PHLF Advocacy Updates

Historic Review Commission, Local Designations, and Other City Issues

October HRC Meeting.  The next meeting of the Historic Review Commission (HRC) will be held on October 3, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. in the First Floor Hearing Room of 200 Ross Street.  The agenda is available here.

Public comments on the proposed listings of the Schenley Farms Historic District (Boundary Increase) and the John A. Brashear House and Factory to the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) will be solicited after the adjournment of the HRC meeting.

National Register Nominations

New Listings.  On September 4, 2012, the National Parks Service listed the Ursuline Young Ladies Academy, located at 201 S. Winebiddle Street in Bloomfield, on the National Register.  The Second Empire mansion (c. 1860s) was originally built for Henry Lynch, was used as a convent and school after 1893, and is now the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh.  The mansion is the center of a group of buildings that includes a chapel, gymnasium and sisters’ residence—all designed by Carlton Strong in 1913.  The mansion was designated a City of Pittsburgh Historic Structure on August 20, 1982 and received a PHLF Historic Landmark Plaque in 1984.

PHLF’s Downtown Districts Project.  On September 28, 2012, PHLF submitted to the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) the final nomination materials for the Pittsburgh Renaissance Historic District and the amendment materials to expand the boundaries and update the inventories of the following National Register-listed districts: Firstside, Fourth Avenue and Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic Districts.  PHMC’s Preservation Board is expected to review the nominations in February 2013.

The project will result in 100 new resources on the National Register, making them eligible for three tax benefits: the federal 20% rehabilitation tax credit; a federal tax deduction for a preservation easement donation; and the new state historic tax credit.  These preservation tax incentives encourage private investment in historic buildings and were used in Downtown Pittsburgh projects including Market at Fifth, Market Square Place, the Carlyle Condominiums, and others.  PHLF is completing this project thanks to a $25,000 grant from PHMC.  (For more information, see “Historic Designations in Pittsburgh: A Primer.”