The marble came from the long-gone Richard B. Mellon mansion in Squirrel Hill. The 65-room mansion of Richard B. Mellon, brother of Andrew Mellon, built at 6500 Fifth Avenue in 1910: The Richard B. Mellons raised two children in that "house," which included a bowling alley in the basement and a carriage house. By the end of the century, the Mellon Bank was the largest banking institution in the country outside of New York, An old piano left at the home. Richard B. Mellon's mansion is believed to have had 60-65 rooms, the caretaker of 10 years said he never counted the rooms to know the exact number! It would be lovely to curl up with those books to see what she collected, to learn what held her interest and curiosity. On January 2, 1870, he opened the T. Mellon & Sons' Bank with his sons Andrew W. and Richard B.Mellon, William Larimer and Sparkes, Boyden, , 1948. Their wedding trip made quite an impression on Thomas, though, who states that neither of them had hitherto traveled much (Sarah Jane previously having been on a "boat excursion with some friends" to Louisville). Sarah Jane didn't make a marriage of passion. later write a dry, clinical appraisal of Sarah Jane's charms and their The rest of the Mellon entry describes two of her daughters-in-law. At some point in my childhood, I learned that the Mellon family had established one of my favorite places on earth: Idlewild Park. Conflicting stories exist as to where Sarah Jane's grandparents Alexander and his wife were buried. From Troy Hill, a subsequent closing in 1888 meant the poor souls were re-interred one more time, to the Smithfield East End Cemetery in Squirrel Hill, now maintained by Homewood Cemetery. It wasn't. The B.B. The Richard King Mellon Foundation's $30 million commitment in advanced and additive manufacturing at CMU builds on its previous philanthropic supportin this area and allows the university to expand its work through the Manufacturing Futures Institute (MFI). [volume] (Nome, Alaska) 1938-??? Instead, take heed of this: a monument to one woman's love of family, and her desire to honor the past. Everything was velvety, expensive, plush, posh, polished, hand-painted and eminently BREAKABLE. Been waiting for this to open, congratulations #MarkHolden of Blend Cigar Bar Richard Mellon Scaife, the Pittsburgh philanthropist and reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune, whose support for right-wing causes laid the foundations for America's modern. It is possible to sponsor a star and make a donation. came to visit, but it was not her home. According to the blog Beyond the Gilded Age, the 104-room mansion was designed by Little and Browne. A direct line of correlation can be drawn from kid-me peering through windows into a miniature Mellon world in 1969, to adult-me reading articles and biographies about the family. Powered by. Yet she believed strongly in the preservation of her childhood home, Clayton, and left it to the public in her will. It was still in good enough repair then to conjure my mother's memories of the park as a chic working-girl gathering place from earlier decades. Peggy Hitchcock participated in Leary's early psychedelic experiments. The church that Richard B. Mellon built, East Liberty Presbyterian, became one of several targets of protests by the controversial Denominational Ministry Strategy (DMS). remember Sarah Jane by. This is a contemporary craft festival with a small concert. Yes!! The mansion was acquired by the congregation of Temple Sinai in 1946 and still serves as a synagogue today. Married life of Sarah Mellon The gates surrounding Eagle Rock were also transported to Clayton and now border the parking lot. A few years later, they moved nearly next door into a home Mrs. Negley gifted them. She was by all accounts a pleasant, dutiful mother and grandmother, but not a doting one. Poor Andrew remained "It" for four years until he died. It is unfortunate that such an opportunity has been taken away from us. And then there are drugs. Send Report . The ornate tiled pathway leading to the front door and the front garden are both in a state of disrepair, with palm trees leaning to the side. The Marshall property was added in 1944, and the Frew and Darsie properties, east of the Mellon . Mellon Square dedication, October 18, 1955. [1], The Walled Garden is surrounded by walls of brick and limestone and is one of Gothic design. Even as I half-remembered old jokes about the haunted grove in the park, I was haunted by other musings. Multimillionaire Richard B. Mellon and his brother Andrew had a game of Tag going. In 1911 the architectural firm of Alden and Harlow designed the terraced gardens just below the mansion. The day after my tour, I was reading a book about art collecting in Pittsburgh during the Gilded Age when I stumbled upon something that, as our columnist Rick Sebak would say, isn't there anymore. The couple moved back in with the widowed Mrs. Negley when Sarah was pregnant with their first child in 1844. She and her older brother, Richard King Mellon, grew up at their parents' 60-room Fifth Avenue mansion (apparently at the time the largest house in Pittsburgh) in what became the city's wonderful Mellon Park after the house was . Only the stone gateposts remain from the Mellon home, However, he himself bankrolled an extensive black-market LSD manufacturing and distribution operation from the West Coast. Richard Beatty Mellon Mansion The 65-room R.B. Honoring family and accomplishments mattered. When it was all delivered, Saint Peters had what amounted to a stone quarry in their back yard, together with thirty tons of steel beams, sixty-five oak doors, and all the other innumerable items concomitant with the wrecking of a sixty-five room house. And then there was the Great Depression, the event that eliminated much of the remaining wealth of the Robber Barons. Richard A. Mellon, 56, was unanimously selected by the Boards of both