Mellon Park – A Step Back Into The Gilded Age
MELLON PARK AMENITIES
Playgrounds
Sports Fields
Spray Park
Tennis Bubble
Arts Programming
Historical Gardens
In 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Richard K. Mellon and his sister Sarah Mellon Scaife offered the City of Pittsburgh the Mellon estate as a public park.
In June of the following year, City Council formally accepted the offer of the 10 or 11-acre plot of ground along Fifth Avenue. The park was donated in memory of Richard Beatty Mellon and his wife Jennie King Mellon. The park opened in the spring of 1944.
That same year the adjacent C. D. Marshall property, which includes the mansion at Fifth Avenue, was offered to the city as an addition to the park.
The Mellon Park Walled Garden allows you to step back into the gilded age. The Garden was part of the original Mellon Estate and served as their “back yard”. The plantings - many of which are original hardscapes – feature flowering trees, shrubs, and perennials. The Garden’s Japanese Stewarita tree is not native to our area.
The Walled Garden can be rented for events and weddings through the Department of Public Works: https://pittsburghpa.gov/park-shelter/reserve
DISCOVERING A GARDEN OF DELIGHTS AT THE WALLED GARDEN IN MELLON PARK
PODCAST: https://pittsburghparks.org/podcast/#episode-four
The Marshall Mansion was gifted to the City of Pittsburgh by Mr. & Mrs. Charles Marshall. The Marshall family deeded the home with the desire that it would forever be a home to free art for the public.
For many years, the notable yellow mansion at the corner of Fifth and Shady Avenues was the home of the Pittsburg Center for the Arts. Currently, CitiParks Community Enrichment programs the space for the community.
The Mellon Park Tennis Center is located at Fifth Avenue and Beechwood Boulevard. The air conditioned “bubble” features a state-of-the-art playing surface, showers, and other amenities.
More information and hours are available here: https://pittsburghpa.gov/citiparks/tennis-mellon-center
Pittsburgh Filmmakers was founded in 1971 and is a private, nonprofit corporation designed to encourage the creation and understanding of media and still photography for noncommercial artistic and literary purposes.
Founded in 1945, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is a non-profit community arts campus that offers arts education programs and contemporary art exhibitions, providing services and resources for individual artists throughout Western Pennsylvania. The Center is where the community can create, see, support, and learn about visual arts.
Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts merged as a single cultural organization in 2006.
The organization leases the Scaife Mansion from the City of Pittsburgh in historic Mellon Park.
Located inside a historic former carriage house in Mellon Park, the Garden Center was established in 1948 as a site for groups to meet and to cultivate botanical knowledge, inspire creative minds and spread the joy of gardening.
In 2001, Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens became the stewards of the Garden Center and are planning a large scale renovation in cooperation with the Department of Public Works and CitiParks.
Phipps Garden Center
1059 Shady Avenue
Monday – Friday
11 Am – 4 PM
(412) - 441- 4442
This Gothic inspired fountain was part of an elaborate renaissance garden design by the firm of Vitale and Geffert. Three bronze maidens, also by artist Edmund Amateis, once stood in niches at the rear wall of the garden and can now be seen in the gardens of Phipps Conservatory.
The fountain was recently restored by the Department of Public Works and the Parks Conservancy. For the first time in years, it is fully operational.
The installation of 150 “stars” embedded in the lawn of Mellon Park’s Walled Garden serves as a memorial to Ann Katherine Seamans.
Representing the brightest objects in the sky, the pattern of lights recreates the night sky over Pittsburgh at the moment of Ann’s birth on November 20, 1979. A short phrase engraved on the stone marker surrounding each light, giving a clued to a scientific, historical, or mythological aspect of the celestial body it represents.
The forms that Calaboyias used to create his composition are inspired by ancient Greek stelae, or cylindrical stone markers that were inscribed with words or carvings. Like much of the artist work, it unites his cultural heritage with a mid-century minimalist sensibility.
The sculpture was originally commission for the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill. In 2010, the artist entirely re-created the original work as a part of a City of Pittsburgh conservation program. funded by the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
During the early days of Thomas Morandi’s career the massive bulk of this piece combined with gentle curvature is typical of his work at the time. Morandi drew inspiration for this piece from the landscape of eastern Oregon where he was working as a college professor.
The sculpture was originally commission for the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill. In 2010, the artist entirely re-created the original work as a part of a City of Pittsburgh conservation program. funded by the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
At 17 feet tall and weigh in 3.5 tons, this is the largest were created by Aaronel dearly Gruber. The rounded circle was a signature motif of this prolific local artist.
Originally designed for the Portico of Pittsburgh’s Sear of Government - the City-County Building - it had to be relocated due to the effects of its immense weight on the Portico floor.
It was then moved to a spot on Fort Duquesne Boulevard before undergoing restoration and being placed in Mellon Park. Gruber gave her consent to the new location shortly before her death at the age of 92.
Forbes Road, established in 1758 by Brigadier-General John Forbes in a military expedition, one stretched hundreds of miles through the Pennsylvania forest to Fort Duquesne at what is now Point State Park.
After an oak tree which is growing alongside this route was cut down in 1907, a memorial was created in the shape of the tree’s stump.
For South Shore Riverfront Park
