PITTSBURGH \u2014 The University of Pittsburgh\u2019s Cathedral of Learning is about to turn 100 years old!<\/p>\n
Construction of the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere broke ground in September of 1926.<\/p>\n
Channel 11 is taking you inside the cathedral to show you some of its most interesting features, like the nationality rooms and how they came to be.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh was and is a city of immigrants. So, when the idea of a university skyscraper came up, the school used the concept of the nationality rooms to get the whole community involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey recognized that they weren\u2019t doing enough to reach out to an untapped group of people, which would be the first- and second-generation immigrant people and their children,\u201d said Michael Walter, manager of education programs at Pitt.<\/p>\n
So, with Ruth Crawford Mitchell\u2019s help, they invited immigrant groups to form committees, fundraise and then develop and design a room.<\/p>\n
It had to represent their country, but also be used as a classroom.<\/p>\n
In the beginning, there were 19 nationality rooms, including the largest one, the English room.<\/p>\n
Its committee took 26 years to raise the money to make it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe final designer of this room was an architect active in North America, but he also was a lord in the House of Lords,\u201d Walter said. \u201c… At the close of the Second World War, he asked his government if he could take artifacts, basically debris, from the bombed houses of Parliament and bring it to Pittsburgh for this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
The high paneling, fireplace and just the overall feel of the room \u201creproduces the Second House of Commons,\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the woodwork is an artifact, the fireplace is an artifact, some of the stonework is, and even some of the stained glass that was used to make into modern windows were fragments from the Second World War damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
When these rooms aren\u2019t full of students having class, they\u2019re full of tours.<\/p>\n
Twenty-thousand people visited the nationality rooms over the first half of the year, and most likely toured one of the first nationality rooms completed at the cathedral.<\/p>\n
The German room is from the summer of 1938. It\u2019s large and was inspired by the example of German Renaissance lecture halls.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, above the front door is a crest for the University of Heidelberg, and in the rear door above its door frame is a crest for the second university of Germany, the University of Leipzig,\u201d Walter said. <\/p>\n
The windows are significant in that they\u2019re one of the early additions to the nationality rooms. They came in 1954 and represent 10 Grimm\u2019s fairy tales.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the aspects of this room\u2019s decoration is using storytelling to teach people,\u201d Walter said. \u201c… So, a variety of the stories include Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just a little peek at what the nationality rooms have to offer: 31 rooms in all \u2014 places to imagine and to learn all about the great immigrants who built our city and helped build the cathedral.<\/p>\n
You can see more of the nationality rooms and other hidden facts, rooms and floors of the cathedral on a WPXI special. The \u201cCathedral of Learning: 100 Years\u201d airs Sunday at 8 a.m. on WPXI and WPXI Now, and later Sunday on WPXI.com and WPXI\u2019s YouTube page.<\/p>\n
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