Schenley Plaza is a public park serving as the grand entrance into
Schenley Park
Schenley Park () is a large municipal park located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between the neighborhoods of Oakland, Greenfield, and Squirrel Hill. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. In 2011, th ...
in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.
The plaza, located on
Forbes Avenue
Forbes Avenue is one of the longest streets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It runs along an east–west route for a length of approximately .
History
According to historical writer and blogger Leon J. Pollom, the lowest section of F ...
and Schenley Drive in the city's
Oakland district, includes multiple gardens, food kiosks, public meeting spaces, a
carousel, and a prominent "Emerald Lawn" with free wireless internet access. The plaza is the site of the
Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain, the Christopher Lyman Magee Memorial, the University of Pittsburgh's
Frick Fine Arts Building
The Henry Clay Frick Fine Arts Building is a landmark Renaissance villa and a contributing property to the Schenley Farms-Oakland Civic Historic District on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Th ...
, and formerly the
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inc ...
sculpture. The plaza is also surrounded by many prominent landmarks, including the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
's
Cathedral of Learning
The Cathedral of Learning is a 42-story skyscraper that serves as the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh's (Pitt) main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Standing at , the 42-story Late Gothic Revival Cat ...
,
Stephen Foster Memorial,
Hillman Library, and
Posvar Hall as well as the
Carnegie Institute and its
Dippy sculpture.
History
The site of Schenley Plaza was originally a deep gully which was called St. Pierre Hollow as it was near the end of St. Pierre Street (now Bigelow Boulevard). In 1898, a stone arch bridge called the Bellefield Bridge was built over the hollow, which together with the
Schenley Bridge provided an entrance into Schenley Park from
Forbes Avenue
Forbes Avenue is one of the longest streets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It runs along an east–west route for a length of approximately .
History
According to historical writer and blogger Leon J. Pollom, the lowest section of F ...
.
[ Clippings of th]
first page
an
second page
via Newspapers.com. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
Eventually, sentiment arose that Bellefield Bridge was not a sufficiently impressive park entrance. Also, in 1911, a place was being sought for a monument to
Mary Schenley, patroness of the park. The idea grew that a great public square, both for the memorial and the park entrance, was needed. A national competition elicited 45 proposals for the site, and in June 1915, judges selected the plan of Horace Wells Sellers and H. Bartol Register, both of Philadelphia. According to the judges, the winning design afforded "the simplest and least confusing plan of driveways; the circulation is good; and provision is made for automobile parking space." It was one of only two entries to provide parking as this was not mentioned in the brief for the competition.
[
Between 1913 and 1914 St. Pierre Hollow was filled in. The fill has been popularly said to be earth removed from Downtown's infamous "Hump" on Grant Street, but the supporting historical information for this story is disputed. The Bellefield Bridge remains buried here and supports some of the weight of the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain, which was dedicated in 1918.
The plaza was built in 1921 with some modifications from Sellers and Register's winning design. It consisted of a wide driveway running from Forbes Avenue to the Schenley Bridge around a central oval, with grassy areas on either side planted with rows of London plane trees. The Schenley Fountain stood at the far end. Some planned elements, including a pair of ornamental gateposts, were not built.][
By the 1930s, the plaza was starting to be used primarily as a parking area to accommodate demand from both university students and fans at ]Forbes Field
Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers ...
, then home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers, which stood on the west side of the plaza. In 1990, the city removed the central oval from the plaza to accommodate more cars, effectively turning it fully into a parking lot.[
]
Plaza renovation
From 2004–2006 the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, in partnership with the City of Pittsburgh oversaw a major renovation of the plaza, funded in part by the Oakland Investment Committee, restoring it as a grand entrance to the park. It now offers green space: a lawn, ever-changing ornamental gardens, and landscaping featuring plants native to Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...
. Other features include benches, public programming, food kiosks, amenities such as free wireless service for computers, and a Victorian-style carousel as a featured family attraction. In 2009, the Schenley Plaza renovation won the Silver Award in the Environmentally Sustainable Project category at the 2009 International Awards for Livable Communities held in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
city of Plzeň.
Schenley Plaza is operated by the non-profit Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and is maintained in partnership with the City of Pittsburgh's Department of Parks & Recreation (CitiParks) and Department of Public Works. It is open dawn to dusk.
References
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*
External links
Schenley Plaza website
Schenley Plaza Then and Now Photographs
Feature story on the 2006 opening of the renovated Schenley Plaza
{{Pittsburgh parks
Parks in Pittsburgh
Urban public parks
Squares in the United States
Tourist attractions in Pittsburgh