O'Hara Township Community Park - Pittsburgh’s Riviera

O'Hara Township Community Park - Pittsburgh’s Riviera. . Long known as a popular picnic spot, utilized by the H.J. Heinz Company among others, Ross Grove became Pittsburgh’s entertainment resort after the outdoor pageant play “Hiawatha” drew big crowds during the summers of 1913 and 1914. Utilizing the natural outdoor amphitheater at today’s Margery Drive development, the run was dammed to create a small lake for the actor/playwright Clinton E. Lloyd (as Hiawatha) to row his canoe to his unauthentic “teepee” (housing that Eastern Woodlands Indians didn’t use). Soon amusement attractions such as golf courses and horse riding academies started appearing in the area. A pop-up amusement park had a carousel and a water splash ride during the 1917 season. By 1920, the Sander’s Inn opened in the former Ross Mansion and brought in nationally known touring acts. As broadcast radio became viable, Sander’s Inn aired popular bands over the new medium. World War II put an end to the entertainments as post-war housing developments took up venue space. , The Sander’s Inn brought in celebrated acts such as the Thaw scandal’s “Girl on the Red Velvet Swing,” Evelyn Nesbit, who performed a “Farewell to Pittsburgh” show in 1928. , The above publicity photo for Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra shows Louis Armstrong in the middle of the back row. However, he wasn’t with the band when it played at Sander’s Inn in 1926. , James McCoy of Sharpsburg lost a 112-round prize fight in Ross Grove in 1883. The fight was stopped when McCoy broke his hand.