Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Cathedral of Learning
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Croghan-Schenley Ballroom=== [[Image:CoL Croghan-Schenley Ballroom.jpg|left|thumb|Croghan-Schenley Ballroom in the Cathedral of Learning]] The Croghan-Schenley room, situated on the first floor of the Cathedral in room 156, is actually two adjoining [[Greek Revival]] rooms, the Ballroom and the Oval Room, connected by a hidden passageway in the Ballroom's fireplace. The rooms were originally part of William Croghan Jr.'s mansion, known as the Picnic House, built in 1830 in the [[Stanton Heights]] area of Pittsburgh. The rooms themselves were created in 1835 by the Philadelphia carver Mordecai Van Horn, and they have been regarded as being among the most lavish examples of Greek Revival designs in America.<ref name="TokerNewPortrait"/> His daughter, [[Mary Schenley|Mary Elizabeth]], went to boarding school in New York, but in 1842 at the age of fifteen she eloped with 43-year-old Edward Wyndham Harrington Schenley, a captain in the British military. The elopement caused a family schism. Mary would not visit often, and in an effort to convince her to move back to Pittsburgh, the new rooms were commissioned. Following the death of William Croghan in 1850, the mansion was run by caretakers with no permanent residents for some 60 years. William S. Miller, then president of Steelwood Corp., purchased the Croghan mansion following [[World War II]] and it was soon leveled for a new housing development, but the Croghan-Schenley rooms were spared.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA122|title=Life Visits a Haunted House|magazine=LIFE|pages=122–125|date=June 11, 1945|access-date=May 26, 2014}}</ref> In 1955, the rooms, donated by Miller, were dismantled and rebuilt in the cathedral, except that the original ceilings had to be lowered about 8 inches to accommodate the available space. In 1982, the rooms were refurbished to their 19th century glory. Highlighting the ballroom are the hand-cut glass chandelier and four wooden, hand-carved Greek columns, surviving examples of western Pennsylvania's Greek classical revival period popular with those of means in the 1830s. The Croghan-Schenley rooms are the last extant vestiges of the estate of [[Mary Schenley]], who before she died gave much of her holdings and property to the city of Pittsburgh—including Schenley farms, where the Cathedral sits, and [[Schenley Park]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/u/FMPro?-db%3Dustory%26-lay%3Da%26-format%3Dd.html%26storyid%3D1676%26-Find |title=Secrets of the Cathedral: The Commons Room |website=mac10.umc.pitt.edu |publisher=[[University Times]] (University of Pittsburgh) |access-date=June 9, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070720050412/http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/u/FMPro?-db=ustory&-lay=a&-format=d.html&storyid=1676&-Find |archive-date=July 20, 2007 }}</ref> [[Image:CathedralLecture324.jpg|right|thumb|The Frick Auditorium]] Stories tell of a ghost, speculated to be that of Mary Schenley, that is said to roam the Ballroom and Nationality Rooms. The doors to the rooms are locked every night, but furniture is sometimes said to be found rearranged by daylight staff. The swinging of the chandelier has been said to indicate her presence.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://pittnews.com/newsstory/could-your-university-be-full-of-spooky-spirits/|title=Could your University be full of spooky spirits?|first=Greg|last=Heller-LaBelle|date=May 11, 2006|newspaper=The Pitt News|location=Pittsburgh, PA|access-date=August 1, 2011}}</ref><ref name="haunt">{{cite web|url=http://hauntsandhistory.googlepages.com/threerivershauntsandhistoryc|title=Three Rivers Haunts & History|page=8|access-date=November 25, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09060/952235-109.stm|first=Gene|last=Scott|title=The Next Page: Mansion of Ironies|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|location=Pittsburgh, PA|date=March 1, 2009|access-date=August 1, 2011}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)