Motor Square Garden

	East Liberty Market
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	Pittsburgh Landmark – PHLF
Location	5900 Baum Boulevard, East Liberty, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40°27′35.2″N 79°55′38.14″W / 40.459778°N 79.9272611°W
Built	1898-1900
Architect	Peabody & Stearns
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
NRHP reference No.	77001121
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 12, 1977
Designated PHLF	1975 and 1988

Motor Square Garden, also known as East Liberty Market, is a building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Located at 5900 Baum Boulevard in the East Liberty neighborhood, it today serves as the headquarters of the Pittsburgh branch of the American Automobile Association, which owns the property. The exterior of the building 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.

History

Financed by the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, the building was built from 1898 to 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 the building. Motor Square Garden 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, it came into use as a sports venue, especially for boxing, and was used intermittently as the home court of the University of Pittsburgh's basketball team until the opening of Pitt Pavilion inside Pitt Stadium in 1925.^[3] 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 UPMC Shadyside School of Nursing.

Gallery

East Liberty Market
Motor Square Garden
Motor Square Garden is currently the home of AAA East Central and the UPMC Shadyside School of Nursing.
Interior Atrium and Skylights

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ Historic Landmark Plaques 1968-2009 (PDF). Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
^ Sam Sciullo, Jr. Pitt: 100 Years of Pitt Basketball pg. 14-17

External links

Collins, John Fulton Stuart Jr. (1967). Stringtown on the Pike: Tales and History of East Liberty. Pittsburgh: privately published.
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 (1994) [1986]. Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5434-6.

Preceded by Trees Gymnasium	Home of the University of Pittsburgh Basketball Trees Gymnasium/Motor Square Garden 19?? – 1924	Succeeded by Pitt Pavilion

[nris-1] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.

[PHLF-2] Historic Landmark Plaques 1968-2009 (PDF). Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-08-09.

[3] Sam Sciullo, Jr. Pitt: 100 Years of Pitt Basketball pg. 14-17

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