Pittsburgh's lost treasures

[PghUSA]

Three Rivers Stadium 1970-2000

Westinghouse Nuclear Labs:

Ohio River Helipad weighing 550 tons it was once the largest commercial structure of its kind in the world!

800 room Fort Pitt Hotel:

Interior of Fort Pitt Hotel:

[PghUSA]

Syrian Mosque in the University District one of the cities earliest concert spots:

Jekins Arcade downtown (now the site of 5th Avenue Place Skyscraper)

[urban addict 20324]

Too bad these historical structures only exist in pictures today, the Fort Pitt hotel and the Syrian Mosque were nice, old structures.

[PghUSA]

^^ true they all met thier demise though in ways that were growing pains for the city, sometimes they are just too old and too small to really have a function in a 21st century metroplex. I know when they tore down the old Syrian Mosque there were HOWLS of protest it was where the Beatles and Bob Dylan and many others first played in Pittsburgh, but alas it was getting too small, not adhering to the new laws on handicap access, promoters thought it was becoming a fire trap etc. etc. etc. It was a grand old house.

MOST interesting piece of its exterior were the "sunbathing" lions by the front door steps if you look closely you can see them there, I'll try to find a close up shot, those were Pittsburgh landmarks for a long time!

[urban addict 20324]

Yea, I would like some pics, thanks!

[urbanophile]

Its interesting how many of the roads in downtown Pittsburgh (e.g., see the Ft. Pitt Hotel photo) were once 4 lanes one way. I believe that's Penn Ave. in the picture. Now its just three lanes (2 one way and one the other way). I wonder what happened. I guess they made each of the lanes wider.

[urbanophile]

The Ohio River Helipad actually looks like its on the Monogahela (witness the Smithfield Street Bridge in the background).

[PghUSA]

^^ looks like that . . . site I think said Ohio looks to be around Stanwix or Market on the Mon . . . oh well just about 500 or 1000 feet from the Ohio.

As for Penn Avenue, I would agree that is Penn and not the cross street (10th if I'm correct) hard to tell the angles on these. Looks like maybe they sacraficed one lane for parking or indeed widened them. Good observations

[PghUSA]

I see www.savethebuhl.org went down and killed my image hotlinks . . . but I did find a super site for a lot of vintage Pittsburgh:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~njm1/04ppc1.html

[Death To Johnstown]

Hopefully, Mellon Arena makes this list in the near future...

[PghUSA]

Found this great site on the Old Pittsburgh Airport Terminal a building that at first thought one would believe to be the tiny home of the airport (thus the need for the new terminal) but in fact it was the largest terminal in the country when it was completed in 1952, and for decades was referred to as the "Taj Mahal" of Airports by both visitors, piolets and native Pittsburghers.

http://oldterminals.topcities.com/pittsburgh.html