Downtown
The Pennsylvanian
Former Penn Station, Liberty Avenue
The Pennsylvanian, at 1100 Liberty Avenue, is the third railroad station on that piece of ground. The first depot burned in the railroad riots of 1877, and a shed was put up in its place. Alexander Cassatt, for the Pennsylvania Railroad, then hired Daniel Burnham. The station that followed was built from 1898 into 1903, gray-brown terra cotta and brick, Beaux-Arts, with a rotunda on the street and twelve stories over the waiting room. Trains began to use it on 12 October 1901. Up in the rotunda the old spelling is still cut in the stone: Pittsburg, without the final h. The upper floors were the railroad’s hotel.
In 1966 the railroad announced it would tear the station down. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation stopped the demolition. The rotunda was listed on the National Register in 1973, and the whole building in 1976. Restoration began in 1986. On 23 May 1988 the office floors opened as apartments, 241 of them, under the name the Pennsylvanian. Amtrak remained, in a smaller station at the back. The old waiting room is no longer open to the public.
Tenants describe a heavy presence in the corridors. It has no name, and no death in the public record is tied to one room.
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