The Pittsburgh Athletic Association was a private social club and athletic club 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, ...

, USA. Its clubhouse 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 ...

. Located at the corner of

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping ...

and Bigelow Boulevard in the city's

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

district, it faces three other landmark buildings: 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 ...

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 ...

and

William Pitt Union The William Pitt Union, built in 1898 as the Hotel Schenley, is the student union building of the University of Pittsburgh main campus, and is a Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark. Designed by Pittsburg ...

(formerly The Schenley Hotel) as well as the

Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum (or often simply Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall) is a National Register of Historic Places landmark in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the largest memorial in the United States ded ...

. The latter, as well as the nearby Twentieth Century Club, being designed by noted architect, Benno Janssen. The club was organized in 1908 by real estate developer Franklin Nicola. Architect

Benno Janssen Benno Janssen (March 12, 1874 – October 14, 1964) was an American architect. Childhood, education and career Benno Janssen was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Oscar Janssen and Thekla Susenbeth. Janssen studied at the University of ...

(1874—1964) used a Venetian Renaissance palace as a prototype for his design, perhaps Palazzo Grimani or Libreria on Piazza San Marco. The structure was completed in 1911. Prior to that, the club operated out of the Farmer's Bank Building (now razed), downtown at Forbes St (then Diamond) and Smithfield. The Pittsburgh Athletic Association was a nonprofit membership club chartered in 1908, operating to 2017. It offered comprehensive athletic facilities, sports lessons, spa services, fine dining, and overnight accommodations. Some of the building's more interesting features include a pool on the third floor, full basketball and squash courts, a 16 lane bowling alley, and a room dedicated to former University of Pittsburgh football coach

Johnny Majors John Terrill Majors (May 21, 1935June 3, 2020) was an American professional football player and college coach. A standout halfback at the University of Tennessee, he was an All-American in 1956 and a two-time winner of the Southeastern Confe ...

. The club had several annual events, the most popular including an Easter brunch, a lobster dinner, and collegiate boxing events. From 1916 to 1920, the PAA fielded an elite amateur ice hockey team featuring such Canadian stars as Herb Drury and brothers Joe and Larry McCormick. The team won the championship of the short-lived National Amateur Hockey League in 1918. When the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

first included ice hockey in 1920, four of the eleven players on the silver medal-winning U.S. team came from the PAA squad. The clubhouse is currently undergoing a complete renovation and restoration after which the club will be housed in a smaller space incorporating athletics, lap pool, and fine dining. It is slated to reopen in 2020.

In film

In 2009, the film '' Love & Other Drugs'', directed by

Edward Zwick Edward M. Zwick (born October 8, 1952) is an American filmmaker and producer of film and television. He has worked primarily in the comedy drama and epic historical film genres, including ''About Last Night, Glory, Legends of the Fall,'' and ...

and starring

Jake Gyllenhaal Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (; ; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and his older sister is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He ...

and

Hank Azaria Henry Albert Azaria ( ; born April 25, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for voicing many characters in the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), most notably Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, ...

, filmed a scene in the Pittsburgh Athletic Association's Grill Room. The 2010 film,

She's Out of My League ''She's Out of My League'' is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Jim Field Smith and written by Sean Anders and John Morris. It stars Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve, and was produced by Jimmy Miller and David Householter for Paramoun ...

was partly filmed in the bowling alley.

References

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External links

Pittsburgh Athletic Association Building homepagePittsburgh Athletic Association homepage
{{Authority control 1908 establishments in Pennsylvania Athletics clubs in the United States Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Clubs and societies in Pennsylvania Organizations based in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks Gentlemen's clubs in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Pennsylvania Clubhouses in Pittsburgh

In film

See also

References

External links