Pittsburgh ยท Downtown
Omni William Penn
Henry Clay Frick's 1916 hotel on Mellon Square, built to rival Europe's grand hotels, with Joseph Urban's Art Deco Urban Room ballroom.
- Built
- 1916Opened March 1916; enlarged by an annex completed 1929 (NPS significant years 1916, 1923, 1929).
- Style
- Beaux-Arts / Classical Revival
- Architect
- Janssen & Abbott (1916); Janssen & Cocken (1929 annex)
- Type
- Grand hotel
- Area
- Downtown
- Credentials
- Historic Hotels of America member; Listed on the National Register of Historic Places; Inside a National Register historic district
The story
Henry Clay Frick built the William Penn during World War I to rival Europe’s grand hotels; it opened in March 1916 after $6 million and a year of construction, to a Beaux-Arts design by Janssen & Abbott. Eugene Eppley bought it in 1928 and expanded it to 1,600 rooms, adding the Art Deco Urban Room ballroom designed by Joseph Urban. Statler Hotels managed it from 1940, Sheraton bought it in 1956, and Alcoa acquired it in 1971.
The ghost story
Pittsburgh Magazine, describing the Haunted Pittsburgh walking tour, says so many ghost stories attach to the Omni William Penn that the tour can't fit them all; one holds that ghostly panda bleats have been heard in the hotel, where author Ruth Harkness (The Lady and the Panda) died in 1947. Ghost City Tours adds reports of founder Henry Clay Frick still walking its corridors, elevators moving on their own and phantom music from empty ballrooms.
Source: www.pittsburghmagazine.com
Good to know
- Elevator
- Address: 530 William Penn Pl, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Things to do
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Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.