The Schenley Farms Historic District is roughly bounded by Forbes Avenue including the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh on the south; South Dithridge and North Bellefield on the east, extending to include St. Paul's Cathedral and Rectory on Fifth Avenue and North Craig Street; Bigelow Boulevard, Andover Road, and Bryn Mawr Road on the northwest; and Thackeray Street through to Fifth Avenue on the southwest.

[5] Noted for its late 19th And 20th Century Revivals architecture, it is home to a large portion of the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.

The City Beautiful movement favored boulevards, parks, and formal civic buildings in the beaux-arts style.

In 1905, Franklin Nicola put forth a development plan in the City Beautiful style for Oakland, which included civic, social, residential, and educational zones along Bigelow Boulevard which ran through the heart of the neighborhood.

The proposal centered on a series of monumental buildings created in styles evoking ancient Greece and the Italian Renaissance.