground and includes an inscription about it. It is possible to sponsor a star and make a donation. LaQuatra Bonci Associates was responsible for the planning and supervising of the garden's redemption. The park was reopened on June 12, 2010.

A Fair in the Park

Any form of an event can potentially take place in Mellon Park with permission from the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public Works. One event that has taken place annually since 1969 is A Fair in the Park put on by the Craftsmen's Guild of Pittsburgh in the month of September. This is a contemporary craft festival with a small concert. There is an area just for children. No admission fee is charged.

Mellon Park Tennis Center

The Mellon Park Tennis Center is a year-round facility that offers classes for younger children ages 4–7 and other age groups up to adults. Along with the tennis courts Mellon Park includes a playground,

basketball court In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor su ...

s, and

baseball field A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

s.Post-Gazette NOW – Events
Post-gazette.com. Retrieved on 2010-11-29.

References

External links

*
A Fair in the ParkPittsburgh Post Gazette
{{Pittsburgh parks Parks in Pittsburgh Urban public parks 1943 establishments in Pennsylvania Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks City of Pittsburgh historic designations