Schenley Farms Historic District (Additional Documentation)

Schenley Farms is a planned district in Oakland, Pittsburgh, laid out by developer F. F. Nicola after he bought the former Schenley tract in 1905 for $2,500,000. The tract had been leased rather than sold for decades, which kept it open and pastoral until then. Nicola combined a residential enclave of terraced houses, named for British and American literary figures such as Ruskin, Tennyson and Parkman, with a monumental civic complex. A wide boulevard, Bigelow Boulevard, separates the two areas. Houses were designed by prominent local architects in revival styles, and the district was built up mostly between 1906 and the 1930s. Its civic buildings include the Carnegie Institute, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, and the Cathedral of Learning. The district is significant for its architecture and for its early attempt to plan a mixed urban and suburban area under City Beautiful principles.