 The Early Years
By Dr. M. Graham Netting
The year was 1931, hardly an auspicious time, it would seem in retrospect, to found a nonprofit organization that would be dependent upon gifts. Economic conditions were bleak in this second year of the Depression; unemployed workers had marched to Harrisburg, and 5,000 hunger marchers had paraded in Pittsburgh.
Yet, on October 8, a group of public-spirited Pittsburghers launched what has since evolved into a phenomenally successful regional land preservation organization.
On that afternoon, the Honorable E. V. Babcock, Frank L. Duggan, R. B. Mellon, A. W. Robertson, M. R. Scharff, E. W. Smith, and James Lyall Stuart met in the Board Room of the Mellon National Bank. Howard Heinz and W. S. Moorhead, absent from the city, had sent messages expressing their willingness to support the purposes for which the meeting was called. Mr. Robertson explained these purposes as the promotion of park and playground facilities, as outlined in a petition to the Buhl Foundation signed by most of those present. He reported further that the Foundation had approved an appropriation of $18,000 for the support of the program for approximately one year.
It was then voted to organize as the Greater Pittsburgh Parks Committee, composed of those present, plus Messrs. Heinz, Moorhead, and Frank R. Phillips. Mr. Stuart was elected chairman and Mr. Scharff, secretary-treasurer.
Following the general discussion, the chairman announced that he would endeavor to find which landscape architect, park engineer, or other expert in the country would be of greatest help in carrying out the committee’s program, and what arrangements could be made to secure his services.
Thus, the minute book provides a clear record of what transpired, but it offers no hint of what motivated such a distinguished group to foregather. And a distinguished group it was, including leaders in law, finance, industry, and politics. The group was not only distinguished, it was also homogeneous. All had certainly seen their securities plummet in paper value, but it is doubtful if any had felt any personal deprivation.
All, I think, might be termed "Pittsburgh Patriots," sincerely devoted to the best interests, as they saw them, of the community. I’m certain that they were thinking in terms of public works programs that might alleviate some unemployment and provide lasting benefits for the city and county. The first activities of the Committee lend support to this speculation.
- Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association
- First Land Acquisition
- 1945
- 1946
- 1948
Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association
The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County approved the certificate of incorporation and charter on February 16, 1932, with all ten members of the Committee being listed as "subscribers" or incorporators. The Charter stated, "The Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association . . . is formed for the maintenance of a society or association for the improvement of streets, highways and public places in any city, borough, or township of the Commonwealth, especially in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and to this end to prepare and promote a program for the maintenance, acquisition, development, organization and administration of public parks, parkways, playgrounds, places and facilities for recreation, exercise and games, and, as incidental thereto acquiring, holding and improving real estate and equipment suitable for such parks, parkways, playgrounds, places and facilities."
The incorporators were farseeing enough to provide for varied activities anywhere in the Commonwealth, but they did not foresee the ravages of inflation. It is stipulated that "the yearly income of the corporation other than from real estate shall not exceed the sum of $100,000.00."
 On March 3, 1932, three meetings were held at Mellon Bank: the third and last meeting of the Committee, the Organization Meeting of the Incorporators, and the first meeting of the directors of the Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association. The charter was accepted, the seal adopted, and directors elected, including the addition of Charles Chubb and John C. Slack, to bring the total to twelve as provided in the by-laws. (The charter specified not less than ten nor more than twenty persons.)
Officers of the Corporation were then elected: president, James L. Stuart; vice-president, A. W. Robertson; secretary and treasurer, Maurice R. Scharff. Election of the members of the Corporation resulted in all directors being so elected. (It was not until 1958 that necessary steps were taken to open membership to the interested public, and thus build the solid support for land preservation and conversation education that only many thousands of enthusiastic members can provide.)
Conditions remained distressing in 1933. In fact, it is difficult for anyone who did not live through the period to realize the suffering and despair, with bank closings, mortgage foreclosures mounting, and long bread lines of unemployed. As a museum curator on a monthly salary of $165 – and glad to have it – I had no interest in stocks, but I have since learned that the Dow dipped to 41. Even young professionals gave rent parties to escape eviction, serving beer and cheese to all who entered after dropping a quarter, or more if you could, in a receptacle at the door. For those who still had jobs, however, there were bargains that scarcely needed advertising: A&P coffee was often three pounds for $.39 and one memorable Saturday large gulf shrimp sold for $.13 a pound at the supermarket.
