Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum
building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum (or often simply Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall) is a National Register of Historic Places landmark that is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the largest memorial in the United States that is dedicated solely to honoring all branches of military veterans and service personnel.
History and notable features
This historic building was conceived by the Grand Army of the Republic during the 1890s as a way for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County residents to honor the dwindling ranks of American Civil War veterans; it was built on what had served as a Union Army mustering ground during the war. The memorial now represents all branches of the service and honors career and citizen soldiers who have served the United States throughout its history.
Architect Henry Hornbostel designed this memorial in 1907. Dedicated in 1910, the building was created in the Beaux-Arts style and is heroic in scale. It is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh at 4141 Fifth Avenue (although the walkway leading to its main entrance is signed as "Matthew Ridgway Blvd." in honor of the World War II and Korean War hero who called Pittsburgh home). Surrounded on all sides by the campus of the University of Pittsburgh and adjacent to the university's landmark Cathedral of Learning, the building is set back from Fifth Avenue. It features expansive, well-kept lawns with large cannons and other war implements. The side streets flanking the building are Bigelow Boulevard and University Place, with O'Hara Street directly behind the memorial.
“Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum” enters the record as building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Soldiers, Sailors and Memorial can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Soldiers, Sailors and Memorial provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7557406. Authority coordinates are 40.445, -79.956. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1907 and 1910.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum primary sources, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum archive and Soldiers research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum”?
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.