Clipping of a 1892 Schenley Riding Academy advertisement. The Bulletin volume 18 clipping courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh, the Digital Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

Schenley Riding Academy occupied much of the land at the corner of Neville and Bayard Streets with stables, a riding ring, and other facilities during the nineteenth century. Many of Pittsburgh’s most prominent citizens were members and kept their horses at the academy. In addition, Schenley Riding Academy was a favorite place to rent horses for riding in nearby Schenley Park.

1911 Platt Map, Plate 1 showing a detail of Shadyside. Centre Avenue is along the top edge, Neville Street is along the left edge, and Amberson Avenue is along the right edge. Schenley Riding Academy is the bright yellow patch on the south side of Bayard Street about midway between Neville and Devonshire Streets. The stables take up less land than during the nineteenth century but still exist. Map courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh, the Digital Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

The growth of Pittsburgh into and around the suburb of Shadyside along with the rising value of land during the early twentieth century chipped away at the amount of land devoted to Schenley Riding Academy (see the 1911 map above). The horseless carriage ultimately led to its closure and development into Bayard Place (see the 1923 map below). The map doesn’t show houses built yet but the lots around Bayard Place are clearly spoken for!

1923 Platt Map, Plate 1a showing a detail of Shadyside and especially Bayard Place just off Bayard Street (a bit left of center). The homes on Bayard Place were built on top of what was Schenley Riding Academy. Map courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh, the Digital Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

Schenley Riding Academy was a hub of Shadyside activity and a core ingredient in the East End social scene for many decades before it closed.

View looking east from Schenley Farms across Shadyside c.1911. Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

The above image has detailed views of early development in the Schenley Farms neighborhood of Oakland and is the leftmost image of a pentaptych (five photograph) view of Pittsburgh’s East End around 1911. I saw it a couple of days ago just after lamenting that I only know of one old image of Wallingford Street in Shadyside (please see my June 16, 2017 post “Wallingford Street and the Hunt for Early Shadyside Images”). It occurred to me that Wallingford Street is somewhere in this photograph.

Please don’t try to zoom in on the above image to see details! The Library of Congress provides online access to a huge very high resolution file (158.4 MB). Too large to post as an image on a webpage. I’ll do some zooming for you below and then I’ll tell you the exact place to get this and the other four images should you like to explore them yourself.

Annotated view looking east from Schenley Farms across Shadyside c.1911. The right arrow points to Bayard Street. The left arrow points to Wallingford Street. Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

First let’s get oriented by pointing out a couple of streets and buildings. Above is an identical image but with two black arrows. The right arrow points to Bayard Street. If you follow Bayard to the large structure standing in Schenley Farms, you’ll find a building just behind this structure and to the right of Bayard. This is the D’Arlington Apartments building (still standing) built during 1909 and 1910 (in a moment you’ll see a close-up). The left arrow points to Wallingford Street. Don’t worry. At this resolution you cannot see the street well but you will when we look at the close-up. Notice the dark shape, almost like the profile of a stuffed chair, to the right of the arrow’s stem. That is Shadyside Hospital. Harder to see are the small dark and then light rectangles at about 2-O-Clock from Shadyside Hospital. The dark rectangle to the left was East End Savings Building (demolished). The white rectangle was the Highland Building (still standing).

View looking east from Schenley Farms c.1911. Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

The image above zooms into the Shadyside neighborhood around Bayard (right) and Wallingford (left) Streets, starting at Neville Street which is hidden behind the buildings parallel with the bottom edge. The D’Arlington Apartments building is at the bottom right corner. Shadyside Hospital, a homeopathic hospital at the time, is more visible as are the East End Savings (darker tower at left) and Highland (white tower at right) Buildings in East Liberty.

View of Wallingford Street from Neville Street to Morewood Avenue. Detail from image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

Finally, the above detail focuses on Wallingford Street. Depth is significantly collapsed but I’m able to pick out the individual houses. Can those of you living on Wallingford see your house? Those interested in more detail may download a higher resolution file containing the same image (1.1 MB).

Those wanting to explore further may find the full pentaptych on the Library of Congress webpage Schenley Park and Vicinity, Pittsburgh PA. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you have old photographs to share!

Construction extending Devonshire Street between Wallingford Street and Centre Avenue on May 2, 1913. Image courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh, the Digital Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

Yesterday a Wallingford Street neighbor asked me about old images of their house. Old is relative but I typically think of old as about 100 years or more and getting old images of Shadyside is typically difficult. Until the second decade of the twentieth century Shadyside was a private suburb. Early images were made or commissioned by families that owned the large estates existing in Shadyside from around 1860 to the early 1900s.

1911 Platt Map, Plate 1 showing a detail of Shadyside. Centre Avenue is along the top edge. Wallingford Street is parallel to the bottom edge. Devonshire Street meets Wallingford Street at bottom left of center. Map courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh, the Digital Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

The old photograph above, taken May 2, 1913,  is the only one of Wallingford Street that I know of. The photographer stood on Devonshire Street just south of its intersection with Wallingford Street, right about where the 50 is in the map detail shown at right.

A city photographer took this image to document the Devonshire Street expansion. Before the 1910s streets in Shadyside were private. The relatively prolific documentation of Shadyside by city photographers started as Shadyside transformed from suburb to city neighborhood during the 1910s and 1920s.

Please contact me if you or someone you know have old photographs of Shadyside. It’s not necessary to give them up! High resolution scans are all that are needed for research on Shadyside’s history.