Guide to the Records of the Buhl Foundation, 1869-1980

Arrangement

Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Records of the Buhl Foundation
Creator
Buhl Foundation (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Collection Number
MSS#187
Extent
121.0 cubic feet (181 boxes)
Date
1869-2012
Abstract
The Buhl Foundation was established in 1927 as stipulated in Henry Buhl, Jr.'s will, for "religious, charitable, educational and public uses." It has provided grants for universities, hospitals and public programs including the University of Pittsburgh, Buhl Planetarium, Chatham Village and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Records include correspondence, grant proposals and reports, legal documents, meeting minutes, study reports and newspaper clippings. Also included are financial records from the Boggs and Buhl Department Store and documents relating to the acquisition, building, maintenance and sale of the Chatham Village Community project.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
This guide to the collection was originally prepared by Stephen Doell on September 21, 1995. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process in Summer, 1999.
Sponsor
This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project, a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.
Publisher
Heinz History Center
Address
1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

The History of the Buhl Foundation (1927-1982)

The Buhl Foundation awards grants, primarily to educational and cultural organizations in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. One of Pittsburgh's largest foundations, it was established in 1927 by Henry Buhl, Jr., owner of Boggs and Buhl department store, located in Allegheny City, now Pittsburgh's North Side (Henry Buhl, Jr. and Russell H. Boggs opened their first store in 1869 on Pittsburgh's North Side. Boggs died on July 9, 1922, leaving Buhl in charge.). To fulfill Buhl's desire to leave something to the city of Pittsburgh in honor of his deceased wife, Louise, Henry willed the bulk of his estate be distributed:

for such religious, charitable, educational and public uses, objects and purposes as the said board of managers shall appoint, order and direct. The said board shall not be restricted in any manner or extent in their selection of the uses, objects and purposes to which the said trust fund and its income shall be applied...and they shall have full and unlimited power to determine the proportions and amounts as shall be applied to them. (Will of Henry Buhl, Jr.)

The only other stipulation in the will for the disbursement of Foundation funds was that Pittsburgh and Allegheny County institutions should be given first consideration.

The original Board of Managers included Charles F. Lewis, director, and board members Robert S. Frazer, William S. Linderman, John A. Fuhs and Arthur Braun. The Buhl Foundation officially began operation on June 1, 1928, almost a year after Buhl's death. Since these first managers had little experience in foundation work, the first three annual reports and early correspondence indicate that they relied on the successful strategies of their colleagues in other foundations to guide them.

In its first year, the Foundation distributed $646,256.75 for ten separate activities or programs in the fields of economics, education, recreation and social research. The first grant given by the Foundation was $3,687.75 to the Pennsylvania State Crime Commission to finance a study of the minor courts in Allegheny County. Two other significant grants awarded during the first year included $250,000 to the University of Pittsburgh to develop its Bureau of Business Research program, and funds to establish a pension fund for employees of Boggs and Buhl. The Foundation rejected the first 44 grant proposals, mostly because the applicants were located out of the region.

The Buhl Foundation Board diversified their work in 1931 with the construction of Chatham Village, a housing project in Pittsburgh's Mount Washington neighborhood. Chatham Village offered residents attractive and affordable rental housing, a commodity in short supply in Pittsburgh. The Board of Managers favored a long term rental policy over ownership because of the volatile economy of the day. Chatham Village gave families the opportunity to "ride out" the Depression until the economy improved. Chatham Village accomplished all of the 1931 goals established by the Foundation. It is still a model for many housing projects throughout the country. The Foundation maintained Chatham Village as rental property until 1960 when it was turned into cooperative housing and sold to owner occupants.

Another major Foundation project in the early years was the Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science. Conceived in 1935 and completed in 1939, the Planetarium was only the fifth of its kind in the United States. The Foundation initially appropriated $750,000 for construction and start up costs. It then donated the facility to the city, but maintained financial responsibility. The opening of the planetarium was met with fanfare and regarded as a great benefit for the city.

Some Foundation projects did not meet with full public approval. In 1937 the Foundation sponsored a survey of Pittsburgh's social condition. Philip Klein reported the findings in a candid book, A Social Study of Pittsburgh. Klein wrote that "poverty is rampant, unemployment extensive, living conditions disgraceful and dangerous, local government inefficient, inadequate and expensive, and the dominant class of English, Scotch and Irish snub the foreign born and the Negroes." City officials criticized Klein's assertions, claiming his "comparative regression" theory of the steel industry was too harsh and his evaluation of large scale housing programs premature. The citizen's group established as an advisory council on the project refused to endorse Klein's findings.

Over the next fifteen years the Buhl Foundation gave generous grants to Pittsburgh institutions of higher education, including the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Institute of Technology (later Carnegie Mellon University) for pure and applied science research. Millions of dollars were contributed to research in nuclear physics, including funding for the construction of a state-of-the-art atom smasher in 1946. There were also grants for work in biochemistry that aided in the isolation of the Vitamin C compound, the building of a chemical and metallurgy research lab, the revitalization of a natural science department, explosives technology, gas warfare, and coal research.

