{"nrhp_refnum":"77001121","name":"East Liberty Market","other_names":["Motor Square Garden"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Centre Ave. and Baum Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.45992387300004,"lon":-79.92732628999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-12-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story brick market shed in East Liberty, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, built as the Motor Square Garden market and later used as a sports arena, trade show space and automobile showroom.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that it is one of two surviving market sheds in Pittsburgh and a rare architectural form locally and nationally. It was designed by Peabody and Stearns of Boston, the firm's largest commission in Pittsburgh, and its Beaux Arts classical form with a large central dome gives it visual value in an area that has been heavily redeveloped.","narrative":"Motor Square Garden is a one-story brick market shed in East Liberty, Pittsburgh, completed in 1900 and designed by the Boston firm Peabody and Stearns. Its plan is a grid of gabled modular units, three by five, each with a six-light arched window framed by an archivolt of polychrome brick headers and queen closers. Colossal pilasters separate the bays, and a large circular dome of timber, metal and glass rises on an octagonal drum at the center of the roof. The building is about 200 feet square. It served as a market until 1915, when it was converted into a sports arena, and it later hosted trade shows. The interior has been subdivided over time, but the exterior is largely unchanged. The building is regarded as a rare surviving form in Pittsburgh, one of two remaining market sheds in the city, and as a landmark of the East Liberty district. Peabody and Stearns' work here was their largest commission in the city.","period_of_significance":"1898","architect_builder":"Peabody & Stearns (architects)","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts tradition with Roman classical elements","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Now an automobile showroom; the exterior is described as not much changed while the interior has been subdivided.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.656752-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/77001121.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001121/398ad8b124-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001121/398ad8b124-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Lee Paxton","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EastLibertyMarket.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Lee Paxton</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EastLibertyMarket.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997700","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Square_Garden","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12062087"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/east-liberty-market-77001121/"}