Afoot in the Oakland you have to imagine

by Diana Nelson Jones/Nov 7

Sara Petyk chose Oakland to kick off her new business as the tour guide/ owner of Your Active City. http://www.youractivecity.com.

I joined Meryl Hellring of Mount Lebanon and Marthe Weyandt of Shadyside yesterday for a tour through the historic district known as the Oakland Civic Center.

I have always had a love-hate relationship with Oakland. As a neighborhood, it is overshadowed by universities, and as a neighborhood reporter, I see the student population as a mass of faux residents who do not mix well with more permanent residents. But Oakland is also a wonderland of architecture and history, and Sara's focus is on these aspects of the neighborhood.

We started at the Carnegie Museums and main library, proceded to the Frick Fine Arts Building, the Schenley Fountain, the remaining part of the Forbes Field wall and moved up to the Pitt Student Union, the Cathedral of Learning and the Heinz Chapel.

I knew a lot of what Sara told us but learned a lot more.

The Schenley Casino was an opulent, state-of-the-art center for sports and games near where the Frick Fine Arts Building is now. It was the first artificial ice rink in America, with luxury boxes no less. After just two years, it blew up in 1896 when gas that was used to make ice leaked and caused an explosion that burned window panes as far away as the Phipps Conservatory.

Near the Schenley fountain behind the remnant of the Forbes Field wall, a stone bridge lies buried. Once known as the Bellefield Bridge over a ravine, it was filled around 1915 to make the area flatter.

The Pitt Student Union used to be the grand Hotel Schenley, where presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, WIlliam Howard Taft and Dwight Eisenhower had stayed. It was also the site of a party to celebrate the merger that formed U.S. Steel.

Sara, a native of Pittsburgh, graduated with a masters in archaeology from Pitt and lived for seven years in Boston, where she worked in the tourism industry before returning this year. A resident of Squirrel Hill, she said she knew she wanted to do “something like this. I have always been interested in heritage tours. After seven years away, I was amazed at how the city had changed. It seemewd like a great opportunity."

Her walking tour every Friday and Saturday in November starts promptly at 10 a.m. People can also book private tours.She will be adding neighborhoods as she builds the business.

Tours meet in front of the fountain at the Carnegie Museum of Art and last 90 minutes. Tickets are $15 per person, to be paid in cash or by check at the start of the tour. Group size is limited, so reserve a space by calling Sara at 412.303.0566 or emailing info@youractivecity.com.