A restoration of historic proportions: Carnegie family fundraises for park’s stone pavilion
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
In this file photo from June 2022, Alan and Jess Whittington and pup Boggins are all smiles after being crowned first place in the Carnegie Dogapalooza’s Pittsburgh Spirit costume contest. The winning trio stands in front of the Carnegie Park Stone Pavilion, which needs donations of money and labor for updates.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Domenico Masciantonio immigrated to the U.S. from Italy in the early 1900s and established himself as a stone mason in Carnegie, where he and his wife Amelia raised five children. Now, his grandchildren and ancestors are fundraising with the borough to renovate the Carnegie Park Stone Pavilion, one of Masciantonio’s masterpieces.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The concrete patio behind the Carnegie Park Stone Pavilion is slated to be torn up and redone as part of the pavilion renovation efforts by the borough and the Masciantonio family. Carnegie is planning a grand reopening in fall 2024.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The stonework on the Carnegie Park pavilion remains, after more than 80 years, in excellent condition, but the structure needs updates to the gutters and downspouts, the kitchen and back patio. Carnegie Borough and the Masciantonio family, whose patriarch Domenico built the pavilion, are fundraising to finance those updates.
Courtesy of Cindy Schultz
More than 100 Masciantonio descendants from as near as Carnegie and as far as Costa Rica attend the annual family reunion, which began beneath the stone pavilion in Carnegie Park. From Domenico, Pietro and Maria Masciantonio, the family has about 600 ancestors on ancestry.com, Schultz said. Once Carnegie pavilion renovations are complete, the family hopes to return to the park for the annual reunion.
Every year thousands from Carnegie and beyond gather beneath the stone pavilion in Carnegie Park for local events, family reunions, graduation parties and other celebrations and get-togethers without realizing they’re sheltering beneath a piece of history.
Though the project’s completion date isn’t known, the pavilion is believed to have been a Works Progress Administration project that opened to the public between 1938 and the early 1940s. Domenico Masciantonio, an Italian immigrant whose handiwork decorates the greater Carnegie area, was a stone mason who worked on the project.
Now, the sixth generation of Masciantonios, together with Carnegie Borough, is working to renovate the stone pavilion, which has been weathered by time and needs updated.
“The stone structure is in solid condition,” said Chuck Woods, a Carnegie native and grandson of the late Domenico Masciantonio. “The roof needs to be replaced. On the backside, there’s a small deck area made out of concrete that’s going to be torn out and replaced. The whole building needs to be power washed. The kitchen’s sparse.”
The pavilion’s electrical system was upgraded several years ago, but the kitchen could use a few updates, and the structure’s gutters and downspouts need to be replaced.
Renovations will cost an estimated $110,000. Carnegie Borough has applied for grants that will cover about three-fourths of the total cost, Woods said. He and his extended family are working to fundraise the rest, about $25,000, and drum up volunteers to donate time and labor to the cause.
“It’s a combination of public funding and privately raised funds and volunteer labor, that’s what this project involves,” said Woods.
The project is a labor of love for the Masciantonio family.
In the early 1900s, Domenico Masciantonio, his brother Pietro and their sister Maria left their home in the foothills of Chieti, Italy, near the Adriatic Sea, for a better life in the new world.
The three settled in Carnegie, where Domenico began working as a stone mason.
“They came from an area in Italy called Abruzzi (now Abruzzo). My grandfather and ancestors were all stone masons. They’re people who work with their hands,” Woods said. “My grandparents came thinking to build a new life for their family.”
Building a family came after building a life; at that time in history, immigrants hesitated to return to the old country for fear they would have a difficult time getting back to America, Woods said. His grandfather spent about four years establishing himself just south of Pittsburgh, and then went to Italy for his love, Amelia.
They returned to the U.S., where they raised five children – three boys and two girls.
“He built the family homestead in 1924 at 514 Cubbage Street in Carnegie,” said Domenico’s granddaughter, Cindy Shultz, in an email. “There is a stone inlay at the top of the red brick building that says 1924. They (my grandparents) moved at some point to 1 Ann Street. The stone is all the same as the pavilion in Carnegie Park.”
When the Great Depression hit, Masciantonio continued providing for his family through work with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration (renamed Works Projects Administration in 1939), which employed about 8.5 million people who made an average of $41.57 a month building bridges and constructing public roads, buildings and parks through 1943, when the program shut down.
“My grandfather lost his entire business in the 1930s. When he went bankrupt, he was asked and paid by the government to build stone structures all throughout the community. During the Works Project Administration he built a lot of stone structures. That’s his legacy. Very few people, even in my family, know that or understand that,” Woods said.
The WPA’s peak employment year was 1938, about the year the Carnegie Park Stone Pavilion is believed to have been constructed.
“The pavilion was originally on Arch Street, as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. It was disassembled and taken down in the 1930s,” said Woods. “In the ’30s, somebody gave that park property to the borough. They relocated (the stone structure). My grandfather had a hand in rebuilding; that’s when it was reassembled and made how it looks today.”
Domenico’s family was told that he built the stone pavilion in the park using stone from the railroad depot. The pavilion has an old world flavor to it, and though it’s stood for eight decades, the facade is still in excellent condition, a testament to Domenico’s craftsmanship.
That craftsmanship can be seen in the stone chapel in Walkers Mill off Noblestown Road, near Rennerdale, and in a number of area homes, including the yellow brick Broniak and Kraf structures along Washington Pike in South Fayette. Domenico also built the stone house beside El Pollon along Carnegie’s East Main Street, Schultz said.
While those structures are impressive, the stone pavilion holds sentimental value for the Masciantonios, many of whom grew up in either the Carnegie area or Beaver County, where Domenico’s brother eventually settled, and returned annually to the park to celebrate family beneath Domenico’s artwork.
“We all have fond memories … of going there for family reunions through the ’70s, I think. We switched over to Scott Park because our family grew too large,” Woods said, adding there are hundreds of relatives, many of whom still reside in Carnegie area and Beaver. “It’s connecting with our heritage; reliving, I’ll borrow from Bruce Springsteen, reliving the glory days. One of the highlights from summer: you prepare food, you pack a basket. We’d go up there for an afternoon of fun and visiting family.”
It’s not just the Masciantonios who fondly remember time in and around the stone pavilion. The structure serves as a starting point for Carnegie’s annual fall Trail of Terror fundraiser, is the setting of the annual Dogapalooza, shelters youth soccer and church groups during spring and summer events and sets the stage for momentous occasions like graduation parties and, of course, family reunions.
Domenico and the pavilion, Woods said, is the story of us all.
“His story … is really the story of Carnegie or any small town around Pittsburgh, whether it’s Ukrainians, Russians, Germans or Irish. It’s the same story. It’s really the story of our country, our roots,” he said.
Preserving and updating the Carnegie Park Stone Pavilion is important not only for the Masciantonio family, but for the borough’s history, Woods said.
To learn more about the project, or to donate to the GoFundMe, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/stone-pavilion-at-carnegie-park.