Music Building (University of Pittsburgh)

The Music Building is an academic building of the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and a contributing property

Contributing property

In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...

to the Schenley Farms National Historic District

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

. The original mansion was designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow

Longfellow, Alden & Harlow

Longfellow, Alden & Harlow , of Boston, Massachusetts, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was the architectural firm of Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. , Frank Ellis Alden , and Alfred Branch Harlow . The firm, successors to H. H...

as a sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

Richardsonian Romanesque

Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...

mansion in 1884. The mansion was commissioned by Carrie T. Holland, youngest daughter of pioneer Pittsburgh iron manufacturer James K. Moorehead, as a gift for her husband William Jacob Holland

William Jacob Holland

William Jacob Holland was the eighth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. He was an accomplished zoologist and paleontologist, as well as an ordained Presbyterian minister.-Life:Holland was born August 16, 1848 in Jamaica, West Indies, the...

, pastor of Bellefield Presbyterian Church at Fifth and Bellefield avenues in the Oakland

Oakland (Pittsburgh)

Oakland is the academic, cultural, and healthcare center of Pittsburgh and is Pennsylvania's third largest "Downtown". Only Center City Philadelphia and Downtown Pittsburgh can claim more economic and social activity than Oakland...

section of Pittsburgh. William Jacob Holland

William Jacob Holland

was also a nationally recognized zoologist, paleontologist, and entomologist and went on to become a trustee (1886) and then chancellor (1891-1901) of the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

, then called the Western University of Pennsylvania.

The Holland's house sat across the street from Holland's church, Bellefield Presbyterian, a wooden structure that was replaced by a stone Richardsonian Romanesque structure designed by Frederick J. Osterling

Frederick J. Osterling

Frederick John Osterling was an American architect, practicing in Pittsburgh from 1888....

in 1890 that matched his house. The Hollands sold their house some time before 1912. It became a Knights of Columbus

Knights of Columbus

The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....

club before being purchased in 1936 by Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company

PPG Industries

PPG Industries is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, specialty materials, chemicals, glass and fiber glass. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2010 were $13.4 billion...

for laboratory operations of its subsidiary, Columbia-Southern Chemical Corporation. Pittsburgh Plate Glass donated the building to the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

in 1953 in order for the university to establish it as the home for the city's first educational television station, WQED

WQED (TV)

WQED is a Public Broadcasting Service member Public television station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Established April 1, 1954, it was the first community-sponsored television station in the United States as well as the fifth public TV station...

. The building therefore became the original home of the Public Broadcasting Service

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

station, and the original production site of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, before becoming the home of Pitt's music department.

A one-story addition was added presumably in the 1920s which was given a Richardsonian Romanesque stone facing , estimated to have been added in the 1950s, that matched the original house. The Music Building was renovated in 2003 which included the installation of elevators. It also houses the Music Department Library, a piano lab, the electronic music studio, the ethnomusicology lab, a student/faculty lounge, practice rooms, teaching studios, offices, seminar rooms, and classrooms. It also contains the William Russell Robinson

William Russell Robinson

William Russell "Bill" Robinson is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.Robinson is a 1960 graduate of Schenley High School. He earned a degree in political science from The Ohio State University in 1964 and a master's degree degree in political science from...

Recording Studio that is a 32-track digital recording facility which offer students hands-on experience in the latest recording techniques and technology.

In 1967, the Bellefield Presbyterian Church merged with and moved to the First United Presbyterian Church at Fifth and Thackeray, which adopted its name. The old church was dismantled in 1985 except for its tower, which still stands.

Library

The Theodore M. Finney Music Library is located in the basement of the Music Building and contains a general music research collection as well as several collections of important musical materials. The library's holdings include approximately 65,000 music scores and books, 25,000 sound recordings, 1,500 microforms, and 150 journals. Collections include Early American hymnals and tunebooks, volumes of sheet music with regional significance, seventeenth and eighteenth century prints of English sacred and secular works, and music belonging to the late William Steinberg

William Steinberg

William Steinberg was a German-American conductor.- Biography :Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, conducting his own choral/ orchestral composition at age 13...

and Fidelis Zitterbart.

External links

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