If walls could talk

The fate of the building that was soon to be Lawrence Hall was up for grabs in the early '60s. The Sherwyn Hotel, as it was named at the time, faced deep financial trouble and was about to go on the auction block.

"What will happen to the Sherwyn now is anybody's guess, but if you have about $400,000 and want to buy a hotel, drop in at the courthouse," reported the Pittsburgh Press on Feb. 4, 1962.

What did happen to the Sherwyn is forever written into Point Park University history. Owners of the hotel and the school's board of directors reached final negotiations in the spring of 1967. On March 9, 1968 the official dedication of David L. Lawrence Hall, named after the former Pennsylvania governor, was held.

Today, as students' daily routines lead them into Lawrence Hall, whether it is traveling up and down the elevators to class or grabbing a bite to eat at the Point Cafe, they may not think twice about the history that happened inside the very walls surrounding them.

"It was called the traveling salesman hotel," Ed Meena, professor of the Humanties Department, said. "It was a basic, mid-priced hotel. It did not have the amenities of the Hilton, which was built in 1960 and much more modern. You know what [traveling salesmen] would like about coming to Pittsburgh? They would stay at the Sherwyn, take care of their business, then they would catch a street car to Forbes Field and watch a Pirate game."

Not only did it attract the traveling salesman-type who stayed for a short bit, but the Sherwyn was home to Justice Michael Musmanno, who served as a presiding judge during Nuremberg Trials, a series of U.S. military trials held in Germany after World War II to persecute the surviving members of Nazi leadership. Musmanno, a Pennsylvania native, saw the transformation of the hotel becoming part of a college.

"[Point Park] allowed him to stay because he was a famous American," Meena said. "He lived on the 19th floor I think, and I believe he passed away in the dorms. He used to walk around the school in the late '60s with his judicial robes on."

Before becoming the Sherwyn Hotel and then Lawrence Hall, which is now considered a historical landmark by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the building changed ownerships several times.

Built on the site of Pittsburgh's Saint Charles Hotel, one of the leading hotels of the 1800s, the cost of construction in the late 1920s amounted to $3 million, according to the Press article.

Originally chartered in 1925 by architect Benno Janssen of Janssen & Cocken, he designed the Wood Street Commons at 304 Wood St. and the Pittsburgh Athletic Association located at 4215 Fifth Ave. in Oakland. The building's first purpose was serving as the Keystone Athletic Club, which was opened in January of 1929. The 21-story building featured many amenities including a swimming pool, a gymnasium and athletic equipment, among other amenities, as well as 10 floors of bedrooms, each with a private bath.

"I think [the historical landmark status] gives the university a connection to past Pittsburgh history," Meena said. "When [Lawrence Hall] was built in the 1920s, it was a boom time in Pittsburgh, the Boulevard of the Allies, the Liberty Bridge, the Liberty Tunnels, the Cathedral of Learning, just to name a few big projects. I think it allows everybody to understand the continuity of everything."

The fate of the building after the Keystone Athletic Club and before the Sherwyn Hotel was an unstable road. Over the years, ownership of the building changed hands several times, mainly because of financial trouble. In 1934, the Keystone Athletic Club was renamed the Metropolitan Club and maintained only seven floors of the building as the Knott Hotel Corporation began to manage the building as the Keystone Hotel.

The Sheraton Corporation then gained management in 1945, and officially bought and opened the hotel as the Sheraton in 1948.

"As part of the change-over, the cocktail lounge and dining room on the lobby floor are being completely remodeled and air conditioned…the waitresses in the cocktail lounge will wear the traditional 'Sheraton sheers,' evening gowns with more than slightly transparent skirts," according to an Aug. 21, 1948 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette entitled "Keystone Hotel Changes Name."

In 1955, the hotel came under different management again, was renamed the Sherwyn, according to the Press article, and from 1967 on, the rest is Point Park history.

In order to preserve the building's original charm, Point Park, along with funding from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, commissioned major renovations in 2005, Meena said.

"They restored some of the exterior and some of the main parts of it back to its original state, especially the windows," Meena said.

"The fact that the ballroom was indeed a ballroom for the hotel, and the steps going up from the first floor off of Wood Street to second floor, those are original steps there. So you get a sense of what the building's purpose was, and I really think it's great that it wasn't torn down, and that there was some effort to preserve it."