Nationality Rooms

Nationality Rooms
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
City of Pittsburgh Historic Structure
Pittsburgh Landmark — PHLF
Rooms ring the three-story Gothic hall, named the Commons Room, in the Cathedral of Learning
Location	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Coordinates	40°26′39″N 79°57′11″W / 40.44417°N 79.95306°W / 40.44417; -79.95306Coordinates: 40°26′39″N 79°57′11″W / 40.44417°N 79.95306°W / 40.44417; -79.95306
Built	Cathedral of Learning 1926 Nationality Rooms 1938-present
Architect	various
Architectural style	various, 18th century or earlier
Part of	Cathedral of Learning as part of the Schenley Farms Historic District (#83002213)
NRHP Reference #	75001608
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	November 3, 1975
Designated CP	Cathedral of Learning: July 22, 1983
Designated CPHS	Cathedral of Learning: February 22, 1977
Designated PHLF	1972: Cathedral of Learning interiors

African Heritage Classroom
Room	330
Dedicated	December 17, 1989
Concept	Dr. Laurence Glasco
Architect	William J. Bates, A.I.A.
Style	18th century Asante Temple

Armenian Classroom
Room	319
Dedicated	August 28, 1988
Architect	Torkom Khrimian
Style	10th-12th century Monastic

Austrian Classroom
Room	314
Dedicated	June 9, 1996
Architects	Franz Gerhardt Schnögass, Vienna Gunther J. Kaier, A.I.A. Pittsburgh
Style	17th-18th century Baroque

Chinese Classroom
Room	136
Dedicated	October 6, 1939
Design	Teng Kwei, Beijing
Architect	Henry Killiam Murphy
Style	18th-century Chinese Empire

Czechoslovak Classroom
Room	113
Dedicated	March 7, 1939
Architect	Dr. Bohumil Sláma, Prague
Style	Folk Motif

Early American Room
Room	328
Presented	1938
Architect	Theodore H. Bowman, A.I.A. Pittsburgh
Style	17th century New England Colonial

English Classroom
Room	144
Dedicated	November 21, 1952
Architect	Albert A. Klimcheck
Style	16th century Tudor-Gothic

French Classroom
Room	149
Dedicated	January 23, 1943
Architect	Jacques Carlu, Paris
Style	Late 18th-century French Empire

German Classroom
Room	119
Dedicated	July 8, 1938
Architect	Frank A. Linder, Germany/U.S.
Style	16th-century German Renaissance

The Nationality Rooms are a collection of 30 classrooms in the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning depicting and donated by the national and ethnic groups that helped build the city of Pittsburgh. The rooms are designated as a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation historical landmark and are located on the 1st and 3rd floors of the Cathedral of Learning, itself a national historic landmark, on the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Although of museum caliber, 28 of the 30 rooms are regularly used as functional classrooms that are utilized daily by University of Pittsburgh faculty and students, while the other two (the Early American and Syrian-Lebanon) are mostly used as display rooms viewed through glass doors and are otherwise utilized primarily for special events and can only be explored via special guided tour. The Nationality Rooms also serve in a vigorous program of intercultural involvement and exchange in which the original organizing committees for the individual rooms remain as participants and includes a program of annual student scholarship to facilitate study abroad. In addition, the Nationality Rooms inspire lectures, seminars, concerts exhibitions, and social events which focus on the various heritages and traditions of the nations represented. The various national, traditional, and religious holidays of the nations represented are celebrated on campus and the rooms are appropriately decorated to reflect these occasions. The Nationality Rooms are available daily for public tours as long as the particular room is not being used for a class or other university function.

The Nationality Room Program was founded by Ruth Crawford Mitchell at the request of Pitt Chancellor John Bowman in 1926 in order to involve the community as much as he could in constructing the Cathedral of Learning and to provide the spiritual and symbolic foundation of the Cathedral that what would make the inside of the building as inspiring and impressive as the outside. Under Mitchell's direction, invitations were extended to the nationality communities that made up the Pittsburgh area to provide a room that was representative of their heritage. Each group had to form a Room Committee, which would be responsible for all fundraising, designing, and acquisition. The University provided the room and upkeep in perpetuity once completed, while all other materials, labor, and design were provided by the individual committees. These were sometimes partly provided for by foreign governments which, "...responded with generous support, often providing architects, artists, materials, and monetary gifts to assure authenticity and superb quality in their classrooms." Each room's detail is carefully designed and executed down to the switch plates, door handles, hinges, and wastebaskets. The work is often performed and designed by native artists and craftsmen and involves imported artifacts and materials. Mitchell remained Director of the Nationality Rooms program until 1956, having overseen the creation of the first 19 rooms on the first floor of the Cathedral. A successor to Mitchell wasn't named until 1965, when current Director E. Maxine Bruhns took over the program, overseeing the completion (so far) of eight additional rooms on the third floor.