Leanna McMahon holds a photo of the cathedral at Pittsburgh.

Leanna McMahon presented her paper to the Shakespeare Club on “The Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Memorial Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh Campus.”

In 1787 the Pittsburgh Academy obtained a charter and began classes in a one room log cabin in what is now downtown Pittsburgh. In the first decade of the 20th century the academy became the University of Pittsburgh and moved to Oakland, east of downtown.

At the end of World War I the University, in debt and in need of revitalization, hired Dr. John Bowman as chancellor. He dedicated himself to modernizing the University by arranging to build a powerful Gothic tower, saying of the project, “It was to be more than a schoolhouse; it was to be a symbol of the life that Pittsburgh through the years had wanted to live. It was to make visible something of the spirit that was in the hearts of pioneers, as, long ago, they sat in their log cabins and thought by candlelight of the great city that would sometime spread out beyond their three rivers and that even they were starting to build.”

The Cathedral of Learning, as the building has come to be called, was designed by Charles Klauder. Construction was begun in 1926 and largely completed in 1937, although interior finishing continued over the course of several decades, even as offices and classrooms were in use.

The Cathedral is 31 stories tall, standing 450 feet high. The Commons Room one encounters when passing through the massive entry doors is five stories high and is supported by Gothic arches.

The walls and columns are decorated with intricate stonework. Around the perimeter of the Commons room are most of the 31 Nationality rooms, each one designed, furnished and financed by one of the many ethnic groups who came to Pittsburgh to work in the steel mills and build the great industrial city.

Near the Cathedral is Heinz Memorial Chapel, also designed by Charles Klauder and financed by the H.J. Heinz family. The chapel is constructed in the same Gothic style as the Cathedral and is known for its 23 stained glass windows, designed by Charles Connick, known as the greatest stained glass artist of his time. The four transept windows, each 73′ high, are some of the tallest stained glass windows in the world. They each contain representations of nine women and nine men, both sacred and secular.

Within the same block is the Stephen Foster Memorial, housing two small theaters and a Stephen Foster museum. Finally, alongside these impressive stone structures there is now a one room log cabin, built for the University’s bicentennial in 1987, to represent the log cabin which housed the original Pittsburgh Academy.

Just across the avenue are the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Carnegie Music Hall. A short walk beyond is the beautiful Phipps Conservatory.

These treasures are just a little more than a three-hour drive from Chautauqua County and they are well worth a weekend’s exploration.