Up, Up & Away...The Oval As An Airport

Schenley Oval and Flagstaff Hill are nearby neighbors of the Lake as the crow flies and integral parts of the Panther Hollow watershed. So today, we're heading uphill from Lake Schenley to revisit a little airborne park lore from the fringes of the Hollow.

Pittsburgh has a secure place in aeronautic history. Pitt prof Samuel Langley did some early heavier than air flight physics that helped lay the groundwork for aviation, Clifford Ball's "Miss Pittsburgh" was the first regional air mail carrier, winning national Post Office Contract #11, and the area was littered with airfields. Heck, Amelia Earhart even crash landed in one, O'Hara's Rodgers Field. Schenley Park was one of those fields, too, although it was more of an off-the-books plane pasture than official air strip.

We know that the Oval hosted a variety of activities - various meets and exhibitions, the horses and stable, auto races, softball games, tennis matches, joggers, dog walkers, soccer contests and all sorts of play, but it was also once the first flight site in the City.

Undated studio post card by Colonial Studios

According to the County of Allegheny sesqui-centennial (sic) program of 1938, in the early 1900’s “occasional flights were made from a field in Schenley Park...During the world war flying activities were moved to Schenley Oval which was the scene of Pittsburgh aeronautics until 1920…” Schenley Oval also served as an airfield during WW1 and in the post war years, pilots trained during the conflict flocked back to it, hooked on aerial thrills. 

Annie Kulina, in her Millhunks and Renegades book, wrote “Barnstormers...lit at the Oval to perform their ‘flying circuses.’ The gathering crowd, many of whom had never seen an airplane before, gasped at the planes loop-the-loops through the sky. Adventurous spectators could pay a few dollars for their own trip to heaven, climbing in behind the pilot in his two seater flying machine for a birds eye view of the park.”

The Oval and Flagstaff were also magnets for hot air balloonists, who often performed during popular park air shows and holiday festivities. In fact, Pittsburgh journalist Gertrude Gordon became the first local female to ride a hot air balloon, taking off from Flagstaff Hill in 1908. The park may have even been the birthplace of flight.

Per Wikipedia “...according to an affidavit given in 1934 by Louis Darvarich, a friend of aeronautic pioneer Gustave Whitehead, the two men made a motorized flight together of about half a mile in Schenley Park in the spring of 1899, four years before the Wright Brothers flew into fame. Darvarich said they reached a height of 20-25’ in a steam-powered monoplane and crashed into a three story brick building. Darvarich said he was stoking the boiler aboard the craft and was badly scalded in the accident, requiring several weeks in a hospital. Reportedly because of this incident, Whitehead was forbidden by the police to perform any more experiments in Pittsburgh.” 

Gustav Whitehead; the plane is a 1901 model.

While this tale has been taken with a grain of salt (there is no photographic evidence or even a newspaper article for support), it does confirm that Pittsburgh and Schenley Park were part of the early American aerial scene. There was even serious consideration given to making the Oval an auxiliary air strip (with Neville Island to serve as a full-fledged airport) in 1928. 

The idea was championed by the Post Gazette and several county and US politicians, including future PA Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno, who told the PG that the Oval was ideal, being in the heart of the City's business community. Even Oakland development mastermind Franklin Nicola was in favor of the project. The proposal got as far as City Council, but it ultimately failed to gather support after a series of protests tarred the notion.

1928 Post Gazette

Soon afterward (1931), the County Airport opened in West Mifflin, and the Oval settled back into the recreational hub that we so enjoy today.

The only flying objects spinning through the Oval and Flagstaff Hill now are frisbees or soccer balls. And while the lure of stunt pilots walking on wings and doing figure eights through the Oakland skies or taking a hot air balloon trip is tough to resist, we kinda like the serenity of the park as it is. Now about those drones...