Designed by Pittsburgh-based architects Rutan & Russell in the Beaux-Arts style of architecture, the Schenley Hotel catered to local and visiting well-to-do people. The University of Pittsburgh acquired the property in 1956.
History
The Schenley Hotel circa 1900
The Schenley
This historic building, which was originally known as the Hotel Schenley,[6] and designed by architects Rutan & Russell,[7] opened in 1898. It became the keystone of entrepreneur Franklin Nicola’s dream of Oakland as a center for culture, art and education. Nicola had been instrumental in the formation of the Bellefield Company with the help of Andrew W. Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, George Westinghouse and H.J. Heinz, who were among the first stockholders to share Nicola’s vision for Oakland.
Nicola and his supporters oversaw construction of this beaux-arts structure on land that was once owned by fellow stockholder Mary Croghan Schenley.[8]
The Schenley Hotel was Pittsburgh's first large, steel-framed "skyscraper hotel." It was described as "Pittsburgh's class hotel of the early 20th century".[9]
The Schenley was not just the place to stay in Pittsburgh as the twentieth century began, it was where the young ladies of society "came out," where couples married, and where one could dine on the "haute cuisine" of the day. It was also the place where Pittsburgh power brokers met; many planning discussions related to the birth of the U.S. Steel Corporation were held here.
The Lower Lounge atrium in the William Pitt Union often serves as place of rest or study for students, or for university functions
1909 was a year that changed the Hotel Schenley forever. That summer, Forbes Field opened just down the street and the University of Pittsburgh moved from its Northside location to Oakland. From that time on, the "Waldorf of Pittsburgh" gradually became the home of the National League baseball players who were in town to play the Pittsburgh Pirates; students and faculty subsequently took their place among the Pittsburgh elite. Babe Ruth, Casey Stengel, Ty Cobb, and Rogers Hornsby all signed the guest register; baseball trades were finalized by club owners over dinner.[8]
The Schenley continued to operate for more than forty years, albeit on a less grand scale. Surrounded by hospitals, educational facilities, concert halls, and private clubs with no parking to serve the hotel's mobile guests by the 1950s, it also faced new competition from Pittsburgh's Renaissance I.
A part of Pitt
The William Pitt Union Ballroom
In 1956, the then Schenley Park Hotel was sold to the University of Pittsburgh. The hotel underwent a $1million ($10.8million in 2022 dollars[13]) renovation to convert it to university use. The top four floors first served as a men's dormitory called Schenley House while the rest of the building was purposed as a student union, which was named Schenley Hall.[14]
Shortly after this, during the height of the cold war in September 1959, the Schenley Hall ballroom in the union was the site of a luncheon for Nikita Khrushchev, chairman of the Soviet Union, and various Soviet and U.S. officials, including Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. that was hosted by the University of Pittsburgh and Pitt Chancellor Edward Litchfield. The last stop on Khrushchev's eleven-day transcontinental tour prior to a three-day conference with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the event was described by The New York Times as the warmest of the tour.[15]
The Kurtzman Room
As the population of the Pittsburgh campus blossomed to 30,000-plus students and their activities diversified, it became clear that the grand structure needed an overhaul. In 1980, the university announced a $13.9million ($49.4million in 2022 dollars[13]) renovation and restoration, made possible by bonds sold through the Allegheny County Higher Education Building Authority.
