The Saint Mary's Academy Building is a historic building in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 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 Pennsyl ...

. Built in 1854, it is a notable example of Greek Revival architecture and one of the neighborhood's only surviving buildings dating to the pre–

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

era. It was the first structure built by St. Mary's parish, the first

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

parish in Lawrenceville, and was originally used as both a church and school. In 1874, a new St. Mary's Church was built next door. St. Mary's merged with three other Lawrenceville parishes (

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first ...

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

, and

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

) in 1993 to form the new Our Lady of Angels parish. The St. Mary church buildings remained in use for a few years but closed in 2004. In 2007, the property was sold to the Catholic Cemeteries Association, which administers the adjacent St. Mary Cemetery. The association planned to raze the Academy building to provide more room for burials, but the building was nominated as a Pittsburgh historic landmark to protect it from demolition. The building was given landmark status on December 30, 2008. It remains vacant as of 2018.

References

{{Pittsburgh Schools in Pittsburgh Greek Revival architecture in Pennsylvania School buildings completed in 1854 Lawrenceville (Pittsburgh)