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Syria Mosque

Performance venue in PA, United States of America

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
6 min read
Source updated August 21, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Syria Mosque was a 3,700-seat performance venue located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1911 and dedicated on October 26, 1916, the building was originally built as a "mystical" shrine for the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (the Shriners) and designed by Huehl, Schmidt & Holmes architectural firm of Chicago. It was recognized as one of the best examples of Exotic Revival architecture.

Located at 4400 Bigelow Boulevard, it held numerous events over the years, mainly highlighted by concerts of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and numerous internationally recognized music performers, as well as comedians and political rallies and speeches. In addition to the main theater, events also took place in the building's smaller "Syria Mosque Ballroom" space.

The Medinah Temple in Chicago (constructed one year after this building by the same firm) is a similar building still in existence (though now converted to retail space).

Despite community efforts to have Syria Mosque designated a historic landmark, the building was demolished August 27, 1991.

01History

Pakistani-Canadian architect Gulzar Haider described the appearance of the building circa 1960:

As we turned onto a minor street on the University of Pittsburgh campus, [my host] pointed to a vertical neon sign that said in no uncertain terms “Syria Mosque.” Parking the car, we approached the building. I was fascinated, albeit with some premonition. I was riveted by the cursive Arabic calligraphy on the building: la ghalib il-Allah, “There is no victor but Allah,” the well-known refrain [inscribed on the walls of] Granada’s Alhambra. Horseshoe arches, horizontal bands of different colored bricks, decorative terra-cotta, all were devices to invoke a Moorish memory. Excitedly, I took a youthful step towards the lobby, when my host turned around and said, "This is not the kind of mosque in which you bend up and down facing Mecca. This is a meeting hall-theater built by Shriners, a nice bunch of people who build hospitals for [disabled] children and raise money through parades and circuses."

Birthplace of network television

On January 11, 1949, from 8:30 pm to 11 pm EST, KDKA-TV (then WDTV and part of the DuMont Television Network) began its initial broadcast on its "network" centered in Pittsburgh. The program began with a one-hour local show broadcast from Syria Mosque, then finished with 90 minutes from ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont, featuring stars such as Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, DuMont host Ted Steele, and many other celebrities. The mosque also hosted closed circuit coverage of sports events including those of Muhammad Ali. The station also represented a milestone in the television industry, providing the first "network" of a coaxial cable feed that included Pittsburgh and 13 other cities from Boston to St. Louis.

Demolition

Despite community efforts to have the building designated a historic landmark, the Syria Mosque was torn down on August 27, 1991. The site serves as a parking lot for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Plans were announced that University of Pittsburgh would acquire it from the medical center in 2016.

A brick of the Syria Mosque building (center), exhibited in the Bayernhof Museum alongside an Edison cylinder phonograph (left) and Edison home phonograph (right)
A brick of the Syria Mosque building (center), exhibited in the Bayernhof Museum alongside an Edison cylinder phonograph (left) and Edison home phonograph (right)

02List of concert events

Among the concert events:

03List of political events

Among the political events:

Watch videos about Syria MosqueExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Syria Mosque”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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