Pittsburgh

Public Buildings and Institutions.

The city has some fine public buildings, office buildings and churches. The Allegheny county court house (1884-88) is one of H. H. Richardson's masterpieces. The Nixon theatre is also notable architecturally. The high Frick office building has exterior walls of white granite; in its main hall is a stained-glass window by John La Farge repre senting Fortune and her wheel. A large Government building of polished granite contains the post office and the customs offices. Other notable buildings are the City-County, Union Trust, Cham ber of Commerce and a dozen others, equally imposing, together with several new hotels. St. Paul's cathedral (Roman Catholic, 1903-6) is largely of Indiana limestone. The city is the see of a Roman Catholic and a Protestant Episcopal bishop, and the residence of a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Other fine churches are Calvary, Sacred Heart, First Baptist and First Presbyterian. At the entrance to Schenley park, a great civic, educational, art and social centre is in process of development, including the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute and School of Technology, the Twentieth Century, University, Ath letic, Knights of Columbus, Y.M.H.A. clubs, Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Hall, Masonic Temple, Syria Mosque, Armory, Schen ley hotel, Forbes field (1903), and University stadium, and the 3 i -storey Cathedral of Learning.

In Schenley park is the Carnegie Institute (established by a gift of $10,000,000 from Andrew Carnegie, who made further con tributions for its maintenance, its endowment in 1936 being $7, 300,000 and that of the school $16,369,382 with provision for an addition to the latter of $12,000,000 by 1946) with a main building containing a library, a department of fine arts, a museum and a music hall, and separate buildings for the School of Tech nology which had (1936) 228 teachers and 2,258 students. The main building, dedicated in April 1907, is 600ft. long and 400ft. wide ; in its great entrance hall is a series of mural decorations by John White Alexander, a native of the city. The library, in which the institution had its beginning in 1895, contained (1935) 922,226 volumes and has 15 branches. The art department maintains the only international exhibition of modern paintings in the United States. The Phipps conservatory was presented to the city in 1903 by Henry Phipps (b. 1839), a steel manufacturer associated with Andrew Carnegie. It is the largest in America, and, with its Hall of Botany, which is utilized in instructing school children in botany, is situated in Schenley park. There is a zoological garden in Highland park.

In December 1907 it was decided that the several departments of the Western University of Pennsylvania, then situated in dif ferent parts of the city, should be brought together on a new campus of 43ac., increased to 77ac. (1927), near the Carnegie

Institute. In July 1908 the name was changed to The University of Pittsburgh, in which are (1936) 821 professors and 10,522 students. The institution had its beginning in the Pittsburgh academy, which was opened perhaps as early as 1780 and was incorporated in 1787. It was incorporated as the Western Uni versity of Pennsylvania in 1819.

The Pennsylvania College for Women (Presbyterian; char tered in 1869), has collegiate and musical departments, and in 1936 had 35 teachers and 30o students. Overlooking the golden triangle is Duquesne university (Roman Catholic) with its schools of liberal arts, commerce, pharmacy and law and its 114 teachers and 2,532 students (1936). In the Allegheny district are the Allegheny Theological seminary (United Presbyterian, 1825), the Western Theological seminary (Presbyterian, opened 1827), and the Reformed Presbyterian Theological seminary (i8I0). Under the new school code 0910 a board of education consisting of 15 members appointed by the judges of the common pleas courts controls the public schools. There were (1934) 17 high schools, with 905 teachers and 29,323 pupils, one Teachers' Training school, six special schools, 134 elementary schools, with 1,666 teachers and 63,484 pupils and evening schools with 19,255 pupils. The parochial schools had 3o high schools, 176 teachers and 3,515 pupils and 76 grade schools, 1,017 teachers and 39,435 pupils; and there are many private schools and academies, among them Shadyside academy. The Henry C. Frick Education Com mission has an endowment of several millions for the improvement of teaching in the public schools.

The Pittsburgh Gazette (1786) was probably the oldest news paper west of the Allegheny mountains and was (1906) con solidated with the Times (1879) under the name of Gazette Times and recently (1927) consolidated with the Post (Sunday, 1792; daily, 1842) under the name Post-Gazette, the only morning paper. The evening papers are Sun-Telegraph and the Pittsburgh Press which purchased and discontinued (1923) the Dispatch (1846) and the Leader (Sunday 1864, daily 187o). A German daily, weeklies in Slovak, Italian, Polish and five other languages, and iron, steel, building, coal, glass, agriculture and other trade journals are published in the city. In Pittsburgh are published the Presbyterian Banner (1814, the second oldest re ligious paper in the United States), the United Presbyterian, the Christian Advocate, the Catholic Observer, the Pittsburgh Catholic and other weeklies.