During the eighteen-month project and restoration, which was led by Williams Trebilcock Whitehead (now WTW Architects),[11] seven upper floors were gutted to make way for modern offices for students and the student affairs administration. A tenth floor, which had been added several years after the hotel was first built, was removed to relieve stress on the building.[10]
The turn-of-the-century character of the main floor was also restored through careful restoration of the Louis XV mirrored ballroom, as were the lower lounge that had enclosed the original Bigelow Boulevard-side porch thirteen years after the hotel was originally built, and the marbled-wall former hotel lobby, now called the Tansky Family Lounge, which includes the "stairway to nowhere," a remnant of a previous renovation. In addition, the rarely used basement was transformed into a functional lower level with a new Forbes Avenue Entrance and plaza.[8]
The original wooden hotel room doors salvage from the upstairs renovation were used for the walls of the lower-level student recreation room, now called "Nordy's Place," and a third west entrance facing the university's Schenley Quadrangle and Litchfield Towers dormitories was added; that upgrade also included the addition of a new multi-level, glass-roofed atrium just inside the new entrance.[10]
After the renovations were completed in 1983, the building was renamed as the William Pitt Union.[16]
Tragedies and legends
On July 12, 1950, a hotel night guard shot and killed two men and wounded another.[17]
The Tansky Family Lounge in the William Pitt Union formerly served as the Schenley Hotel's lobby
A ghost story passed down among students begins with the tale of a visit by the Russian National Ballet, which booked accommodations in the historic Schenley Hotel prior to opening its tour of the United States in Pittsburgh. The prima ballerina, tired from travel, decided to rest before the premiere performance, drifted off, and slept through her curtain call and the whole of the performance. The company's director, either so incensed by her missing the premiere, or so impressed by the stage presence of her understudy, decided to replace the prima ballerina with a younger dancer for the remainder of the tour. Distraught by the change, the prima ballerina took her own life that night. It is now said that, if students fall asleep in the Tansky Family Lounge, also known as the Red Room, they always wake up just in time for whatever exam, class, meeting, appointment, etc. they may have missed because the prima ballerina's ghost makes sure they never succumb to her same fate.[18]
Another tale tells of a haunting in the Lillian Russell Room, room 437 within the offices of The Pitt News, near Lillian Russell's former residence.[19]
Current use
International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame in the Union
The William Pitt Union now serves as the student union and hub of the University of Pittsburgh and contains a variety of lounges, ballrooms, reception, performance, and meeting spaces. One of the most notable facilities is the Louis XV-style William Pitt Union Ballroom on the main floor, which features vaulted ceiling, mirrored walls, two grand crystal chandeliers, and detailed moldings and artwork that are faithful restored to the condition of the Hotel Schenley. Other formal rooms include the Kurtzman Room and lower atrium of the Tansky Family lounge on the main floor, as well as two dining rooms on the first floor. The Tansky Lounge itself is the restored grand lobby of the hotel. In addition, the William Pitt Union Assembly Room, the largest room on the main floor at 6,200 square feet (580m2), contains a stage with theatrical lighting and serves as the facility's primary multi-purpose event space.[20]
The William Pitt Union is also the home to the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame (dedicated in 1984[21]), the C. M. Kimbo Art Gallery, a dance studio, meeting and conference rooms, university offices, and, on the lower level, a food court. The upper floors of the union serve as the primary location for the offices for more than three hundred student organizations, including the student newspaper, The Pitt News, the student radio station, WPTS and the student government.[22]
The fourth floor is the site of the Lillian Russell Room of The Pitt News. It contains a portrait of Russell, a fireplace, stained glass fanlight and decorative moldings.[23]
In 2007, the recreation room on the ground floor of the union was renovated and by resolution of the Pitt Student Government Board, and was then renamed "Nordy's Place" in honor of Chancellor Mark Nordenberg.[24][25] Gigs Game Center, outfitted with videogame hardware and software, is also located on the lower level.[26]
In 2009, renovations to the second floor improved the accommodations of the student careers center and renovations to the fifth floor were completed to provide six new meeting spaces for student organizations, four of which with hard-surface flooring enabling groups to practice dance routines and other activities.[27] In addition, a formal area was created for student organizations to host workshops and award presentations.[28]
In 2010, a $2 million project was undertaken to renovate 9,200 square feet (850m2) of space on the ninth floor.[29] The renovation, completed in 2011, created a new student study and lounge area, a twenty-person conference room, a kitchen/coffee area, file/storage areas, and new offices for Residence Life, Pitt Arts and Student Volunteer Outreach.[30]
A $1.93 million renovation of the Assembly Room, which included uncovering three large windows to allow in natural light, as well as a stage extension and technology upgrades, was completed in 2013.[31] In addition, a $390,000 renovation of first floor restrooms and $1.85 million renovation of the lower levels of the union, including its food court and dining spaces, was completed that same year.[31][32]
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 535 feet (163 m), the 42-story Late Gothic Revival Cathedral is the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere and the second-tallest university building in the world, after the main building of Moscow State University. It is also the second-tallest gothic-styled building in the world, after the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. The Cathedral of Learning was commissioned in 1921 and ground was broken in 1926 under general contractor Stone & Webster. The first class was held in the building in 1931 and its exterior finished in October 1934, prior to its formal dedication in June 1937. It is a Pittsburgh landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
A student center is a type of building found on university and some high school campuses. In the United States, such a building may also be called a student union, student commons, or union. The term "student union" refers most often in the United States to a building, while in other nations a "students' union" is the student government. Nevertheless, the Association of College Unions International has several hundred campus organizational members in the US; there is no sharp dichotomy in interpretation of union in this context. The US usage in reference to a location is simply a shortened form of student union building.
