Motor Square Garden, also known as East Liberty Market, is a building in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

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, ...

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, that is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Located at 5900 Baum Boulevard in the East Liberty neighborhood, it today serves as the headquarters of the Pittsburgh branch of the

American Automobile Association American Automobile Association (AAA – commonly pronounced as "Triple A") is a federation of motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a privately held not-for-profit national member association and service organization with over 60 m ...

, which owns the property. The exterior of the building features a large tin-clad, steel-framed blue

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

and a yellow brick facade. The industrial interior has a large atrium with exposed steel girders and skylights above.

History

Financed by the

Mellon family The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential Americans, American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest-serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, along with prominent members in the judicial, bankin ...

of Pittsburgh, the building was built from 1898 to 1900 as a city market—after one of their real estate subdivisions failed to sell enough houses—calling it East Liberty Market House. The Boston, Massachusetts architectural firm of

Peabody and Stearns Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845–1917) and John Goddard Stearns J ...

designed the building. Motor Square Garden soon failed as a retail space, but in 1915 the new Pittsburgh Automobile Association bought it as a site for its auto shows. In the 1920s, it came into use as a sports venue, especially for boxing, and was used intermittently as the home court of the University of Pittsburgh's basketball team until the opening of Pitt Pavilion inside

Pitt Stadium Pitt Stadium was an outdoor athletic stadium in the eastern United States, located on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Opened in 1925, it served primarily as the home of the univer ...

in 1925.Sam Sciullo, Jr. Pitt: 100 Years of Pitt Basketball pg. 14-17
/ref> By the 1940s it was used as a new car dealership. In 1988,

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

bought the property. Landmarks Design Associates of Pittsburgh redesigned it as an upscale shopping mall. The retail mall failed, but AAA expanded to occupy the building, along with a tenant, the

UPMC Shadyside School of Nursing The UPMC Shadyside School of Nursing is a public nursing school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1884 and is affiliated with UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) Shadyside Hospital. It is located in the East Libert ...

Gallery

File:EastLibertyMarket2.jpg, East Liberty Market File:Motor Square Garden Top.JPG, Motor Square Garden File:Motor Square Garden Front.JPG, Motor Square Garden is currently the home of AAA East Central and the

. File:Motor Square Garden.jpg, Interior Atrium and Skylights

References

External links

* * * {{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Commercial buildings completed in 1900 Basketball venues in Pittsburgh Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Market houses Peabody and Stearns buildings Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks Pittsburgh Panthers basketball venues Art Nouveau architecture in Pennsylvania Art Nouveau retail buildings National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh