City Council to consider landmark status for shrine above the Parkway East
From her cliffside perch in South Oakland, the Blessed Mother faces Downtown Pittsburgh and watches over drivers speeding past on the Parkway East. Soon, she may have extra protection.
Located on city- owned land, the 64- year- old shrine is expected to receive designation as a city historic landmark when City Council casts its final vote Tuesday.
The nomination of the Shrine of the Blessed Mother received an affirmative recommendation from council’s standing committee Wednesday.
“The statue is very lovingly referred to as ‘ Our Lady of the Parkway,’ ” said Councilman Bruce Kraus, who nominated the shrine, maintained by community volunteers since they created it in 1956.
In 2017, the proposed Oakland Gateway Ventures project, which would have widened Bates Street, threatened the Madonna of the hill, Mr. Kraus said. The Oakland Planning and Development Corporation opposed the now- defunct project.
“There was genuine concern that that monument could be lost, and I began getting calls from residents,” Mr. Kraus said Wednesday. “So that started me on this journey.”
Members present on Wednesday gave tentative approval for the historic designation, with the exception of Councilman Ricky Burgess, who argued that property rights were being taken away from the Roman Catholic Church.
Three women and a steelworker established the shrine in 1956. A Pittsburgh
Sun- Telegraph article published that year records that Anna Cybak, of the Beaver County town of Ambridge, established it in memory of her son. A U. S. Army infantry sergeant, Paul Cybak died in 1944 while fighting in Saipan during World War II, according to a historic nomination written by Matthew Falcone. The 26year- old soldier loved football and big band music.
At Downtown’s St. Mary’s of the Point, Anna Cybak met Sophie Toma, a longtime Oakland resident. Toma lived on Wakefield Street, and her house was razed to build the Parkway East, then called the PennLincoln Parkway. But she still owned the undevelopable rectangular piece of land where the shrine is located. Cybak and Toma, with the help of Mary Sunyoga and her son, Steve, cleared the lot and erected the shrine, according to the nomination.
Philip Marraway, a steelworker at the Jones & Laughlin plant, was walking to his Oakland home when he saw a light beaming from a hillside. He followed it and found an image of the Virgin Mary. The next day, he returned to the site and met Toma. When Marraway and Toma
carried the stone statue to the site, they became stuck in the mud. In September 1956, the Rev. Thomas Hornyak, pastor of St. Joachim parish, blessed the shrine.
The shrine is associated with construction of Pittsburgh’s first modern expressway. In 2006, the Parkway East, from the Bates Street interchange to Churchill, was found eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. That section of the road
opened in 1953 and is a significant feature of the federal highway system. Deaths from car crashes were prevalent in 1956, the year the shrine was built. Seat belts were not required in automobiles until the 1960s.
Jennifer Antkowiak, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, said, “It remains the position of the diocese that properties used for religious purposes
should not be subject to controls of the historic review board’s designation.”
A public hearing was held last week.
The city’s Historic Review Commission and its Planning Commission have unanimously
the historic designation. Mayor Bill Peduto also supports the designation.
Councilman Corey O’Connor was absent Wednesday but will vote in support of historic designation recommended for the shrine Tuesday.
Council President Theresa Kail- Smith is expected to be absent due to a family matter.