 The most significant development was at the president’s announcement that after telephone consultation with a majority of the directors, he had engaged Ralph E. Griswold, consulting landscape architect, to act as consultant to the City Planning Commission in connection with city planning and park work being done under the program of the Civil Works Administration. This was a wise and momentous action, for it initiated utilization of Griswold’s imaginative and sensitive planning skills in project after project for the city, the county, the Association and the Conservancy over the years.
In fact, it would be hard to find in the annuals of urban planning any more productive investment than the engaging of Griswold for two months, January and February 1934, at a compensation of $850 for his services and the use of his office. (This was extended later for March, April and May at the same modest $425 per month.)
The City Planning Commission’s Civic Works Program "D" had 17 architects, 7 landscape architects, and 3 engineers planning city parks and recreation areas, including (Griswold’s words) "many of the most talented and experienced designers in the city." Plans for immediate construction by the Public Works Department with C.W.A. labor were being prepared, and studies for future developments were underway.
In this flurry of activity, Griswold’s input was of great importance, but the consultancy also afforded him the opportunity to become thoroughly familiar with the dismal conditions prevailing. "At present No City Owned Recreation Areas, except those built by the Board of Education and Frick Park, have any planting whatever. They are practically all ugly and badly maintained," he wrote. The C.W.A. program brought many improvements; others, grounded in his experience as the Association’s consultant, were implemented when Griswold became superintendent of the Bureau of Parks in June, 1934.
The year 1935 began actively but soon deteriorated. In January, president Stuart recommended that the Association prepare and present a definite plan for parks and recreation consideration in the authorized Metropolitan Plan Charter for Allegheny County and for a revision of the State Constitution. Babcock, Chubb, Slack, and Moorhead were named a committee to do so.
In March, Mr. Kern, horticulturist and advisor to the Park Commission of Cincinnati, who had been brought to Pittsburgh by the Pittsburgh Parks and Playground Society to inspect Phipps Conservatory, summarized his findings at a Board meeting. He concluded that the Conservatory had ample space but required structural repairs and better utilization. A letter from Mrs. James D. Hailman, president of the Parks and Playground Society, requesting $2,000 for a survey and services of a competent conservatory consultant over a period of one year, was referred to the president for action. This request must have required long consideration, or determination of funds available, for no action was taken until November 30, 1936, at the Board meeting held during that year.
No members’ meetings were held between 1934 and 1940; no directors’ meetings were held in 1937, 1938, 1939; and the minute book lacks any financial statement from March 11, 1939, to June 13, 1944! The ranks of the small, 12-man board had been thinned by death (Mellon, Smith), and apparent resignations. Other directors were advanced in age or extremely busy. The active few tried to achieve meeting quotas on various occasions and failed to do so, even to fill vacancies on the board. Clearly, the Association was somnolent; but it was awakened in 1940 by a project exactly matching one of the purposes for which it had been formed, the improvement of highways.
In 1898, a retaining wall had been built to hold back fill along Grand Boulevard. In 1916, the name was changed to Bigelow Boulevard and in 1920 more fill was added. This was a costly mistake, for in October and November, much of the dirt slid down on to the railroad tracks.
Eventually, the fill stabilized as forecast, but it was 19 years before the Pennsylvania Railroad collected almost $800,000 for the clearing of its tracks, ($730,000 plus interest). In 1939-40, the roadway was straightened in the critical area, but this left an ugly bare hillside and unattractive waste areas between the realigned and old pavements, especially between Elm Street and Herron Avenue.
Ralph Griswold, then superintendent of the Bureau of Parks, and John P. (Jack) Robin, then Mayor Lawrence’s secretary, must have devised a means of eliminating the blight while avoiding delays in the Department of Public Works. A client of attorney Moorhead suddenly offered the Association $5,000 to cover the cost of having two city draftsmen on temporary leave prepare landscaping plans, using the consulting services of Griswold on a basis approved by the Mayor. Messrs. Stuart, Chubb and Duggan, at a special directors’ meeting on February 23, 1940, accepted this offer, subject to concurrence by a sufficient number of absentee members.
The planting plans were completed in record time and were promptly approved by Mr. Moorhead’s client, then anonymous, but actually the W. L. and May T. Mellon Foundation. The Foundation then offered the Association up to $40,000 for the planting of trees, vines, and shrubbery along the scarred portion of the Boulevard, and maintenance until autumn of 1941.
