New Book Releases

Pittsburgh has long been in the forefront of developing sports facilities, from Forbes Field, one of the first “modern” concrete and steel ballparks, and PNC Park, the best of the new millennium’s retro design movement, to Schenley Casino and Duquesne Garden, the first artificial indoor ice rinks, and the engineering marvel of the Civic Arena’s movable dome. Pittsburgh’s Historic Stadiums and Arenas chronicles Pittsburgh’s professional baseball, football, hockey, and basketball venues. Photographs cover the design and construction phases, the major changes as facilities expanded and aged, and eventually the demolition of some venues. The great players, teams, and moments are not the focus; there are many other books to tell their stories. Instead, the stadiums and arenas take center stage in this unique history of Pittsburgh sports and architecture.

In 1825, the Schuylkill Navigation Company completed a waterway of 108 miles, linking Port Carbon to Philadelphia. The waterway, known as the Schuylkill Navigation but commonly referred to today as the Schuylkill Canal, consisted of a system of interconnected canals (often called reaches), locks, and slack-water pools to transport anthracite coal. Before that time, Philadelphia depended on the import of coal from Europe. The Schuylkill Canal was operational until 1931, around the time of the collapse of commercial traffic in the navigation. Only two watered stretches of the canal remain today: the approximately 2.5 miles of the original 3.5 miles of Oakes Reach between Oaks and Mont Clare and the one-mile reach in Manayunk. While these areas are no longer used for navigation, they are enjoyed recreationally by many in the surrounding communities.

The Scottish Rite Cathedral, easily the most prominent edifice in Lawrence County, overlooks the city below and consummated the dream of 6,000 dedicated Masons in 1925. Home to nearly a dozen Masonic organizations, the building contained the largest stage between New York and Chicago and the earliest cantilevered balcony in Pennsylvania. The 2,800-seat auditorium hosted notable performers like Johnny Cash, Benny Goodman, Reba McEntire, Jerry Seinfeld, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Its kitchen and dining rooms served meals to more than 1,800 at various times. Unbelievably, the construction of the Scottish Rite Cathedral required 2,000,000 common bricks and 600,000 face bricks, and the insurance company appraised the building at a replacement value of more than $65 million.