Hot Fun In the Summertime

Last week, we looked at the ways to pass the wintertime on the Lake. But now that a couple clippers and nor'easters decided to drop in for the weekend, it's time to change focus. Grab a hot chocolate, put your feet up and warmly recall summer in Panther Hollow.

The lake was configured in 1907-09 by Public Works Director Edward Bigelow and Parks Superintendent George Burke. But Oaklanders knew of it way back when it was a relative puddle. It was a boating and picnic site from at least post-Civil War days, and the City wasted no time putting up a rec area in 1892, shortly after Mary Schenley gifted her woody acreage to Pittsburgh.

Panther Hollow Picnic Area 1894 (Exposition program)

It didn't take long for the hard working folk of the East End to figure out that the Hollow and its lake was a pretty fun place to loaf, and they packed the ravine. Married couples and their kids had a cool hang out, and it was even better if you were wooing.

“So many members of the pioneer class in the Margaret Morrison Carnegie School (the all-female school of the college, opened in 1907) were seen strolling in Schenley Park with masculine escorts that the authorities were prompted to issue certain pronouncements to quell romance. It was a labor lost...” according to Arthur Tarbell’s 1937 “The Story of Carnegie Tech.” He noted that many “Carnegie couples” had their introductions via those park strolls, and we're sure it was the same for Pitt pairs. 

It was even better in the moonlight...

Anyway, with that kind of beginning, it was no wonder the Lake was a magnet to kids young and old. Not all of us were holding hands with stars in their eyes. We rode horses in the Hollow. We strolled the trails. We brought baskets with food and wine. We swam, boated, fished, goofed.

Riding the Ponies in the Hollow (photo via Walter Kennedy's "Oakland")

So hey, forget the snow flakes. Close your eyes and remember the hot fun in the summertime that Panther Hollow Lake doled out year after year. It's right around the corner again...

PHL by Melissa McMasters via Flickr