Over four decades, hundreds of thousands, if no millions, of motorists have traversed the area probably unconscious of hard-won beautification, but at least not assailed by raw ugliness or the monotony of endless crown vetch.
Late in 1941, Ralph Griswold sparked a little activity by outlining a program of parks and playground planning that was incorporated in a proposal to the Buhl Foundation. This resulted in a grant of $5,500 announced at the only meeting in 1942 (on February 4), that was utilized principally for draftsmen’s services in 1942 and 1943 under Griswold’s direction.
If there is some mystery about the Association's inactivity between 1935 and 1940, there was ample reason for inactivity in the early forties. These were war years and civic leaders such as A. W. Robertson and other directors were deeply involved in war production, war boards, and local volunteer efforts. Nevertheless, concern was expressed on several occasions. At the only 1943 meeting, on October 18, called to approve final payment to John Eisler for the Bigelow Boulevard planting, the minutes include one sentence that merited elaboration; but Chubb, who replaced Scharff as secretary and treasurer in 1940, was never verbose. "There was some discussion as to the future of the Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association."
At the very next meeting, June 13, 1944, the same question brought forth an intriguing possibility, "The future usefulness of the Association was discussed, and it was the sense of the Board that it could not accomplish much unless it had an active staff and funds necessary to support its work." The Association then had no funds available for further work, whereas the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association had an office and a staff. However, the Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association had powers which were broader and somewhat different from those of the Regional Planning Association. Because there might be an advantage in bringing the two organizations together, the officers were authorized to suggest such an arrangement to the Executive Committee of the Regional Planning Association.
 At this same meeting, the board turned down a request that the Association might acquire tax delinquent and other lands on behalf of the Riverview Park Commission and ultimately transfer them to the Commission. A further proposal that the Association might act similarly on behalf of the City of Pittsburgh, the Board of Public Education, or the County of Allegheny, with costs to be reimbursed, also failed to win approval as the minutes report explicitly, "It was thought unwise to suggest that the Association take title to any lands." Almost a year later, on April 4, 1945, the question was brought up again, and this time the minutes make clear that the Association's refusal to participate in what appeared to be a promising technique for expanding Riverview Park was dictated solely by legal uncertainties " . . . inadvisable . . . at this time, particularly in view of the uncertain status of tax delinquent properties in relation to the several taxing authorities."
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First Land Acquisition
Then, only a little over six months later, the Association embarked on its first land acquirement activity, and not in Pittsburgh or Allegheny County, but in Lawrence County!
For many years, residents of Lawrence and Butler counties~and even Pittsburghers~had flocked to the McConnells Mill section of Slippery Rock Creek to swim in the old mill pond, picnic on large boulders beside rushing water, or walk on trails winding between fern-covered rocks in the cool shade of large hemlocks. Stanton Belfour, the first director of The Pittsburgh Foundation once told me that Fred Homer, his great English teacher at Schenley High School, used to take some of his pupils on weekend field trips in his old touring car. Stan particularly remembered his first trip to McConnells Mill, and he credited Homer with having stimulated his interest in western Pennsylvania's natural areas~an interest that later led to his active participation in, and fine support of, local conservation activities.
Although thousands enjoyed visiting the Mill and environs and photographing its "kissin’ bridge," this beauty spot, like most in our area at the time, was privately owned. The flour or grist mill had been built in 1852 by a Daniel Kennedy, rebuilt in 1868 after a fire, and sold in 1875 to McConnell, Wilson & Company. Captain McConnell was the grandfather of Thomas Hartman, who was born in New Castle on October 11, 1879, to George W. and Asenath McConnell Hartman.
In his youth, Tom developed a love of the grist mill, long owned and operated by his mother's family (and the wild, rocky valley in which it was situated). In 1898, after graduating from Duff's Business College in Pittsburgh, he began his business career in New Castle, mainly in sheet, tin, and bronze production but ending as president of the Lawrence Savings and Trust Company from 1927 to 1941.
Tom's uncle, I have been told by my prime New Castle memory bank, Bart Richards, came into the bank one day to tell Tom that he couldn't meet the payments on several mortgages on the Mill and he would have to sell the property. Tom asked what amount he wanted and when his uncle said "$15,000," Tom wrote out a check and became the owner. From then on, although he was active in many good causes in New Castle~church, YMCA, hospital~McConnells Mill became his hobby. He lived in an old frame house with a fine broad porch looking out over the Mill, dam, covered bridge, and rushing stream.
