Allen Hall (University of Pittsburgh)

Infobox nrhp
name = Allen Hall
nrhp_type = cp

---

imagesize = 350px
caption = Allen Hall at the University of Pittsburgh
nearest_city =
lat_degrees = 40
lat_minutes = 26
lat_seconds = 40.52
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 79
long_minutes = 57
long_seconds = 29.98
long_direction = W
area = Schenley Farms Historic District
built = 1913-1914
architect = J. H. Giesey
architecture = Greek Revival
added = July 22, 1983cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-09|accessdate=2008-03-12|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
refnum = 83002213
governing_body = University of Pittsburgh

Allen Hall at the University of Pittsburgh is a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark [cite web | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20070127092030/http://www.phlf.org/plaques/locallist.html | title = Internet Archive: Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation: PHLF Plaques & Registries| date=2007-01-27 | accessdate = 2008-02-25 ] and home of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University. It is a five story building designed by J. H. Giesey using granite for the lower two stories and buff brick for upper three stories. The building was erected from 1913 to 1914 at a cost of $230,000 to erect and equip. [http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pittmiscpubs&cc=pittmiscpubs&idno=00c50130m&node=00c50130m%3A56&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=88] It was dedicated on February 26, 1915, in a ceremony in which Richard B. Mellon and Andrew W. Mellon turned over the keys of the institute to University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Samuel McCormick. [ [http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pittyearbooks;cc=pittyearbooks;g=documentingpitt;xc=1;xg=1;q1=mellon%20institute;rgn=full%20text;idno=1916e49702;didno=1916e49702;view=image;seq=16;node=1916e49702%3A6;page=root;size=s;frm=frameset; The Mellon Institute, The Owl, 1916, pg. 11, Documenting Pitt, University of Pittsburgh, accessdate=2008-08-24] ]

Allen Hall, served as original home of Mellon Institute, an institute founded for industrial and chemical research by the Mellon brothers and originally grew out of University's Department of Industrial Research and served as a graduate school managed by the University of Pittsburgh until it was incorporated as an independent non-profit research institute in 1927.

Upon completion of a new Mellon Institute facility on Bellefield and Fifth Avenue in 1937, the old Mellon Institute building was handed over to the university on May 9th, 1939. It was remodeled and equipped to provide laboratories and additional classrooms for the School of Medicine. Allen Hall is now home to offices, classrooms, and labs of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. [ [http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pittmiscpubs;cc=pittmiscpubs;q1=mellon%20institute;rgn=full%20text;idno=00c50130m;didno=00c50130m;view=image;seq=0152 Alberts, Robert C.; Pitt: the story of the University of Pittsburgh; pg.132, 1986, University of Pittsburgh Press, ISBN 0-8229-1150-7, accessdate=2008-08-24] ] It is named for a former University of Pittsburgh Physics professor, Alex Allen, who arrived at Pitt in the 1930s and led a project for the construction of a cyclotron for producing radioactive isotopes for medical applications. This facility, called the Sarah Mellon Scaife Radiation Laboratory, was completed in 1946. [ [http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/history/npl/introduction.html History of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, accessdate=2008-08-27] ]

The facade at the entrance of this building has a plaque to honor Madame Curie, commemorating the 100th anniversary in 1967 of her birth, the conferring of an honorary degree in 1921, her visit to the plants of the Standard Chemical Company, its role as a major radium producer and in the making of the gram of radium presented to Marie Curie by President Warren G. Harding, and the role of Glenn Donald Kammer, a University of Pittsburgh graduate who supervised its production. The plaque was unveiled on September 20, 1969 by the Archbishop of Kraków, Poland, Cardinal Wojtyła, who in 1978 became Pope John Paul II. [ [http://www.umc.pitt.edu/tour/tour-116.html Allen Hall, Tour Pitt, www.pitt.edu, accessdate=2008-08-24] ] The plaque reads as follows: [ [http://www.canonsburgboro.com/MarieCurie/MCurie&StdChemical.htm Lubenau, Joel O, Standard Chemical Company, Marie Curie, and Canonsburg, Feb 12, 2005; accessdate=2008-08-24] ]

In Commemoration of
Maria Sklodowska Curie
A Polish Scientist
Discoverer of Radium And Polonium
Conferred Degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Pittsburgh on May 26th, 1921
Inspected Facilities of Standard Chemical Company at Cononsburg and Pittsburgh where were produced 76 of the 120 gram donated to her by the Women of America and presented at the White House by President Harding. This Radium was extracted from Colorado Carnotite by a process invented and supervised by Glenn Donald Kammer of the University of Pittsburgh.
Erected on the occasion of the centennial of Mme. Curie’s birth in Warsaw, Poland, 1967. Proposed by the Historical Committee of Central Council of Polish Organization of Pittsburgh.

Renovations

Renovations, upgrades, and improvements for Allen Hall, Old Engineering Hall, and Thaw Hall, have been announced and preliminarily targeted in to be in excess of $58.6 million according to the University's 12-year facilities master plan. [ [http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/m/FMPro?-db=ma&-lay=a&-format=d.html&id=2929&-Find University of Pittsburgh Announces 12-Year Facilities Plan To Support Programmatic Direction, News From Pitt, University of Pittsburgh, May 14, 2007, accessdate=2008-08-24] ] [ [http://www.pitt.edu/news/images/070514facilities.pdf University of Pittsburgh Facilities Plan: 2007-2018, May 14, 2007; University of Pittsburgh, accessdate=2008-08-24] ]

External links

* [http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/ Department of Physics & Astronomy]

References

*cite book | author=Alberts, Robert C. | title=Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh 1787-1987 | location=Pittsburgh | publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press | year=1986 | id=ISBN 0-8229-1150-7
* [http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pittyearbooks;cc=pittyearbooks;g=documentingpitt;xc=1;xg=1;q1=mellon%20institute;rgn=full%20text;idno=1916e49702;didno=1916e49702;view=image;seq=12;node=1916e49702%3A6;page=root;size=s;frm=frameset Dedication from the 1916 Owl Yearkbook]