The Fort Pitt Hotel was located at Penn Avenue at Tenth Street, on the eastern edge of Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle. The building was once considered one of Pittsburgh’s most elegant hotels. The hotel was built in two sections; the eight-story section at Tenth and Penn Avenue was constructed in 1905. The eleven-story tower addition was added in 1909.

The Fort Pitt Hotel in 1905 shortly after the grand opening.

The ornately decorated interior of the Fort Pitt Hotel featured several themed rooms, like the Writing Room, the English Room, and the world-renowned Norse Room, which was decorated entirely of Rockwood tiles. The Norse Room included nine large wall panels depicting Longfellow’s poem, “The Skeleton in Armor.” The masterpiece, designed by John Dee Wareham, was finished in 1909 at a cost of $85,000.

  
The lobby and staircase of the Fort Pitt Hotel.

  
The Cafe (left) and the Writing Room of the Fort Pitt Hotel.

  
The English Room (left) and the world-renowned Norse Room of the Fort Pitt Hotel.

Some of the distinguished guests that stayed at the hotel were William Jennings Bryant, Eleanor Roosevelt, Stepin Fetchit, Jack Benny and Rochester, and Gene Sarazen. After sixty years as part of the Pittsburgh landscape, the Fort Pitt Hotel was razed in 1967 to make way for the Penn Park redevelopment project.

The Fort Pitt Hotel in the late-1950s. The building was demolished in 1967.