Every weekend, wearing an ancient hat, looking more mountaineer than banker, he walked the grounds, using his cane as pointer as he directed visitors to parking and trails. He was assisted by Moses Wharton, known to thousands as "Old Mose." Mose had been born near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on May 31, 1860, the son of slaves freed by their owner, Dr. Wharton, after the Civil War and allowed to use his name.
Employed by Captain McConnell in 1880, in which year he voted for President Garfield, Mose worked in the Mill and delivered flour and feed to stores in the Butler-New Castle area for many years. In our time, he served as caretaker, collecting quarters as parking fees for cars, the same sum he had once charged for tending the horses of visitors.
 To thousands of picnickers and sightseers he seemed a timeless fixture, a cherished link with the days when the Mill ground the grain of nearby farms. (For the most complete story of Old Mose that I have seen, refer to Marion Stewart Hopper's girlhood reminiscences of visits to her great aunt, Jennie Stewart McConnell in The Pittsburgh Press, June 7, 1981). When Mose reached 92, he was no longer able to live alone in a small cottage near the Mill, so he entered the County Home, where he died December 11, 1954.
Tom Hartman had often said that he would not sell the Mill property except for a public park, but what brought him into contact with an organization that had never operated outside of Allegheny County may never be known exactly. He could have encountered Charlie Chubb at a banker’s gathering and talked about his Mill to this great collector of millstones. Frank Preston believes that John M. Phillips and Edmund Arthur were the moving spirits in recommending the Association to him.
I will go even further and guess that a third prime-mover was involved; and, having known all the protagonists, I will visualize the scenario. Edmund Arthur, on one of his country rambles, learned that Tom Hartman would be willing to sell the focal point of Slippery Rock gorge, McConnells Mill, for park purposes. He suggested to his good friend John M. Phillips that it should be a state park.
On December 28, 1944, directors Stuart, Braun, Duggan, Moorhead, and Chubb, approved the minutes of the meeting of June 13 and then initiated the Association’s first land acquisition, a momentous action that must have been well orchestrated in advance for the minutes read in full:
" Motion made by Mr. Chubb, seconded by Mr. Duggan, that the officers of the Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association be authorized to enter into an option agreement with Thomas Hartman, substantially in the form of the draft of option presented at the meeting, covering the property in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, with power to the officers to make such changes in the said option or conditions thereof not affecting the consideration to be paid or other basic provisions as in their judgment in the negotiations with Mr. Hartman may seem advisable.
"Motion made by Mr. Braun, seconded by Mr. Moorhead, that Mr. Stuart and Mr. Chubb be appointed a committee to arrange for raising money for the purchase of the McConnells Mill Property and other such properties as later may be decided upon by the directors.
"Motion made by Mr. Braun, seconded by Mr. Duggan, that Mr. John M. Phillips be elected as director of the Greater Pittsburgh Parks Association. Carried.
"On motion the meeting adjourned."
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1945
Only a week later, Mr. Braun’s influence was again evident. In addition to directors present, there were four invited guests: Wallace Richards, Ralph E. Griswold, John Eisler, and Thomas Hartman. The first of these, Richards, was executive director of the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association, of which Braun was a director and treasurer. The guests may have helped to stimulate action that might almost be labeled precipitate. Although fund-raising had not even started, the directors authorized purchase of an additional eight-acre tract at McConnells Mill for $3,000. Having done so, they discussed the problem of financing this and other properties and decided times were favorable for fund-raising and that immediate efforts should be made. Then, Edmund W. Arthur, Kirtland C. Gardner, and Edgar J. Kaufmann were elected directors – an action that would bring great benefits in the future.
On April 4, with the same four invited guests, the results of the immediate efforts were announced: subscriptions totaling $7,050 had been received!
By year end, December 27, paid contributions had reached $18,277.25, the Mellon gift of stock represented about $1,100 or more, and Kirtland Gardner's United Engineering and Foundry Company had pledged $500—a truly remarkable achievement for an organization that had never previously engaged in fund-raising. (By the following April, about 105 gifts, mostly from individuals, including some generous gifts from directors, had yielded almost $21,000, even though New Castle had failed to contribute any substantial part of the $5,000 hoped for from the community nearest to McConnells Mill.)
