History
The site of Schenley Plaza had been a deep gully called St. Pierre's Ravine, which connected to Junction Hollow. The ravine separated the new Carnegie Institute (1895) from the even newer Forbes Field (1909–1970). Linking these two civic institutions was a stone arch bridge: Bellefield Bridge. It carried Bigelow Boulevard toward Schenley Park.
Sentiment arose that Bellefield Bridge was not a sufficiently impressive park entrance. Also in 1911 a place was being sought for a monument to Mary Schenley, patroness of the park. The idea grew that a great public square, both for the memorial and the park entrance, was needed.
A national competition elicited 45 proposals for the site, and in June 1915, judges selected the plan of Horace Wells Sellers and H. Bartol Register, both of Philadelphia.
Between 1913 and 1914 St. Pierre's Ravine was filled in. The fill has been popularly said to be earth removed from Downtown's infamous "Hump" on Grant Street, but the supporting historical information for this story is disputed. The Bellefield Bridge remains buried here and supports some of the weight of the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain on the plaza.
In 1949 Schenley Plaza was converted into a parking lot to accommodate both university students and fans at Forbes Field, then home to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers, which stood on the west side of the plaza.
Read more about this topic: Schenley Plaza
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... that there is no other way,
That the history of creation proceeds according to
Stringent laws, and that things
Do get done in this way, but never the things
We set out to accomplish and wanted so desperately
To see come into being.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)