Welcome
The Historic William Pitt Union
The
Hotel Schenley, opened in 1898, 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 a few friends - Andrew
W. Mellon, Henry Frick, Andrew Carnegie, George Westinghouse and
H.J. Heinz were among the first stockholders who shared Nicola’s
vision for Oakland. They erected the beaux-arts structure on land
once owned by fellow stockholder Mary Croghan Schenley.
Full of marble, chandeliers and Louis XV architecture, the Schenley quickly became the Pittsburgh home to the great and the near-great. Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Dwight Eisenhower signed the register at the Schenley.
Singer-actress Lillian Russell lived on the fourth floor and married Pittsburgh publisher Alexander Moore in the French Room.
Dramatic tenor Enrico Caruso and his entourage occupied seven suites during their stay. Sarah Bernhardt, Nelson Eddy, Jeannette MacDonald and Henry Fonda stayed at the Schenley. Italian tragedian Eleanora Duse succumbed to pneumonia in Suite 524.
The Schenley was not just the place to stay in Pittsburgh as the 20th 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 a place where Pittsburgh power brokers met - many of the discussions leading to the birth of the U.S. Steel Corporation were held at the Schenley. Its formation was celebrated at the "Meal of Millionaires" in 1901.
But 1909 was a year destined to change 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 in town to play the Pittsburgh Pirates and student and faculty took their place among the Pittsburgh elite. Now added to the register were names such as Babe Ruth, Casey Stengle, Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby. The deals struck over dinner at the Schenley now included baseball trades.
For the next 40-plus years the Schenley continued to operate albeit on a less grand scale. Renaissance I brought modern hotels to downtown Pittsburgh and, ironically, Frank Nicola’s dream of an Oakland civic center turned out to be a nightmare for the Schenley. The turn-of-the-century marvel had been built in rural Pittsburgh. The 1950s Schenley was surrounded by hospitals, educational facilities, concert halls and private clubs with no parking to serve the hotel’s mobile guests.
In 1956, the then Schenley Park Hotel was sold to the University of Pittsburgh to serve, among other things, as its student union. While $1 million was spent to renovate the facility, it remained a hotel-turned-union for the next 25 years.
As the student population of the Pittsburgh campus blossomed to 30,000-plus and their activities diversified and grew, it became clear that the grand structure needed an overhaul.
In
1980, the University announced a $13.9 million renovation and restoration
for the Union, made possible by bonds sold through the Allegheny
County Higher Education Building Authority.
During the 18-month project, seven upper floors were gutted, making way for bright, modern offices for students and the student affairs administration. The turn-of-the-century character of the main floor has been retained through careful restoration, and the rarely used basement has become a functional lower level, thanks to the new Forbes Avenue Entrance.
The amalgam of the old and new achieve the intent of the project, one undertaken to form a more perfect union.