Foundations. Facing Shady Avenue is the Tudor revival house once home to the Scaife family and donated in 1943. Federal law was on "Pross" Mellon's side since the federal kidnapping statute specifically exempted parents. Their two daughters did not live past infancy, and another son died at age 9. By the end of the century, the Mellon Bank was the largest banking institution in the country outside of New York. tree" is no more. In honor of his civic efforts, the Air and Waste Management Association recognizes individuals who have made administrative, legislative, and judicial contributions to the field of pollution abatement with the Richard Beatty Mellon Award. wife was herself a good cook and not in the least averse to work.we On what was described as a stormy and "bleak" November evening in Pittsburgh, Sarah Cordelia Mellon, 24, married Alan Magee Scaife, 27, at East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Published: 12:00 GMT, 2 July 2019 | Updated: 19:24 GMT, 12 August 2019. This is not surprising for such a self-contained woman, and is to be respected, despite the regrets it engenders for the curious historian! her own names on this marker. The rail ties and lumber used to build the railroad were furnished by the lumber company the Mellon brothers owned. Dimensions. Still, the Negleys are not listed among the burials at Smithfield. marital woes brought him a lifetime of embarrassment. He and his brother, Andrew W. Mellon, another son of Judge Thomas Mellon, were frequent business partners. Is this really a burial ground? This monument marks the center of a burial ground located on the former They said: 'The introduction of the railroads into North Florida in the 1880s led to an explosion in the winter tourist trade. Cordelia characterized her mother as, Three of the four adopted children of Richard King Mellon (son of Richard B.) The Judge author and descendant James Mellon describes a dark and sturdily decorated Victorian interior. Was there anything there, the pastor and building committee wondered, that a parish with little money could procure for a new church building? were all in all to each other. ', 'The Mellons welcomed many famous guests into their home, including Billy Sunday, a former National League baseball player turned evangelist. The Mellon family's enormous wealth was accrued primarily by brothers Andrew William Mellon and Richard B. Mellon during the 1920s and 1930s, investing or founding companies that include Mellon Bank, Alcoa, Standard Steel Car Co., Westinghouse Electric Co. and Gulf Oil. After her death, James continued to spend each winter in Palatka. He served as a program officer at The Forbes Funds and McCune. Mellon Bank, then Pennsylvania's largest banking institution, dis-invested in the Pittsburgh region during its time of need in the early 1980s. Nora McMullen Mellon by James Jebusa Shannon, 1910, Heinz History Center Detre Library and Archives, largest single gift of land ever made to the nation in 1990, The social mirror: a character sketch of the women of Pittsburg and vicinity during the first century of the county's existence. These were removed from the Richard B. Mellon Mansion in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during WWII. James Ross Mellon was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 14, 1846, son of Judge Thomas Mellon who is better known for being the founder of Mellon Bank and patriarch of the wealthy and influential Mellon family. His uncle Richard B. Mellon (1858-1933) was Andrew's business partner. Richard Mellon Scaife (pictured right in 1973) the great-nephew of Andrew Mellon and JJames R Mellon. Oblong folio. But neither did he join the Union Army. Famously private, for the most part Mellons and their kin have kept mostly to themselves in a removed, rarified social sphere. I have to suspect that the Mellons' history is not well known because they like it that way. As a lifelong Pittsburgher there are many elements of the Mellon saga that I never knew, including Sara Jane's story. Lavish Splendor Marks Brilliant Mellon Nuptials, Pittsburgh Remembers Andrew Carnegie, The Great Showman, Rollin' on the River: Pittsburgh Shanty Boat Life, Forgotten History: Father James Renshaw Cox, Quiet, pleasant and self-possessed: Sarah Jane Negley Mellon. Published on Jul 30, 2009. I don't know how Sarah Jane would regard the checkered reputations of her descendants, but I certainly think she was proud of her own past. We know from published family accounts that one scrapbook contained images of presidential log cabins. [2] Later, he was instrumental in forming Mellbank Corporation, a bank holding company, which helped the affiliated banks weather the Great Depression.[3]. Interestingly, though, this home was the only one of the Fricks three residences to be demolished (the other two were preserved as museums). The park is on the list of landmarks recognized by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. View Details. 1 This is a photo of John M. Phillips' children on the front lawn of his mansion "Impton" at 2236 Brownsville Road with Richard B. Mellon, Richard King Mellon and Sara Mellon. You can learn of its residents, and how they made established their wealth. She was 'finished' at the Edgeworth Ladies' Boarding School in Braddock, where she benefited from an exceptionally well-rounded education in addition to polishing the necessary social skills for a woman of her position. On his deathbed, these were Richard's last words to his brother. The potential trauma inflicted upon their daughters (who were first abducted by their troubled mother after she left a treatment program, then re-abducted a year later at gunpoint by Mellon's employees outside their mother's home in NYC), rivaled that inflicted on Ailsa and Paul Mellon during Andrew Mellon's custody battle at the turn of the century. I'd pretend that each carefully landscaped section was a room in my