University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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enough to accommodate all the departments of an institution which was now becoming a University in fact, as it had long been in name. This matter was discussed again and again, and the Chancellor and the Hoard of Trustees diligently sought to lind the proper solution. In 1904. when the present Chancellor was chosen, the call was accompanied by the definite assurance that a new site would be purchased as soon as it could possibly be done. From that time until action was finally taken on December 13, 1907. the Chancellor and Trustees, led by a Committee especially chosen for the purpose, gave themselves unceasingly to the problem of a site which should Ik-suitable for the purpose. Quite a number of these were from time to time under consideration between Oakland and Wilkinsburg, and some of these had many desirable features. The choice was not an easy one to make. Financial considerations were a necessary element. The professional schools, as well as the College, had to be considered. At the time when the choice was narrowing down to two or three and a selection of one of these was to he made, a fierce financial panic seized the nation and caused the trustees to hesitate and consider very seriously whether or not the whole matter must go over to the future. The situation was, however, urgent and the board finally, at a session which will forever remain notable in the history of the University, decided to purchase thirty-one acres ot the Schenley Farms with twelve acres adjoining, making forty-three acres in all. This decision was reached on November 29th. and was concluded on December 13th, 1907. Without question the site chosen is one of the most commanding in all America. The buildings, when completed, will form a splendid group looking down upon the University Club, the new Soldiers’ Memorial Building, the Schenley Hotel, the super!) Carnegie Institute building, the Technical Schools, the Phipps Conservatory, the splendid Schenley Park, the Cathedral, and other church buildings, and will thus form a part of the great institutional center, not alone of Pittsburg, but of Western Pennsylvania. Immediately after the selection of the site the Executive Committee, instructed by the board, undertook a competition of architects for the propei development of the new site, and for the erection of the first building. This competition was brought to a happy conclusion on the 13th of April by the selection of the plan known as No. 40. which was found to he the work of Palmer -Hornbostel, who have been so signally successful in a number of other competitions. The style of architecture is Grecian. This firm not only adapted the style of architecture and the grouping of the buildings to the peculiar topography of the ground, but so located the groups of buildings as to take advantage of the natural features and cause the institution, when it shall come into being, to seem to grow up as a part of the surroundings instead of something put upon it. The elVecl will be little short of magnificent. The development of this plan will require many years. In thus securing the 10

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 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

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location and in thus providing a plan for the erection of buildings the construction of which will take many years, two vitally essential steps have been taken. For the first time in the history of the University an opportunity is really given to the people of Pittsburg to provide for the enlargement and growth of the institution which has been in their midst for one hundred and twenty years. With the single exception of 1 Berkeley, the site for the new University is perhaps the most striking and beautiful in all America. The construction of the first building will begin in June. The construction of other buildings will begin and continue as rapidly as the means are put into the hands of the trustees for the purpose. Only one thing can be predicted with certainty, and that is whether it takes ten years or fifty years the plan in its essential features will be carried out and Pittsburgh will have a University worthy of her greatness. It is fitting that Pittsburgh, whose name is famed throughout the world, should have among her cherished possessions an institution of learning which shall be worthy of the limitless resources of the great region; and it is equally fitting that Pittsburgh’s University should crown with classic beauty one of the multitude of her little hills and thus bring together into an indissoluble union beauty and utility, education and its application to practical uses, science and its manifestation in hundreds of valuable forms, thus typifying the character of the great community of which Pittsburgh is the vital center. II