When the Buhl Foundation reached its twenty-fifth anniversary, it had established a distinct pattern of giving. By 1950 the Foundation had distributed grants totaling $6,265,440. Over a third of the money was for research in the sciences (i.e. chemistry, psychology, electrical engineering), primarily at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Institute of Technology; another third for educational programs in other institutions, and almost 25% of the money was appropriated for the Buhl Planetarium. In the 1960s and 1970s the Foundation's pattern of giving shifted from the original pattern established in 1928. While they continued to fund the establishment of new programs, such as the Bureau of Social Research (1932), the Pittsburgh Foundation (1945), Practical Nurse Training (1948), the Allegheny Vocational Counselling Center (1946, 1950), and the Children's Museum (1970), it began to provide grants for the ongoing operation of these and other programs. This shift was a departure from the original purpose and intent of Henry Buhl's bequest, but the Foundation regarded maintenance of these institutions necessary to the cultural base of Pittsburgh. The Buhl Planetarium, the largest recipient of support funds, received over three million dollars between 1939 and 1972, and more than six million dollars by 1991, including start-up funds.

One reason for the new granting policy may be attributed to the change in the Foundation leadership. For nearly thirty years Charles Lewis was at the helm, strictly following the instructions left by Henry Buhl, Jr. The next two directors, Charles Nutting and Pressley McCance, stayed only five years each. It was David Henderson, director from 1968 until retiring in 1981, who expanded the Foundation's focus both geographically and ideologically. Building on projects that began in the 1950s, such as the Liberal Arts College Program, Henderson helped to broaden the Foundation's geographic scope beyond Allegheny County, awarding funds to Allegheny College, Washington and Jefferson College, Grove City College and Westminster College. Also, the Buhl Planetarium became the Buhl Science Center to reflect its wider purpose: to become a major exhibit and educational center for science and technology. The new policies were outlined in the 1968 annual report postscript that stated, "if qualities ascribed to foundations at their best - such as innovation, the judicious use of limited resources, and an emphasis on critical causes or relationships - are to guide decisions on specific grants, then perhaps a different approach will show greater promise." The Buhl Archives, donated in 1993 to the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, extend to 1982 to include Henderson's tenure. Dr. Doreen Boyce was the director of the Foundation from 1982 to 2007. She was succeeded by Frederick W. Thieman.

Scope and Content Notes

The Buhl Foundation Records are housed in 182 archival boxes and arranged into seven series. Series have been designated as General Files, Grant Files, Chatham Village, Real Estate, Boggs and Buhl, Inc., Special Projects, and Buhl Foundation Financial and Information Files. Records include correspondence, grant proposals and reports, legal documents, meeting minutes, study reports, and newspaper clippings. The bulk of the materials include grant appropriation records between 1927 and 1970, comprehensive for both accepted and rejected grants up to 1955. These records also provide strong documentation of the Foundation's real estate holdings, its main source of capital. These records include documentation of the acquisition, transfer sale and lease of the more than 25 separate pieces of property the Foundation owned. Also included are the board meeting minutes and financial records of the Boggs and Buhl store located on the North Side. Other records include documents of the acquisition, building, maintenance and sale of the Chatham Village community project and other smaller independent projects.

Arrangement

The Buhl Foundation records are arranged into seven series, designated as General Files, Grant Files, Chatham Village, Real Estate, Boggs and Buhl, Inc., Special Projects, and Buhl Foundation Financial and Information Files.

Records include correspondence, grant proposals and reports, legal documents, meeting minutes, study reports, and newspaper clippings. The bulk of the materials include grant appropriation records between 1927 and 1970, comprehensive for both accepted and rejected grants up to 1955. These records also provide strong documentation of the Foundation's real estate holdings, its main source of capital. These records include documentation of the acquisition, transfer sale and lease of the more than 25 separate pieces of property the Foundation owned. Also included are the board meeting minutes and financial records of the Boggs and Buhl store located on the North Side. Other records include documents of the acquisition, building, maintenance and sale of the Chatham Village community project and other smaller independent projects.

Conditions Governing Access

Box 128, Folder 7 Patient files and Box 143, Folder 9 State Grant Application, Client Evaluation Sheets restricted to staff use only.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was donated in three accessions.

Acc. #1993.0310 --Gift of Dr. Doreen Boyce on behalf of the Buhl Foundation.

Acc. #2006.0385 --Gift of the Buhl Foundation.

Acc. #2012.0162 --Gift of the Buhl Foundation.

Preferred Citation

Buhl Foundation Records, 1869-2012, MSS 187, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center.

Processing Information

These records were arranged and the inventory was written by Stephen Doell on September 21, 1995.

Additions to the collection processed by Mary Jones in December 2013 and Megan Massanelli in January 2016.

Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Jennifer Marshall in August 1999.

Revisions and additions encoded by Megan Massanelli in February 2016.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.

Separated Materials

To the Photographic Collection, three archival boxes of photographs have been separately arranged and described as MSP# 187. Several publications have been cataloged to the library collection.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Boggs and Buhl (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • Buhl Planetarium and Science Center
    • Carnegie-Mellon University
    • Chatham Village (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    • Cook Forest Association
    • Health and Welfare Planning Association of Pittsburgh -- Committee to Study Pittsburgh Council on Intercultural Education
    • Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission
    • Pittsburgh Public Schools
    • Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
    • University of Pittsburgh
    • Allegheny County Joint Scholarship Committee
    • Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

    Personal Names

    • Boggs, Russell H. -- 1845-1922
    • Braun, Arthur -- 1876-1976
    • Boyce, Doreen
    • Buhl, Henry -- Jr. -- 1848-1927
    • Frazer, Robert -- 1849-1936
    • Henderson, David
    • Lewis, Charles F. -- 1890-1971
    • Linderman, William -- 1863-
    • McCance, Pressley -- 1894-1966
    • Nutting, Charles

    Geographic Names

    • Allegheny County (Pa.) -- Politics and government
    • Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Politics and government

    Other Subjects

    • Mercantile -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Foundations -- Charitable use -- Trusts and Foundations

Container List