Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh has been housed within the Old Post Office building since 1983 and is recognized as a regional asset for its adaptive use of historic property. The 20,000 square foot building of Italian Renaissance design is listed with the National Register of Historic Places and was designed by William Aiken, architect for the U.S. Treasury Department. It is graced with a four-story, copper domed rotunda adjoined by an enclosed courtyard. The building opened in 1897 as the main post office for the city of Allegheny and was saved from destruction by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. It was deeded to the Children's Museum in 1991. The land now occupied by the Children's Museum and its surrounding buildings has a long history of public use and civic pride. When the city of Allegheny (annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907 and now known as Pittsburgh's North Side) was first surveyed and planned as a county seat in 1784 and 1788 under orders from Benjamin Franklin, this area served as part of a Reserve Tract of 3,000 acres to be used as payment for Revolutionary War veterans. The 36-block square grid plan with common land at the center and the periphery is familiar to many New England towns, but the practice also dates to ancient Rome and the Old Testament.