In 2005, Scaife was number 238 on the Forbes 400, with a personal fortune of $1.2 billion. Surviving photos reveals a stolid farmhouse, described as white with green shutters. The moral of this story is this: Millionaires, don't tear down your 65-room mansions until you give me a chance to walk through them! In 1911 the architectural firm of Alden and Harlow designed the terraced gardens just below the mansion. 1 This is a photo of John M. Phillips' children on the front lawn of his mansion "Impton" at 2236 Brownsville Road with Richard B. Mellon, Richard King Mellon and Sara Mellon. It was a stones throw from the current Pittsburgh Center for the Arts on Fifth Ave. Here's a link to a pic. From an early age, Thomas Mellon entrusted his sons with business ventures. First of all, I loved reading your blog, because even though Im an engineering major history has always fascinated me! Did she grow to like, or love, her husband? And there was all that fuss about her then-boyfriend former Allegheny County District Attorney Robert W. Duggan: his political scandals, their hasty marriage likely orchestrated to legally avoid being compelled to testify against him during a federal corruption investigation, and questions surrounding his sudden death (accident? Let's assume that these items were rendered less conspicuous by decorators who The 65-room mansion of Richard B. Mellon, brother of Andrew Mellon, built at 6500 Fifth Avenue in 1910: The Richard B. Mellons raised two children in that "house," which included a bowling alley in the basement and a carriage house. It's hard to tell whether Sarah Jane's preternatural self-possession unnerved or impressed him. Other than these glimpses, the public is left with only the name and limited understanding of the life of Sarah Jane Negley Mellon as filtered through others' experiences. She was by all accounts a pleasant, dutiful mother and grandmother, but not a doting one. 01 Grants. These were removed from the Richard B. Mellon Mansion in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during WWII. It would be lovely to curl up with those books to see what she collected, to learn what held her interest and curiosity. R.B. After her death, James continued to spend each winter in Palatka. What was it about this "quiet, pleasant, and self-possessed" woman that set the steely-eyed and practical thirty year old bachelor off course, yet kept him coming back for more? Cordelia characterized her mother as, Three of the four adopted children of Richard King Mellon (son of Richard B.) Thomas Mellon assures us in his memoir chapter entitled "Courtship and Marriage" that Sarah Jane's attitude was not born of coquetry. Was it love at first sight? Best regard from Belgium. It's not that Sarah isn't present throughout--he makes consistent use of first person plural pronouns when describing their travels. We don't know if she longed for a daughter to replace her lost baby girls. The chandeliers once graced a 1930s-era Los Angeles theater. Reducing Chronic School Absenteeism. 'On May 7th, 1919, at the age of 73, Rachel Mellon passed away upon arriving home to Pittsburgh. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. The rail ties and lumber used to build the railroad were furnished by the lumber company the Mellon brothers owned. It certainly is startling for modern park-goers to find what may be a grave site in their midst, and someone along the way must have tried to deduce an explanation. That's a shame considering the century's worth The home was built in 1904 for Henry Clay Frick and his family as a summer home in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts. His brother remained "it" until he died four years later." "Last tag." - Banker Richard B. Mellon (1858-1933) 2 whyIsUsermanTaken 1 yr. ago I appreciate you you letting us know what is was. And thus history becomes attainable, not a scholarly discipline, but a simle human story. Conflicting stories exist as to where Sarah Jane's grandparents Alexander and his wife were buried. During World War II, the current Catholic Church building was built by hand by parish members using materials from the dismantled Richard B. Mellon mansion in Pittsburgh. Social activists, politicians, journalists, and others helped to bring about changes like child labor laws and minimum wage. But in fact, it's not unusual for rural communities like old Negleytown to have had their own burial grounds. Send Report . The case is often cited in discussions of custody conflicts that result in parental child-napping, and eclipses his many good works, including the, Matthew T. Mellon, Sr., grandson of the eldest of the Mellon