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The Pop Artist Andy Warhol (originally Andrew Warhola) was born in Pittsburgh on August 6, 1928.
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This tour will take you to Warhol’s childhood homes and the schools he attended up through his college graduation at the Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Mellon). Warhol didn’t return for any length of time until after his death in 1987 and this tour will visit where the funeral liturgy was held and where he is buried alongside his parents. Finally the tour will visit the Warhol Museum and the bridge named in Warhol’s honor.
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Start Andy Warhol's Pittsburgh Tour
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Stop 1: 73 Orr Street.
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Andy Warhol (originally Warhola) was born on August 6th, 1928 in Pittsburgh to Julia and Ondrej Warhola, Carpatho-Rusyns who emigrated from what is now known as eastern Slovakia in the early 1920's. His family, which included 2 older brothers – John and Paul - lived at 73 Orr Street, which was a two-room tarpaper shack, squeezed into a row of two dozen just like it, facing a matching row across a muddy alley. There was no inside bathroom but the family used an outhouse in the center of the alley.
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Stop 2: 55 Beelen Street.
When Andy was 2 the family moved to a four-room apartment in a two-family house ($18/month rent), around the corner on Beelen Street where they lived from 1929-1932.
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Stop 3: 6 Lower Moutrie Street.
The family lived at this address from 1932-1934.
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Stop 4: 3252 Dawson Street.
In 1934, the Warholas bought a house of their own ($3,200). Andy lived with his family at Dawson Street from 1934 until he moved to New York in 1949.
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Stop 5: Holmes Elementary School
Andy entered first grade at the school in September 1934 and was there until high school. The school no longer exists but was at the corner of Holmes and Dawson Streets.
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While in the fourth grade Andy started art classes at the Carnegie Institute.
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Stop 6: Schenley High School
Schenley High School (now schenley apartments, 4101 Bigelow Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15213) was where Andy went to high school. The school originally opened in 1916 but closed in 2008 and was converted to apartments. In 1942 Andy’s father passed way. Andy graduated at the young age of 16 in 1945, finishing 51st in his class of 278 graduates.
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Stop 7: Carnegie Institute of Technology
Andy first visited the school in the fourth grade when he took Joseph C. Fitzpatrick’s Saturday morning art class at the Carnegie Institute. The sessions were free, with two students participating from each school in Allegheny County upon the recommendation of their art teacher. Andy would attend these classes for four years.
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Later in 1945 Andy entered college at the Carnegie Institute where an art-education option was available in the Department of Painting and Design. He almost failed his first year but a sympathetic teacher gave him second chance by completing summer school. During that summer he helped his older brother Paul huckster fruit out of a truck and a series of sketches he made of customers during this time helped him to not only be allowed to continue his studies but also to win a scholarship at Carnegie Tech. On June 16, 1949 he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in pictorial design and later that year moved to New York City and began a career in magazine illustration and advertising.
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Stop 8: Joseph Horne’s
In the summer between his sophomore and junior years, Andy had a job at the Joseph Horne department store in downtown Pittsburgh (located at Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street), where he was assigned to the display department. The store was one of the oldest department stores in the country (founded on February 22, 1849) but ceased operations in 1994 after being merged with the Lazarus division of Federated Department Stores. Blue Cross Blue Shield now occupies the building.
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Stop 9: 341 Boulevard of the Allies
A small studio, Outlines, was opened by Elizabeth Rockwell (whose father’s business became defense contractor Rockwell International) in 1941 and featured many exhibits, performances, lectures, music and film events until it closed in 1947. Young artists, including Andy Warhol, converged there to view work that would inspire them throughout their careers.
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Stop 10: Thomas P. Kunsak Funeral Home.
After Andy’s death in 1987 Warhol's brothers took his body back to Pittsburgh, where an open-coffin wake was held at the Thomas P. Kunsak Funeral Home. The solid bronze casket had gold-plated rails and white upholstery. Warhol was dressed in a black cashmere suit, a paisley tie, a platinum wig, and sunglasses. He was laid out holding a small prayer book and a red rose.
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Stop 11: Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church
The funeral liturgy was held at the Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church on Pittsburgh's North Side. The eulogy was given by Monsignor Peter Tay. Yoko Ono and John Richardson were speakers
The coffin was covered with white roses and asparagus ferns.
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Stop 12: St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Bethel Park
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After the liturgy, the coffin was driven to St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Bethel Park, a south suburb of Pittsburgh. Warhol was buried next to his mother and father. Webcam of grave (http://www.earthcam.com/usa/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/warhol/)
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Stop 13: Andy Warhol Museum (117 Sandusky St, Pittsburgh, PA 15212)
The Andy Warhol Museum is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist and contains an extensive permanent collection of art and archives from Andy Warhol. It is one of the four
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and was created by the Carnegie Institute, the Dia Art Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. The museum opened in May 1994 about 8 years after Andy Warhol’s death.
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The museum is located in an 88,000-square-foot building on seven floors. Containing 17 galleries, the museum features 900 paintings, close to 2,000 works on paper, over 1,000 published unique prints, 77 sculptures, 4,000 photographs, and over 4,350 Warhol films and videotaped works.
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Stop 14: Andy Warhol Bridge
The Andy Warhol Bridge, also known as the Seventh Street Bridge, crosses the Allegheny River. The bridge was renamed for Warhol on March 18, 2005, as part of the tenth anniversary celebration for the Andy Warhol Museum. It is one of three parallel bridges called The Three Sisters, the others being the Roberto Clemente Bridge and the Rachel Carson Bridge. The Three Sisters are self-anchored suspension bridges and are historically significant because they are the only trio of nearly identical bridges – as well as the first self-anchored suspension spans — built in the United States.
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