Motor Square Garden

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Motor Square Garden is a National Register of Historic Places building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.

Located at 5900 Baum Boulevard in the East Liberty district, it today serves as the headquarters of the Pittsburgh branch of the American Automobile Association, which owns the property. The building externally features a large tin-clad, steel-framed blue dome and a yellow brick facade. The industrial interior has a large atrium with exposed steel girders and skylights above.

[edit] History

The Mellon family of Pittsburgh built the facility in 1900 as a city market—after one of their real estate subdivisions failed to sell enough houses—calling it East Liberty Market House. The Boston, Massachusetts architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns designed it. It soon failed as a retail space, but in 1915 the new Pittsburgh Automobile Association bought it as a site for its auto shows. In the 1920s and 1930s it became a sports venue, especially for boxing, and by the 1940s it was used as a new car dealership.

In 1988 AAA bought the property. Landmarks Design Associates of Pittsburgh redesigned it as an upscale shopping mall. The retail mall failed, but AAA expanded to occupy the building, along with a tenant, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Shadyside School of Nursing.

[edit] References

Collins, John Fulton Stuart, Jr. (1967). Stringtown on the Pike: Tales and History of East Liberty. Pittsburgh: privately published. ISBN none.
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.
Toker, Franklin (1986, 1994). Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5434-6.