Allegheny Commons - City of Pittsburgh

United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration FormNPS Form 10900 OMB No. 10240018 (Expires 5/31/2012)Allegheny CommonsName of PropertyAllegheny County, PACounty and StateNational Register Bulletin 22, “Guidelines for Evaluating and Nominating Properties That Have Achieved SignificanceWithin the Past 50 Years,” acknowledges that the 50 year period “was not designed to be applied mechanically on a yearby-yearbasis… but rather in periods of time which can logically be examined together.” Events relating to the urbanrenewal of cities during the 1950s and 1960s, and to the modern theories and practices of urban design, architecture, andlandscape design associated with urban renewal, represent such a period.Urban renewal was pioneered in downtown Pittsburgh during the 1940s and 50s, and planners soon adapted its methodsto other downtowns and neighborhoods nationwide. Open space planning was an important tenet of urban renewal,which sought in part to reduce density and congestion and to provide plentiful green space for residents of urban areas.The features added to Allegheny Commons during the North Side’s urban renewal have integrity and contributesignificantly to Allegheny Commons’ present character, which embodies a continuum of park planning and landscapedesign from the 1860s to the 1960s. Moreover, the park’s modern features are integral to Allegheny Commons and tounderstanding the park’s full historic context. Park features added during the 1960s underscore the importance of openspace planning to the urban renewal planners who sought to reverse the North Side’s decline in that decade, as well asthe link between such planning and the structural, functional language of modern landscape design. The fact that theplanners sought to work within the existing Allegheny Commons landscape, even as they drastically altered the cityscapeof the North Side, also demonstrates a prescient recognition of the enduring importance of this resource to the historicand modern city in which it is located.Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level of significance andapplicable criteria.)Allegheny Commons is significant under National Register Criterion A in the area of Community Planning andDevelopment and under Criterion C in the area of Landscape Architecture. With a period of significance extending from1868 to 1967, Allegheny Commons is the oldest public park in Pittsburgh, the city’s only formal urban park, and one of thefirst public parks developed west of the Allegheny Mountains. As such, Allegheny Commons embodies the distinctivecharacteristics of a sequence of movements in landscape design and urban park development from the 1860s to the1960s, both as they emerged nationally and as they were adopted locally in Pittsburgh. Its character as a large parklocated in the center of a dense urban setting derives from the fact that the land was set aside for common grazingpasture when the once-independent town of Allegheny was surveyed in 1788. As Allegheny urbanized in the mid-19 thcentury, the commons became derelict and disused, until its citizens pressed for it to be transformed into a public park. Inthis, Allegheny followed the lead of other cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, which were then developingelaborate public parks in which their citizens could seek respite from industrial pollution and urban overcrowding, and ledthe Pittsburgh region in public open space planning. The park was designed by the firm of Mitchell and Grant in 1867utilizing a combination of formal, classical planning and picturesque landscape design which was ideally suited to itsunique site. Over the ensuing 100 years, Allegheny Commons retained many of the character-defining features of itsoriginal design, while accommodating an increasing emphasis on recreational activities in the early 20th century as wellas elements of modern landscape design added pursuant to park planning campaigns in the 1930s and the 1960s.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Narrative Statement of Significance (Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.)Allegheny Commons meets National Register Criterion A in the area of community planning and developmentand Criterion C in the area of landscape architecture. In terms of community planning and development,Allegheny Commons was at the forefront of urban park planning in the Pittsburgh region throughout its history.Founded as a park soon after the establishment of New York’s Central Park and Philadelphia’s FairmountPark, Allegheny Commons was significantly associated with the planning ideals that made parks a vital part ofthe urban environment. Allegheny Commons was originally designed as a passive, ornamental Victorian park,but as ideals of park use and design changed over time, Allegheny Commons’s planners upgraded the park tomeet them. In the early 20th century, the park’s planners altered the park to emphasize active recreation inresponse to the playground movement of the 1890s. During the 1930s, Pittsburgh city planners undertookfurther improvements in response to current planning ideals, making use of Federal works programs toaccomplish these changes. Finally, as cities re-imagined themselves through urban renewal in the post-WorldWar II period, the park’s planners re-imagined and renewed Allegheny Commons. In terms of landscapearchitecture, Allegheny Commons clearly embodies the distinctive characteristics of landscape design as it hasevolved over time, from passive designed landscapes in the 19th century to active recreational facilities in theearly 20th century to modern design in the postwar period. The period of significance is 1868-1967, from the14