Fight continues over the fate of Pittsburgh’s historic, asbestos-filled Schenley High School

Built in 1916, Schenley High School is one of the most beautiful buildings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the first American high school to cost more than a million dollars to build. Its threatened demolition has initiated an enthusiastic “Save Schenley” movement. The historic high school has a Skinner pipe organ, as does the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. And the school has hosted famous people in many fields as they passed through school there: pop icon Andy Warhol; jazz musicians George Benson, Ray Brown, Walt Harper and Stanley Turrentine; professional athletes Larry Brown, Darnell Dinkins, Maurice Lucas and Shawn Hawkins; physics Nobel laureate Clifford Shull; and Derrick Bell, the first black professor at Harvard Law School; as well as Pittsburgh favorites Bruno Sammartino and sportscaster Bob Prince. But asbestos was used extensively throughout the building, making it very difficult and expensive to save the school. The school district estimates that it will cost $64.4 million in public funds to make the school safe and functional