William Pitt Union
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Schenley Hotel
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The former Schenley Hotel, now William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh
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| Coordinates | 40°26′35.78″N 79°57′16.91″W / 40.4432722°N 79.9546972°WCoordinates: 40°26′35.78″N 79°57′16.91″W / 40.4432722°N 79.9546972°W |
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| Built | 1898 |
| Architect | Rutan & Russell |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts |
| Part of | Schenley Farms Historic District (#83002213) |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 22, 1983 |
| Designated PA | 1967 |
| Designated PHLF | 1984 |
The William Pitt Union, built in 1898 as the Hotel Schenley, is the student union building of the University of Pittsburgh main campus, and is a Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark. Designed by Pittsburgh-based architects Rutan & Russell in the Beaux-Arts style of architecture, the Schenley Hotel catered to local and visiting well-to-do people. The University of Pittsburgh acquired the property in 1956.
The building, originally known as the Hotel Schenley and designed by architects Rutan & Russell, 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 Andrew W. Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie, George Westinghouse and H.J. Heinz, who were among the first stockholders to share Nicola’s vision for Oakland. They erected the beaux-arts structure on land once owned by fellow stockholder Mary Croghan Schenley. The Schenley Hotel was Pittsburgh's first large, steel-framed "skyscraper hotel" it was described as "Pittsburgh's class hotel of the early 20th century".
Full of marble, chandeliersm 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 D. Eisenhower signed the register at the Schenley, as did Eleanor Roosevelt.
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