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Heiress Mary Schenley donated land throughout city
Wednesday, March 29, 2000
Not many people know Pittsburgh received much of the land on which it is built from a woman.
Mary Croghan Schenley donated a good portion of real estate that makes up this city.
When Schenley was young, she attended a boarding school in Down-town Pittsburgh. At about age 16, she eloped from the school and married Capt. Edward W. Schenley of the Royal Navy. They had six girls and a boy.
After living in Pittsburgh for a while, Capt. Schenley moved the family to Europe, but they would occasionally return to Pittsburgh.
The land that Schenley owned was willed to her by her pioneer grandfather, Gen. James O'Hara.
With this land, she made generous contributions to Pittsburgh's landscape. She donated 300 acres for Schenley Park and sold the city another 120 acres at a reasonable price.
Schenley also contributed five acres of land for the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind. One of her biggest offerings is known as the oldest relic in Pittsburgh -- Schenley gave the Old Blockhouse to the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Schenley also furnished the city with 19 acres where the Carnegie Museums stand, now known as Schenley Plaza.
At a time when land-owning was reserved mostly for men, the contributions of Mary Croghan Schenley helped build Pittsburgh to what it is today.
-- By Chad Parks, Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center intern
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