Skip to Navigation
University of Pittsburgh
Print This Page Print this pages

September 27, 2007

A bit of CL history preserved

While an ambitious contractor on the Cathedral of Learning restoration project last month inadvertently scrubbed what was to have been a tribute to the Pittsburgh industrial heritage that blackened portions of the 70-year-old Cathedral’s limestone exterior, some darkened stone remains, albeit not in the spot some had planned.

E. Maxine Bruhns, longtime director of Pitt’s Nationality Rooms, along with officials from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, had endeavored to preserve a section of darkened stone near the Cathedral’s Fifth Avenue entrance. The spot was chosen both for the stones’ character and for its proximity to the start of Nationality Room tours and the marker commemorating the Cathedral’s National Historic Landmark status.

Cost Co. contractors devised a protective cover to keep the squares from being cleaned, but the cover later was removed. When a young worker spotted the soiled spot, he took it upon himself to clean it, washing away Bruhns’s plans. “We should have left the stainless steel protection cover on,” she lamented, adding that the wording for a commemorative plaque already had been composed, although the plaque itself was not yet on its way.

“I’ve received condolences on how terrible it was that this happened because it was such a good idea,” said Bruhns. Among the callers, Bruhns said, was Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg. “He knew that I was attached to that,” she said.

But all is not lost for those who desire a look at the Cathedral’s former color.

At the chancellor’s request, some uncleaned stone remains in a spot convenient to show his visitors. A tall section of darkened limestone can be seen in the lightwell across the corridor from the Chancellor’s office. Creating a narrow backdrop to the painted ceramic sculpture by Jerry Caplan informally known as “Third Century,” the darkened section of stone wall is visible from first- and second-floor windows in the Cathedral’s southeastern corner.

—Kimberly K. Barlow

Filed under: Feature,Volume 40 Issue 3

Leave a Reply