Hartwood Acres Park
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Hartwood Acres Park is a 629-acre (2.55 km²) county park in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. Hartwood is considered the crown jewel of the county's 12,000-acre (49 km²) network of nine distinct parks.
Established in 1969, its special feature is one of the largest and most spectacular country estates in the region. Hartwood consists of a stately Tudor mansion (erected in 1929), public gardens, a cottage, a stable complex, and a gate lodge (erected in 1927). The mansion, designed by Alfred Hopkins for John and Mary Flinn Lawrence, houses a collection of original English and American antiques. Large outdoor sculptures also dot the landscape.
Hartwood is sited 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Downtown Pittsburgh on largely forested land in both Hampton and Indiana Townships. The park also offers a large-stage concert area for music and summer theater and 30 miles (48 km) of trails—horse riding, walking, hiking, biking, and cross country skiing. Hartwood is especially popular in winter because of its annual "Festive of Lights" large outdoor light displays.
[edit] History
Mary Flinn Lawrence, a Pittsburgh philanthropist, created Hartwood with money she inherited from her father, William Flinn. In the 1920s she and her husband John Lawrence asked the architect Alfred Hopkins to borrow design elements from a manor house the Lawrences had seen in Broadway, Oxfordshire, England. The result is a stately 31-room slate-roofed stone house constructed around a Great Hall.
Mary transformed the grounds of her estate into an equestrian arts showcase, building riding trails that extend for miles, show rings, steeplechase layouts, and ivy-covered stables. The stalls of the stables are made of varnished oak.
The Allegheny Parks Commission in 1961 bought 400 acres (1.6 km²) of land and riding trails from the Lawrences. Mary's death on October 29, 1974 permitted her Hartwood estate to open to the general public.
A large part of the 1996 TV film The Christmas Tree directed by Sally Field was filmed at Hartwood.
Some scenes in the 2006 film 10th & Wolf were filmed in the Hartwood Mansion's great hall.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Hartwood and the Movie: 10th & Wolf. Allegheny County Parks Department. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.
- Kidney, Walter C. (1997). Pittsburgh's Landmark Architecture: The Historic Buildings of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. ISBN 0-916670-18-X.
[edit] External links
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