sons, obtained a PhD in history and was an American Studies professor at University of Freiburg from 1928-1939. A retired manufacturer in the curtain industry he w This much, I knew: Sarah Jane Negley Mellon was an heiress descended from multiple Pittsburgh pioneer families who once owned nearly all of the East End. He had a personal fortune of $1.4billion in his lifetime, mostly through inherited wealth. With opalescent glass alone, the panel presents an evocative scene of rippling water, floating lotus flowers, and a footbridge draped with roses. The land was then given to the city to become what is known now as Mellon Park, while the carriage house is the Phipps Garden Center. His children, Sarah Mellon and her younger brother Richard King Mellon, were heirs to the family fortune alongside their cousins Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon-Bruce. These mansions are beautiful and marvelous and it was a shame that they were torn down. The day after my tour, I was reading a book about art collecting in Pittsburgh during the Gilded Age when I stumbled upon something that, as our columnist Rick Sebak would say, isn't there anymore. What I did know, even at age 5, was that a different kind of life was lived by the sorts of folks who had the money and hubris to reproduce their houses in miniature. The scene sounds like something out of the Duquesne Club, an exclusive Downtown enclave for Pittsburgh's rich and powerful. You can find all of of our more than 7,700 grants and program-related investments in our archives. It's in plain sight but bland and usually overlooked.. Rather like Andrew Mellon, actually. The house was razed in 1940 after the City of Pittsburgh refused to forgive the taxes owed on the structure. His uncle Richard B. Mellon (1858-1933) was Andrew's business partner. This family dramatically shaped Pittsburgh's economic and civic character, and its influence extended far beyond the city. After her death, James continued to spend each winter in Palatka. R.B. Matthew, who died last year aged 54,was a businessman who was a chairman of the New York Republican State Committee's finance committee, William L. Mellon (pictured left wearing straw skimmer), was the founder of Gulf Oil and the son of James Ross Mellon. : http://rivista-cdn.pittsburghmagazin.ver=1328293938 After Richard Mellon and his wife died in the 1930s, their son Richard King Mellon, lived there briefly before retreating to Ligonier. Her father, Jacob Negley, was a surveyor and mechanical engineer. What Remains Behind ?, June 19, 1944, Page THREE, Image 3, brought to you by Alaska State Library Historical Collections, and the National Digital Newspaper Program. society of to-day, Song of Haiti: The Lives of Dr. Larimer and Gwen Mellon, Pittsburgh's Colcom Foundation plays major role in immigration-control debate. Details. It had been erected in 1912 by Sarah Negley Mellon to honor her grandparents, Alexander and Anna Maria Burkstresser Negley, who were buried there in unmarked graves along with many other nameless Pittsburgh pioneers. Richard B. Mellon. His dissertation was published as, His brother William Larimer Mellon Jr, gets lost in the gossip despite his astounding humanitarian efforts. Although there are four distinct branches descending from the legendary Judge Thomas Mellon, I'm unsure how many Pittsburghers know (or care) which Mellon is which. As a lifelong Pittsburgher there are many elements of the Mellon saga that I never knew, including Sara Jane's story. A gossipy 1888 book entitled The social mirror: a character sketch of the women of Pittsburg and vicinity during the first century of the county's existence alphabetically categorizes the women of the city according to the qualities of beauty, intelligence, musicality and artistry, charity, wealth, moral do-gooding, and positions of social standing that they best exemplify. 'In 1867, Mellon sold the Coal Works. Along with being a successful bank and industrialist, he was a philanthropist like the rest of the Mellon family and deeply invested in his community. (Factual information from Images of America: Pittsburghs Mansions by Melanie Linn Gutowski), Photo courtesy of: http://thatschurch.com/2012/04/30/pittsburgh-history-with-ginny-suck-it-harlequin/. That "immense copper beech James Mellon founded the City Deposit Bank, becoming its president in 1898. The potential trauma inflicted upon their daughters (who were first abducted by their troubled mother after she left a treatment program, then re-abducted a year later at gunpoint by Mellon's employees outside their mother's home in NYC), rivaled that inflicted on Ailsa and Paul Mellon during Andrew Mellon's custody battle at the turn of the century. He was president of the board of trustees of East Liberty Presbyterian Church. 