Longue Vue Club and Golf Course

Written by in the A Place in Time category and the Fall 2005 issue Topics in this article: Albert Taylor, Allegheny River, Benno Janssen, Georgian, Joseph Home Company, Masonic Temple, Mellon Institute, National Register of Historic Places, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Athletic Association, U.S. Department of the Interior, William Penn Hotel
A Place in Time spotlights a significant cultural resource - a district, site, building, structure or object - entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

The incorporating members of the Lougue Vue Club and Golf Course founded in 1920, hired Benno Janssen (1874-1964), of Janssen and Cocken Archi­tects, landscape architect Albert Taylor (1883-1951), and golf course architect Robert White (1874-1959) to design their clubhouse, grounds, and golf course on three hundred and fifty acres they had purchased in East Penn Hills Town­ship, east of Pittsburgh. The club’s organizers, wealthy Pittsburgh businessmen nicknamed the “Millionaires Club,” selected the site at Verona, Allegheny County, for its spectacular views of the Allegheny River, which it overlooked, and not for its suitability for golf, a game they enjoyed.

Planning, design, and construction of the golf course and the building began immediately. The greens opened in May 1923, and the clubhouse, partially in use as early as the following year, was not fully operational until 1925.

A prominent Pittsburgh architect, Janssen designed a nmn­ber of monumental buildings in the city, among them the Masonic Temple, the Mellon Institute, the William Penn Hotel, the Duquesne Club, and the Pittsburgh Athletic Association. He began work on Longue Vue following his successful addition to the Joseph Home Company department store (1922) in downtown Pittsburgh.

Janssen’s architectural style for Longue Vue’s clubhouse is a meld of rich – yet somewhat unusual – building traditions. The most obvious style is English Norman; however, the large end chimneys flush with gable walls are decidedly Georgian in origin, and the deep casement windows imply a French rural vernacular style. The roofline is varied and consists of numerous steep gables sheathed in thick slate. (Janssen’s use of slate and unusually wide chimneys are trademarks of his work of the period.) This cumulative architectural style is one rarely encountered in western Pennsylvania.

In 1985, the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation awarded a plaque to the Longue View Club and Golf Course, recognizing it as a local landmark. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 10, 2005, for its architectural, historical, and recreational significance.

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of buildings, structures, sites, objects, and districts deemed worthy of preservation by the U. S. Department of the Interior. The program is coordinated in the Commonwealth by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation.

 

Recently Added to the National Register

Allegheny County

  • Arm­strong Cork Company, Pittsburgh
  • Elmridge, Leetsdale
  • Longue Vue Club and Golf Course, Verona
  • Sperling Building, Wilkinsburg

Berks County

  • First National Bank in Fleetwood, Fleetwood

Bucks County

  • Yardley Historic District, Yardley

Lancaster County

  • Furnace Hills Tenant House, West Cocalico Township

Montgomery County

  • Black Horse Inn, Flourtown
  • King of Prussia Inn, King of Prussia
  • Stanley, Abington Township

Northampton County

  • Ulick’s Mill, Bethlehem

Philadelphia County

  • Walnut Park Plaza Hotel, Philadelphia

Somerset County

  • New Colonial Hotel, Meyersdale