Mark A. Nordenberg is the chancellor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh and chair of the university's Institute of Politics. A professor of law and university administrator, Nordenberg served as the seventeenth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh from 1996 to 2014. Nordenberg served as the Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law between 1985 and 1993 and other various administrative positions before becoming interim Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh in 1995, a position which became permanent the following year. He became known as Nordy to many Pitt students, who voted to name a recreation center and arcade in the William Pitt Union as Nordy's Place, and is also the namesake of the university's endowed Nordenberg Scholarships and the Nordenberg Hall dormitory on the university's campus.
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown is a state-related college in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is a baccalaureate degree-granting regional campus of the University of Pittsburgh. The university is located in Richland Township, a suburban area of Johnstown, and was founded in 1927 as one of the first regional campuses of a major university in the United States.
Litchfield Towers, commonly referred to on campus as "Towers", is a complex of residence halls at the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Litchfield Towers is both the largest and tallest residence hall at the University of Pittsburgh, housing approximately 1,850 students.
The Pittsburgh Athletic Association was a private social club and athletic club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Its clubhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Music Building is an academic building of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, and a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District. A Longfellow, Alden & Harlow-designed mansion that was originally the home of the pastor of a neighboring church and former university chancellor, it also served as the home to a local chapter of the Knights of Columbus, as chemical laboratories, and as the first home of educational television station WQED and that station's original production site for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Today it is home to the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Music and the school's Theodore M. Finney Music Library.
Bellefield Hall is a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark and is a contributing property to the Schenley Farms Historic District on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh across Bellefield Avenue from Heinz Memorial Chapel and the lawn of the university's Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. A 1924 italianate structure by architect Benno Janssen, it originally served as a Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association, but now houses rehearsal spaces, classrooms, offices, and a Digital Recording Studio for the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Music, as well as a university gymnasium, fitness center, indoor swimming pool, and a 676-seat auditorium.
Schenley Quadrangle is a cluster of University of Pittsburgh ("Pitt") residence halls that is a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark and are contributing properties to the Schenley Farms National Historic District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
A panther is the animal that serves as the official mascot of the University of Pittsburgh and used as a nickname for both athletic teams as well as other organizations and affiliates of the university. The mascot is generally referred to as the Pittsburgh Panther or Pitt Panther, while the costumed panther mascot is also named "Roc". Up to 20 physical representations of panthers can be found in and around the university's campus and athletic facilities.
The University Club is an eight-story building of the University of Pittsburgh designed by Henry Hornbostel and completed in 1923 that is a contributing property to the Schenley Farms Historic District on the school's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It serves as a faculty club with publicly accessible dining, banquet, and conference facilities, while the upper four floors serve as undergraduate student housing referred to as University Hall.
University Place Office Building was a 6-story building constructed in 1924 and had been a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Once located at 121 University Place, the building was originally the Schenley Office Physicians Building designed by architect Edward B. Lee and associate architect J. B. Blair for the Physicians Land Company. Long housing offices of physicians associated with the university's medical school and medical center, the building was acquired by the university in June 1983 for $1.25 million and then housed a variety of university offices, including the University Center for Social and Urban Research, until its demolition in 2011.
Ruskin Hall is a residence hall at the University of Pittsburgh and a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District. Constructed in 1921–22 by H. L. Stevens & Company, with an annex added in 1925–26, it is an eight-story building which is located between the Music Building and Information Sciences Building between Ruskin and Bellefield Avenues near Fifth Avenue on Pitt's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ruskin Hall recently underwent a $19.4 million conversion and renovation from medical student housing into undergraduate apartment-style housing that opened in 2008.
The Schenley Farms Historic District, also referred to as the Schenley Farms–Oakland Civic District, is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places that is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
The O'Hara Student Center, formerly the Concordia Club, is a three-story, 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m2) building on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh on O'Hara Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District and the City of Pittsburgh Oakland Civic Center Historic District. The building was acquired by the university in mid-December, 2009. and has since been renovated to house academic and student activity programs.
↑ Barlow, Kimberly K.; Levine, Marty (August 29, 2013). "What's New at Pitt: Places". University Times. Vol.46, no.1. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
↑ Cox, Timothy. "Pitt Seminar Marked by Jazz HOF Dedication". New Pittsburgh Courier (1981–2002); November 17, 1984, ProQuest Historical Newspapers Pittsburgh Courier: 1911–2002, pg. 2. Retrieved 2008-08-18.]
↑ Hart, Peter; Barlow, Kimberly K. (September 3, 2009). "What's New? Places". University Times. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. Archived from the original on June 9, 2010. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
↑ Hart, Peter; Barlow, Kimberly K. (September 1, 2011). "What's New: Places". University Times. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
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