Funds were now clearly available to consummate the purchase of the Hartman tract, the option on which was due to expire in four days, on December 31, 1945. To offer further incentive, Tom Hartman volunteered to include an adjacent small tract of eight acres and to reduce the price from $17,000 to $16,500. This generous amended offer was accepted. Hartman then explained that his operating practice had been to pay Moses Wharton, out of the quarters he collected for parking, a small stipend for living on the grounds and serving as caretaker, and then using the balance of the proceeds for repairs to the dam and other maintenance expenses. He asked to lease the old house he occupied and one acre of curtilage for $1 per year for five years, and similarly the cabin Old Mose occupied, paying taxes on both. In return, he would continue to supervise public use, collect parking fees, and compensate Mose, with the balance to be used for maintenance and care of the premises.
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1946
At an adjourned annual meeting of the members~held April 11, 1946, after three earlier dates had failed to attract a quorum~and at a following meeting of the directors, it was mentioned for the first time that the directors favored purchasing small holdings, totaling about eight acres, between the Mill properties and the large holdings downstream of the Pennsylvania Power Company. This did not seem possible, however, unless lagging fund-raising in New Castle produced tangible results approaching the $5,000 amount the Association had been given informal assurances would be raised.
Charles F. Chubb was elected president, succeeding James L. Stuart who had served from the beginning, a period of 16 years.
The Association completed the purchases of several of the McConnells Mill tracts that had been delayed because of title defects but was otherwise inactive during the last eight months of 1946, except for the reelection of the incumbent officers for one-year terms at a directors' meeting on December 9.
Although an aging president had been succeeded in 1946 by a younger and keenly interested director, Charles F. Chubb, events continued to move deliberately.
The "rather tedious process of taking over the Kildoo Tract of seven acres, adjoining the southerly line of the Mill Tract" was completed. The Mill dam sprang a leak and the Mill pond was depleted for several weeks, but even so it was Conservatively estimated that at least 25,000 people visited McConnells Mill during the 1947 season. Tom Hartman paid for immediate repairs and sealing of the Mill dam and was partially reimbursed by year's end out of weekend parking fees collected by "Old Mose."
The Association favored the preservation of an old iron furnace, the Wilroy Furnace, near Rose Point, but felt this project should be left to the New Castle supporters as a special project for their attention. It supported legislation introduced by the Pennsylvania Roadside Council to forward highway landscaping, and it favored the establishment of a Department of Parks and Recreation by city government.
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1948
Continuing its stewardship of McConnells Mill was the principal 1948 activity, with Tom Hartman and "Old Mose" handling on-site supervision. Surveys, difficult in the rugged terrain, were completed on the last several parcels purchased. Early in the year, the president spoke informally to Admiral Draemel, Secretary of Forests and Waters, about the possibility of the state taking over the Mill tracts as a state park.
Mr. Chubb also reported that copies of letters from Park Martin, executive director of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, and Howard B. Stewart, director of the finally established Pittsburgh Department of Parks and Recreation, had been sent earlier to the members of the board. Mr. Stewart proposed either "bringing to life" one of the two existing nonprofit park and playground organizations or persuading the two to merge~or forming a new organization. Mr. Martin transmitted this proposal to the Association and to the Pittsburgh Park and Playground Society for separate consideration.
In 1934, the Mayor's Advisory Committee, of which Chubb was a member, had made a somewhat similar proposal to the Association. It had suggested that all groups concerned with parks and recreation merge and their members become dues-paying but non-voting members of the Association. Griswold then felt the need for a strong, unified citizens' group to support governmental park and recreation programs, and Stewart recognized the same necessity 14 years later. The directors opposed the merger proposed in 1934 and they now declined to join the Pittsburgh Parks and Playground Society but agreed that any concrete proposal from PP&PS would be carefully considered!
Twenty-five years later, this long overdue merger took place when the assets and functions of the PP&PS were transferred in 1973 to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
It was the sense of the sole 1948 meeting that the project of most immediate concern to the Association was the protection of the sides of the new approach road to the Greater Pittsburgh Airport from misuse and commercial exploitation, toward which some previous steps had been taken without result.
Finally, an external event that would drastically alter the future of the Association was reported:
The president stated that Dr. O. E. Jennings of the Carnegie Institute was forming a group of scientists and others interested in the preservation of places of unique botanical and geological interest within about a hundred mile radius of Pittsburgh, and that he had been invited but had not been able to attend a preliminary meeting of this group. He said, however, that their objective seemed to be closely related to that of the Association, and it was the sense of the meeting that discussions with the group should be continued with a view to cooperating with them so far as it is found practicable.
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