He was the owner and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and known for his support of Richard Nixon, part of his funds to the candidate contributed to the Watergate scandal, which he later said he was 'disgusted by'. This is not surprising for such a self-contained woman, and is to be respected, despite the regrets it engenders for the curious historian! Judge Mellon's private memoirs were made public by his family, providing invaluable insights into the private life of this couple. Because of this insularity, even the most famous Mellon individuals don't signify in the collective Pittsburgh consciousness. 164-20 Highland Ave #3f. Mellon, along with C.C. Growing up surrounded by the Mellon name in Pittsburgh The home's owner made his money through investment in such prosperous industries as oil, coal, and steel. Macdonald, assumed control of Idlewild Park in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. We find Sarah Jane under the Mellon listing in a chapter entitled "Women of Wealth": There you have it. But neither did he join the Union Army. 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. The Judge author and descendant James Mellon describes a dark and sturdily decorated Victorian interior. [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. of a 6,000-square-foot river retreat that once belonged to a hugely successful US banking magnate. She devoted herself to church and community. One of Pittsburgh's historic green spaces is conveniently located just minutes from Shadyside Commons. came to visit, but it was not her home. Didnt he know how badly I would want to walk through it? remember Sarah Jane by. Some of Eagle Rock was saved, however. The name seeped into my consciousness at an astonishingly early age. Facing Shady Avenue is the Tudor revival house once home to the Scaife family and donated in 1943. By the end of the century, the Mellon Bank was the largest banking institution in the country outside of New York. 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. Send Report . These industrious men then built the monumental Mount St. Peter Church in New Kensington, which still stands and functions to this day from the materials of the Mellon Mansion. The church and a cemetery were established on family property granted by descendants of William Penn in 1792. Whenever I encountered something fancy in my hometown, be it a staggeringly grand bank, college, building, or parks, it more often than not bore the Mellon name. This was a woman who had the means to do anything she wanted, and then some. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Even the venerable institutions associated with the family make news when scandal hits. The park was established in 1943, on the grounds of the former estate of Richard B. Mellon. The gates surrounding Eagle Rock were also transported to Clayton and now border the parking lot. Keep in mind that the Fricks primary residence at the time, Clayton, had a mere 23 rooms (in comparison). Is this really a burial ground? Howard Heinz and Richard B. Mellon found the Pittsburgh Parks and Playground Fund - today it is known as the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Howard Heinz founds the Pittsburgh Planning Association, which today is known as the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission - the region's MPO. Thomas had his acknowledged favorites, but we don't know if Sarah had a favorite among her surviving sons. The estates gardens and ornate wrought-iron gate remain as traces of the lands former use. The chandeliers once graced a 1930s-era Los Angeles theater. Mellon estate was located on Pittsburghs Fifth Avenue. It wasn't. Clearly that house isn't there anymore.". According to the blog Beyond the Gilded Age, the 104-room mansion was designed by Little and Browne. It's all about ME. Such effrontery, to even consider the idea: Sarah Jane's infamous detachment has been thrown to the winds in this passage. If you're from Pittsburgh, you know the name Mellon. She didn't design or fund the building of mansions or imposing buildings. 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. His brother remained "it" until he died four years later." "Last tag." - Banker Richard B. Mellon (1858-1933) 2 whyIsUsermanTaken 1 yr. ago I appreciate you you letting us know what is was. [8], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}40277.47N 79554.99W / 40.4520750N 79.9180528W / 40.4520750; -79.9180528. Richard B. Mellon, a multimillionaire, was the president of Alcoa. Did she want to say "told you so" when all was said and done? Reflecting upon the Mellon monies and a life of privilege, Larry Mellon once stated ", Western Pennsylvania music lovers have never gotten over the closing of the. 'On May 7th, 1919, at the age of 73, Rachel Mellon passed away upon arriving home to Pittsburgh. The marble came from the long-gone Richard B. Mellon mansion in Squirrel Hill. The mansion was built by Italian immigrants from New Kensington, PA, under the direction of Monsignor Nicola Fusco. Negley Mansion, Edgeworth Ladies' Boarding School, and the Mellon "country home" The site, part of a 14-acre parcel of land known as Frick Acres, was donated to the University by Andrew W. Mellon and his brother, Richard B. Mellon. Three of our most recent grants are highlighted below. These two banks, along with the Mellon Bank, became the three greatest banks in America under a single management. facebook; twitter; googleplus; You can't mine coal without machine guns. The Nome nugget. Her legacy remains forever entwined and eclipsed by that of the men in her life, just as Judge Mellon's actions and desires shaped the core of her adult experiences. His family had it demolished in 1941. And, really, did she miss the Judge while he was gone those five years? on Negley Avenue are all long gone. But for all that this makes me an unintentional font of Mellon trivia, the family still exists for me in a world apart, one separated from my understanding and experience by more than glass. Somewhere in Highland Park lie the Negleys with their many friends and neighbors. Other images show inside the property with a piano and old records left behind, along with old tennis rackets and an American flag. 