Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation

We have a number of exciting tours and lectures coming up in June and July. For tickets, check out our tours & events calendar at: www.phlf.org

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

Our organization was delighted to host our Landmarks Scholarship reception, this evening, for college-bound students in Allegheny County who care deeply about the history and distinctive built-environment of our city and region.

Our 2026 awards, now make it 95 scholarships and 83 Honorable Mentions that our organization has awarded to high school graduates in Allegheny County since the program’s inception in 1999.

This program has helped to introduce young people to the work and mission of our organization and has created a network of support and a sense of family among the recipients.

The scholarship award of $6,000 is payable over four years, while the Honorable Mention-award is a one-time gift of $250 payable to the recipient’s college or university for tuition and book expenses.

Odin Hsu, who attended North Allegheny High School is our scholarship winner, this year and he will attend Princeton University.

Our Honorable Mention-award recipients are:

Alaa Arafah of Pittsburgh Brashear, who will attend the University of Pittsburgh;

Jillian Droppa of Thomas Jefferson High School, who will attend Penn State University;

Gabrielle Godfrey of Highlands High School, who will attend Slippery Rock University;

Kaleigh Libengood of Pine-Richland High School, who will attend Grove City College;

Matthew Miller of McKeesport Area High School, who will attend St. Vincent College;

Sylvia Svoboda of Pittsburgh Allderdice, who will attend Temple University;

Theodore Tedesco of Fox Chapel Area High School, who will attend Brown University;

Colton Yonker of West Allegheny Sr. High School, who will attend the University of Pittsburgh; and

Ray Chen Zeng of North Allegheny Sr. High School, who will attend Rice University.

The awards were presented in the art studio space at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, where we were delighted to interact with the students, their friends and family members.

The studio, housed in the former Old Allegheny Post Office Building has a special connection to our organization. It was our among our first “greatest saves,” during the era of urban renewal.

We saved the building from demolition, restored it and converted it into a preservation museum for many years until we finally donated the building to what is now Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.

A delightful event and celebration.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride.

www.phlf.org

The more you learn about our city and our region's distinctive historic built environment, the more you know about the history and the interesting details that help define your sense of place and identity.

Join us in 2026 as we explore singular landmarks, historic neighborhoods and towns in the city and the region.

Check out our tours & events calendar at www.phlf.org and see what might interest you as a place to explore this year.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride.

We had a glorious day for an exploration of historic Zelienople, with thanks to our partners at the Zelienople Historical Society and the several business owners who allowed us into their buildings to see how historic structures can be reused for modern purposes. And of course, we took a moment to check out one of the most colorful buildings in the business district, the Strand Theater building, whose facade our organization helped to restore last year.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

Please join us for the first of a special three-part lecture series on Pittsburgh's historical built environment in shape and time, presented by architectural historian and critic Charles Rosenblum.

Tuesday, July 7
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Liberty Magic
811 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

$25 per person.

For tickets: https://trustarts.org/production/108792

Downtown Pittsburgh’s historic Renaissance Hotel, housed in the former Fulton Building, located at 107 6th Street, at the corner of Sixth Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard, is changing its name and will soon be known as The Atterbury Hotel.

Built in 1906, the Fulton was one of four buildings commissioned by Henry Phipps, a business partner of Pittsburgh Industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The Manufacturers Building, which housed the once famous Pittsburgh Natatorium, and the Bessemer Building, have since been demolished. Another building, the Gayety Theater, which was later the Fulton Theater is what we now know as the Byham Theater, located next door to the hotel.

The Fulton Building, which would later be known as The Fulton Renaissance and later still, known as, the Renaissance Hotel Pittsburgh, has now been renamed The Atterbury Hotel. The City of Pittsburgh Planning Commission recently granted approval for a new sign of the re-branded hotel.

The Atterbury, a 300-room hotel, which is now part of the Marriott Hotels’ Autograph Collection brand, will seemingly share the same name as the architect who designed the building, Grosvenor Atterbury (1869-1956), an architect, urban planner, and writer.

A New Yorker, Atterbury is most distinctively remembered for his work with the architect Frederick Law Olmstead Jr., and their designing of station square, an outdoor mall area that serves as the entrance into Forest Hills Gardens, a village in the suburbs of Long Island.

Our organization awarded the former Fulton Renaissance, Renaissance, and now Atterbury Hotel, a Historic Landmark Plaque in 2003.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

Our tour today of Wilkinsburg’s historic central business district explored not just the history and architecture of the borough, but also the collaborative nature of the different groups at the forefront of helping to jumpstart the economic revival of this storied first-ring suburb of Pittsburgh.

Incorporated in 1887, Wilkinsburg’s commercial district flourished, particularly along its Penn Avenue and Wood Street corridors, in part because of the scale of its changing built environment.

The borough saw smaller wood-frame buildings replaced with larger brick commercial blocks, and with larger, high-style architecture cropping up along its main thoroughfares.

That sudden growth of its “downtown” along with the addition of several passenger trains between Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh, and the construction of an electric streetcar line, transformed the borough and its central business district into a commercial hub serving the areas of Penn Hills, Monroeville, Edgewood, Forest Hills, and the Borough of Churchill.

That is the context through which our organization’s staff and docents partnered with the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation, Juci Architecture, and Civically, Inc., a social enterprise community development group, presented the broader picture of the renewal happening in Pittsburgh— not just with its built-environment but also with its people.

We were also delighted to be joined by architects John Evans and Chris Watt, formerly of MCF Architecture and now with LGA partners, who gave us a comprehensive picture of the technical work that went into the renovation of the historic Wilkinsburg Train Station building.

The main features of our tour today were the CDC offices in the Lohr Building, the former Mellon Bank building, and the full restoration of the historic former train station. Our tour also looked at other historic buildings—several of them restored and repurposed—contributing to the overall character of the central business, fully located within the boundaries of the Wilkinsburg Historic National Register-Listed Historic District, which was prepared and nominated by our organization.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride.

www.phlf.org

A group of students from Shady Side Academy's immersive program titled “From Troy to Troy Hill: Mythology from Ancient Greece to Local Legends” joined us to explore Downtown's architectural history as a part of their class' activities.

The immersive program explores how Ancient Greek ideas and myths have informed culture over time, and through their exploration of Downtown's storied architectural landscape, they were able to see the exceptional spaces and buildings featured on our Downtown's Best tour, which reveal not only the long heritage of ancient architectural ideas, but also the larger-than-life modern titans who created our city.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

"Every first and third Monday, visitors can pass under a granite archway on Ross Street — part of the original 1880s prison complex — then through security at Allegheny County’s family court building. Renovated in 2001 into the Court of Common Pleas’ Family Division, the courthouse still contains remnants of its former life as a jail, preserved today as a museum. Walking in, you can still see the contours of its original five-story rotunda, designed for maximum surveillance, where the radiating steel cell blocks once converged."

Get a rare look inside the Old Allegheny County Jail Museum For just three hours each month, the doors of the Old Allegheny County Jail Museum swing open. Every first and third Monday, visitors can pass under a granite archway on Ross Street — part of the original 1880s prison complex — then through security at Allegheny County’s family cou...

Earlier today, we explored the historic Allegheny West neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side in a private group tour for members of the Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh (RAMP).

Known for its variety of Victorian architectural styles — Colonial Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, Italianate, Second Empire, and Greek Revival — Allegheny West is one of the city’s smallest neighborhoods.

Its streets are lined with distinctive houses that highlight that story of a neighborhood that was possibly one of the most affluent places in Pittsburgh during its industrial heyday.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride.

www.phlf.org