University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

Page 21 text:

 HE great event of the year whose record this issue of The Owl is intended to preserve is the acquisition of the new site for the University and the adoption of plans for the new buildings to Ik constructed thereon. The University is now in the one hundred and twentieth year of its history, and for the first time has come into possession of a tract of ground large enough for its needs. The Academy building and later the College building was situated on the south side of Third Street, between Smithfield Street and Cherry Alley, and was destroyed in the great fire of 1845. The second building was erected on Duqucsne Way and was likewise destroyed by fire in 1849. The third building, completed in 1855, was erected on a new site at the corner of Ross and Diamond Streets. This building was sold to the county after the burning of the Court House in 1882, where it still remains as the home of the Pittsburg Academy and the Law Department of the University. None of these locations was large enough for the erection of other buildings. I11 1819 the Legislature of Pennsylvania granted to the University a portion of what is now the Allegheny Park system, l'itie to this grant could not be made good, and the grant therefore failed. Had it not been for this doubtless the University would at this time be in possession of a large number of buildings and a very much larger body of students than we now have. The location was ideal. Forced to move in 1882 and possessing the grounds of the Allegheny Observatory—about ten acres in extent—it was an easy solution of the problem to construct buildings for the College and Engineering Departments upon this commanding site. No one could then foresee the movement of population, but even had the location proven the best, the acreage would not have been sufficiently large to accommodate any considerable number of buildings. The subsequent addition between 1892 and 1896 of the professional departments made it obvious that ultimately a new location must be secured in some more eligible location, and large 9