'The Mellon family ranked among the wealthiest and most prominent industrialists in the United States by the time of Judge Mellon's death in 1908. It is possible to sponsor a star and make a donation. The site, part of a 14-acre parcel of land known as Frick Acres, was donated to the University by Andrew W. Mellon and his brother, Richard B. Mellon. Mellon has been recognized as one of the most important private benefactors of environmental causes, achieving his significant stature quietly and humbly. Sarah Jane didn't make a marriage of passion. Was there anything there, the pastor and building committee wondered, that a parish with little money could procure for a new church building? The garden's fourth wall was part of the Mellon mansion before its demolition in the 1940s. jubilated a practical minded committee, upon learning that all they surveyed could be theirs merely for the cost of hauling it away! He also served as a trustee for the Athalia Daly Home for Working Girls. The modern urban landscape grew up to surround it, but the graveyard was there first. He served as president of Western Pennsylvania Hospital and the Allegheny County Juvenile Court Farm. Unless otherwise indicated, all content is original to author. Other images show inside the property with a piano and old records left behind, along with old tennis rackets and an American flag. She seems instead to have been one who naturally kept her own counsel and was always emotionally reserved. She and her older brother, Richard King Mellon, grew up at their parents' 60-room Fifth Avenue mansion (apparently at the time the largest house in Pittsburgh) in what became the city's wonderful Mellon Park after the house was . But for all that this makes me an unintentional font of Mellon trivia, the family still exists for me in a world apart, one separated from my understanding and experience by more than glass. [volume] (Nome, Alaska) 1938-??? The Mellon private family archives contain private written material and memorabilia which no doubt shed more light on Sarah Jane's personality -- including the scrapbooks which so infuriated her husband when they were courting. When it was all delivered, Saint Peters had what amounted to a stone quarry in their back yard, together with thirty tons of steel beams, sixty-five oak doors, and all the other innumerable items concomitant with the wrecking of a sixty-five room house. But Sarah Jane's private letters, scrapbooks and travel journal, those few documents we know she left, remain within the control and interpretation of her descendants. James and wife Rachael first came to Florida in the early 1880s, to get away from the frigid winters in Pennsylvania. Incredible photos show the abandoned remains of a 6,000-square-foot river retreat that once belonged to a hugely successful US banking magnate. Stunned, I started researching the house, asking myself, "You'd remember if you saw that, right? But the chapter is all about their itinerary, not their intimacy. Mellon's philanthropic gifts were primarily church-oriented. undemonstrative. You can also learn about the Gilded Age and its extreme wealth gap. [1], The Walled Garden is surrounded by walls of brick and limestone and is one of Gothic design. Thomas Mellon warmed up to his new wife, whom he described as taking ".full possession and master of the situation, not the least discouraged through without any company or help." when the couple moved into a rented home downtown. Perhaps it did a bit of both. It is also home to several recreational facilities. We don't know if she, too, found recounting the details of their 1842 wedding "uninteresting." She'd buy me a raisin-filled cookie from the Jenny Lee Bakery just below the square, then let me amuse myself while she had a cigarette. The rail ties and lumber used to build the railroad were furnished by the lumber company the Mellon brothers owned. These industrious men then built the monumental Mount St. Peter Church in New Kensington, which still stands and functions to this day from the materials of the Mellon Mansion. Father Bob Lubik, who coincidentally is an old friend of mine and the wildest priest you will ever meet, has a complete history on the Mount Saint Peter Church in New Kensington on his blog, including this taken from the December 1995 issue of The Barque of Peter: At that time the Mellon mansion, in suburban Pittsburgh, fifteen miles distant, was being razed and its furnishings sold.

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