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. Unless otherwise indicated, all content is original to author. There are some claims that they were re-interred on the spot beneath the marker in Highland Park, having been moved there. Eagle Rock was torn down in 1963. The land was then given to the city to become what is known now as Mellon Park, while the carriage house is the Phipps Garden Center. [5] One event that has taken place annually since 1969 is A Fair in the Park put on by the Craftsmen's Guild of Pittsburgh in the month of September. She traveled little. It's hard to tell whether Sarah Jane's preternatural self-possession unnerved or impressed him. undemonstrative. Avenue. 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). 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. You become very aware of how gangly and awkward the human body is when you're surrounded by priceless artifacts. The Mellons welcomed many famous guests into their home, including Billy Sunday, a former National League baseball player turned evangelist. Thomas Mellon pursued his intended via weekly chaperoned visits at the Negley Mansion over six long months. ?, June 19, 1944, Page THREE, Image 3, brought to you by Alaska State Library Historical Collections, and the National Digital Newspaper Program. There is an area just for children. 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. 'During their years in Florida the Mellons were very involved in the community and supported the education system. Married life of Sarah Mellon Its amazing how much you can learn from a house. served from 18991910 as president of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, renamed the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) in 1907, and was heavily invested in the Pittsburgh Coal Company, today part of CONSOL Energy, where he clashed with John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers. _____________________________________________________________. He was the son of Richard Mellon and Jennie King.He passed away in 1970. A fountain stands between the garden and the rest of the park. Stirred on by patriotism and inspired by a recruitment lecture, the impressionable young man assumed that parental consent for his enlistment would be a given. The wedding, which received national news coverage for its ostentatious display of wealth, took place at the estate of Sarah's father, Richard B. Mellon, brother of . Yes!! He was the founder of the Rolling Rock Club. Richard was born in 1899. James Mellon often told his friends that his wife hated the cold weather. In The Judge, grandson William Larimer Mellon described his grandmother, our Sarah Jane: Sarah eventually acquired a sizable staff to supervise. children, Ailsa and Paul, were caught in the crossfire and suffered Julia Rocchi explains that old buildings help communities retain a sense of permanancy and heritage. Buildings help us remember the human side of the past. [volume] (Nome, Alaska) 1938-??? 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. It's in plain sight but bland and usually overlooked.. Rather like Andrew Mellon, actually. His dissertation was published as, His brother William Larimer Mellon Jr, gets lost in the gossip despite his astounding humanitarian efforts. Perhaps her detachment only went so far. Even Sarah Jane's small talk seemed to get on Thomas' nerves, for he notes in his memoirs: Apparently the Negleys didn't pay extra for those music lessons at the Edgeworth Ladies' Boarding School. And thus history becomes attainable, not a scholarly discipline, but a simle human story. Richard K. Mellon remained an outdoorsman and grew the family retreat in Ligonier into a grand estate. But because Andrew Mellon deliberately disassociated his name from that institution he created (unlike Frick and Carnegie, who kept their names connected to their philanthropic cultural efforts), the nation's wonderful museum is not commonly associated with the Mellon legacy. behind-the-scenes for the Mellon men. This isn't an unusual circumstance It became the target of steelworker ire culminating in disruptive demonstrations, boycotts and mass withdrawals of funds. Instead, take heed of this: a monument to one woman's love of family, and her desire to honor the past. Adherence to Law. Other than these glimpses, the public is left with only the name and limited understanding of the life of Sarah Jane Negley Mellon as filtered through others' experiences. For $200 a year (paid three months in advance) Sarah Jane would have studied reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, composition, geography, astronomy with the use of globes, natural philosophy, chemistry, history, and plain and ornamental needle work. Take the wealthiest Mellon, Andrew, a Gilded Age venture capitalist who became the longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury and eventually President Hoover's economic scapegoat in the lead-up to the Great Depression (rightly or wrongly depending upon your read of history). She was by all accounts a pleasant, dutiful mother and grandmother, but not a doting one. If not, would she have dared to tell him, to scoff at him? After Mellon's sixty-room home was brought down during World War II, most of the garden still remained and was transformed into a city park known now as Mellon Park. In 2005, Scaife was number 238 on the Forbes 400, with a personal fortune of $1.2 billion. As a history-loving adult, I came to understand how ubiquitously present the Mellons were in the development of this city and nation. Five years later, the Mellon brothers founded the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research as a memorial to their father. The abandoned remains of a river retreat in north Florida that once belonged to the hugely successful US banking magnate and industrialist James R Mellon, The staircase in the abandoned Mellon river retreat. Yet I firmly believe that history serves as a teaching tool in the present, while also providing a sense of identity. 'The Mellon family ranked among the wealthiest and most prominent industrialists in the United States by the time of Judge Mellon's death in 1908. They said: 'The introduction of the railroads into North Florida in the 1880s led to an explosion in the winter tourist trade. Oblong folio. Clayton curator Emilia Boehm told me that much of the furnishings and items in the museum were once at the summer estate. But the chapter is all about their itinerary, not their intimacy.