The Mansion "Pic-Nic", An Old Pittsburgh Mansion, and Mary Schenley

Mary Schenley, of Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park and my very own Schenley High School fame, was married away at age 14 to a 47 year old sea captain!

Today I got a tweet from the District 7 Council Seat of Pittsburgh:

Some research for a constituent led to this nostalgic piece about the old Schenley Mansion and its namesake in… http://t.co/njn5MlHGqH

— PGH District 7 (@PghDistrict7) August 9, 2013

I did a little reading of my own and came up with the article in PDF from JSTOR. Here it is:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20443060

You can click the “View PDF” link on the right to download and read the full PDF. It helps to use the magnifying glass to make the text larger.

Anyway, Mary Schenley has always been a big part of the history of Pittsburgh, in my mind. It is amazing to read how she was (what today would be) stolen away at such a young age and taken away by sea!

Her father, William Croghan from Kentucky, built Pic-Nic, a mansion that Mary and her husband later occupied. He called it “Pic-Nic” because he enjoyed eating outside, according to The Art Union.

It is amazing to read the stories from the mid 1800’s of what were old mansions then. Imagine if that house had survived to today? It would truly be a gem.

Have you got a sort about an old Mansion to share? Are you stolen away to sea and married to an old sea captain when you were a teen?