New Year Greetings
The Board of the Friends of Mellon Park wishes each of you and your loved ones health and happiness in this Holiday Season and in 2021.
Our work over the past year has born wonderful fruit.
For thousands of Pittsburghers, Mellon Park has been a neighborhood back yard welcoming one and all -- an athletic facility, a community center, and a refuge in the time of COVID-19.
A lot has been going on: Mellon Park has never been more fully and imaginatively used than during the pandemic months. From socially distanced family reunions, children’s birthday parties, study groups, and religious services to serving as a natural respite for the solo reader or saxophone player, it has sustained our community during very hard times.
The City Historic Landmark Protections nomination for Mellon Park has cleared important hurdles – enthusiastically approved by both the Historic Review Commission and the Planning Commission. Final vote from City Council will come in late January or early February. Likewise, the National Registry of Historic Places nomination is progressing steadily.
Preservation Pittsburgh and its president, Matthew Falcone, have done exemplary work on both nominations. We are all in their debt.
It is our understanding that Phipps Conservatory’s negotiations with the City are still on hold. We have no news about their intentions in Mellon Park going forward. Along with community groups, University partners, and experienced attorneys, we’ve helped draft detailed requests for any future lease between Phipps and the City of Pittsburgh, and have shared them with Erika Strassburger, our City Council representative. The lease document was created by the Friends of Mellon Park, the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, the Point Breeze Organization, several CMU faculty members and local attorneys well-versed in the subject matter.
The fountain in the Walled Garden will receive a complete overhaul of its mechanical and hydraulic systems beginning this spring as a result of a major grant from a local foundation. The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is overseeing this project. The future of that fountain has never been brighter.
The Walled Garden was formally inducted into the Smithsonian Archive of American Gardens, thanks to the Garden Club of Allegheny County, architect Sarah Drake and horticulturist, Lindsay B. Totten.
BNY Mellon Bank, to celebrate their 150th Anniversary, will plant 150 trees in Pittsburgh’s Parks, including 40 trees in Mellon Park. The Friends of Mellon Park consulted with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy throughout this process, including discussions on tree placement that takes the sledding hills into consideration!
The Arboretum Committee of the Friends of Mellon Park is working with the Department of Public Works and Tree Pittsburgh to designate Mellon Park an official Arboretum to better serve the public with educational programming, as well as to ensure the protection of the trees.
The Equity Committee of the Friends of Mellon Park meets once a month to focus on our core values of equity and inclusion related to Mellon Park.
We look forward to all that the coming year in Mellon Park will bring.
With luck, it will include collaborations with both the Marshall Building and the Garden Center to make Mellon Park better and more welcoming to all of Pittsburgh’s park lovers.
Please let us know if you have ideas for Mellon park – all the better if you can be involved in implementing them.
With gratitude and delight, on behalf of the Friends of Mellon Park, we wish you peace and happiness in 2021.
Elizabeth Seamans, President
Basil Cox, Co-Vice President
Larry Gerson, Co-Vice President
Cindy Berger, Secretary
Regina Kakadelis, Treasurer
Cathy Cohen Droz
Rhodora Noethling
Mary Rawson
Rachel Walton
Abby Wilson