make-believe mansion, then I'd hop-scotch around on the groovy terrazzo paving (reportedly those designs came from a suggestion by Sarah Mellon Scaife) and fantasize about climbing the magical cascading fountain. He recalled that ".since marriage, the last important event of my life was consummated, and nothing left to distract my attention from business, I could feel that I was fairly settled." Mrs. Negley would in fact live out her final days with Thomas and Sarah Jane, bequeathing the bulk of her considerable real estate holdings to Sarah Jane and other descendants (thereby providing the foundation for lucrative Mellon real estate development in the East End). Adherence to Law. James Mellon donated land for the Mellon School, which later became Putnam High School. What Pittsburghers do remember about the Mellons are the salacious details. Because of this insularity, even the most famous Mellon individuals don't signify in the collective Pittsburgh consciousness. By necessity she would have become removed from day-today housework once she and Thomas became pillars of their community and she gravitated to a prominent social role outside the home. We can't even guess what Sarah Jane thought of her suitor, for she did not record her impressions for posterity. Pastor and committee investigated. 'The institution helped finance the construction of the Ligonier Valley Railroad. Thomas Mellon warmed up to his new wife, whom he described as taking ".full possession and master of the situation, not the least discouraged through without any company or help." when the couple moved into a rented home downtown. In addition to diaries and valuable historical documents, the collection includes two hand-written letters from Sarah Jane, plus the title pages from school books that once belonged to each of his parents (see above for Sarah's). Along with being a successful bank and industrialist, he was a philanthropist like the rest of the Mellon family and deeply invested in his community. And, really, did she miss the Judge while he was gone those five years? Built in 1910, it included a bowling alley and carriage house. The four who survived became famous men, two of whom - Andrew W. Mellon - and Richard B. Mellon - attained worldwide fame in banking, business, government, philanthropy and the arts. Richard Mellon. They also made joint philanthropic gifts, notably several large donations to their alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, including creation of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to honor their father, which is now a part of Carnegie Mellon University. The home was built in 1904 for Henry Clay Frick and his family as a summer home in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts. A shy man, he shunned publicity and gave very few interviews so very little is known of his personality and views. 29 vintage silver prints (9 x 13 inches) mounted to album leaves, printed title-page. Children followed in rapid succession. [6], The Mellon Park Tennis Center is a year-round facility that offers classes for younger children ages 47 and other age groups up to adults. Richard was born in 1899. When the downtown burial ground, then called Smithfield Street Cemetery, was closed, remains were removed to Troy Hill and not a Highland Park burial ground. It was erected to house the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. Biography . I'll be writing more about that visit later, but one thing I can tell you now is that I could not wrap my brain around what it would be like for Fricks children to grow up in a house that large, which was actually small by the standards of wealth in those days. for women throughout history, of course. Ubiquitous Mellons Eagle Rock was torn down in 1963. And there was all that fuss about her then-boyfriend former Allegheny County District Attorney Robert W. Duggan: his political scandals, their hasty marriage likely orchestrated to legally avoid being compelled to testify against him during a federal corruption investigation, and questions surrounding his sudden death (accident? Growing up surrounded by the Mellon name in Pittsburgh But the youngest of his two sons, Seward Prosser Mellon, made headlines in the mid-1970s related to a horrific custody battle with his ex-wife. Height: 115.5 in (293.37 cm) Width: 13 in (33.02 cm) Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm) It was a stones throw from the current Pittsburgh Center for the Arts on Fifth Ave. Here's a link to a pic. As to the rest, we must imagine and wonder, for we have no miniature dollhouses to prompt imagination. Presidential Administrations Arthur A. Hamerschlag, 1903-1922 Richard M. Cyert, 1972-1990 Thomas S. Baker, 1922-1935 Robert Mehrabian, 1990-1997 Robert E. Doherty, 1936-1950 Jared L. Cohon, 1997-2013 The church is located along the Allegheny River and is approximately 25 mi (40 km) north-east of the city of Pittsburgh within the Diocese of Greensburg. Mellon estate was located on Pittsburghs Fifth Avenue. Mellon Park, established in 1943, was once part of the estate of Richard B. Mellon, owner of the largest mansion in the city. Best regard from Belgium. According to contemporary accounts, proud papa Richard B. spent $100,000 to build and decorate a pavilion at his East End mansion for the wedding feast and ball. One side of the monument reads: Details. [2] In 1926 he established a $15 million pension fund for Presbyterian ministers. Source. A number of . The scene sounds like something out of the Duquesne Club, an exclusive Downtown enclave for Pittsburgh's rich and powerful. Sarah was a woman of her times. And I wondered about what kinds of lives those were -- not simply in terms of material possessions, but about how the world must seem to such people. 'Eager to establish himself before getting married, James Mellon returned home to lease the Osceola Coal Works from his father,' added Abandoned Southeast.