Union Trust
This temple-like building by one of America's most heralded architects housed one of the country's most powerful financial institutions. Banking mogul Andrew Mellon created Union Trust to control his Mellon National Bank and other financial holdings. It grew so rapidly that it relocated to a much larger Union Trust building within a couple decades.
Mellon also owned and had an office in this property's predecessor, a grand Victorian edifice for the Pittsburgh Petroleum Exchange, which evolved into the city stock market. Richly decorated with a grand staircase and frescoed ceiling above the trading floor, it burned down in 1897.
Mellon then brought in Daniel Burnham to design a new building for his financial empire. The Chicago architect employed a mix of Renaissance and Classical motifs known as Beaux-Arts, a style he helped to popularize with his city's 1893 World’s Fair. Soon Burnham won commissions for several Pittsburgh skyscrapers, including one for Mellon’s friend and business partner, Henry Clay Frick.
Andrew Mellon
After taking over the bank founded by his father, an attorney and former judge, Andrew Mellon built up a fortune through loans and investments in industry, including aluminum, oil, glass, steel, and coal. So well regarded was Mellon’s financial acumen that, in his later years, he served as U.S. Treasury Secretary under three presidents.
The stock market crash in 1929 wrecked Mellon's reputation, and political opponents blamed him for the Great Depression. Nevertheless, he donated his collection of priceless oil paintings to the country and paid to construct the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to hold them.
Daniel Burnham
A pioneering Chicago architect, Daniel Burnham was responsible for some of the first skyscrapers in America. While his most famous is the Flatiron Building in New York City, Burnham actually designed more skyscrapers in Pittsburgh than in any other city besides Chicago.
After the relatively modest Union Trust Building on Fourth Avenue, Burnham designed Pittsburgh’s main train station, plus the Frick and Oliver buildings and others; six of his Pittsburgh skyscrapers are still standing. The Oliver Building, at 25 stories, is the tallest building Burnham ever produced.
