Category Archive: Historic Properties
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Residents say quaint Zelienople has it all
By Joan Greene
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, July 8, 2007Zelienople’s official motto is “Zelienople — a modern place with old-fashioned grace.”
But many residents also refer to the picturesque borough as a “Crossroads Community.”
Located seven miles north of Cranberry in Butler County, the historic borough of 4,300 residents is a popular destination for both highway travelers and visitors attracted to Zelienople’s small-town charm.
On their way from visiting friends in Erie to catch a flight out of Pittsburgh International Airport, Peter and Kathy Eyster, of Lakewood, Colo., decided to have lunch at the historic Kaufman House and take a brief tour of the town.
“(Zelienople) looked like a quaint, interesting town, and we had read about the Kaufman House in a AAA Tour Book, so we decided to stop, have lunch and look around,” Peter Eyster says.
Nestled among trees and rolling hills near the Connoquenessing Creek, Zelienople’s picturesque location is what compelled the borough’s founder, Baron Dettmar Friederich Basse, to buy 10,000 acres of Revolutionary War Depreciations Land in 1802.
Basse laid out the town and named it after his daughter, Zelie, who arrived in Zelienople from Germany in 1807 with her new husband, Philippe Louis Passavant.
After discovering iron ore on his land, Basse, in 1813, built Zelienople’s first industrial plant, Bassenheim Furnace, one of the first charcoal blast furnaces in Western Pennsylvania.
Zelienople was incorporated as a borough in 1840, and by the turn of the 20th century, industrial expansion spurred growth.
Zelie and Philippe settled into their permanent home, Passavant House, on South Main Street (Route 19), where Zelie gave birth to five children, among them William Alfred Passavant, founder of hospitals, homes for the aged and orphans, and schools and churches — many of which still carry his name.
Passavant House, which was built in 1808, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is home to the Zelienople Historical Society. The restored home is open for tours and features a vast collection of historic items, including clothes worn by family members, furnishings, family portraits and letters written by Zelie to her children and other family members.
Buhl House (built in 1805) is the oldest existing building in Zelienople and is named after another early settler, Christian Buhl. In 1804, Buhl, a German immigrant furrier, married Fredericka Dorothea Goehring, of Cranberry, and they had 11 children. Today, the Buhl family name is associated with philanthropy. Buhl Planetarium, opened in 1939 on the North Side, was built with money from a foundation set up by Christian’s grandson, Henry Buhl Jr. The new planetarium at the Carnegie Science Center retains the Buhl name.
Joyce Bessor, 75, executive director of the historical society, has vivid memories of growing up in Zelienople. One of the biggest changes that affected Zelienople was the opening of Interstate 79 in the 1970s, Bessor says. Before that, Route 19 was the main thoroughfare heading north from Pittsburgh to Erie.
“When I was a child growing up in the 1930s and ’40s, there was only one stoplight on Route 19 between West View and Mercer,” she says. “On Sundays, when people were driving to and from Erie, Route 19 was packed with cars, backed up for miles.”
Although Zelienople retains its small-town charm, the stores and schools have changed “considerably,” Bessor says.
Today, St. Gregory’s Elementary School is the only school within Zelienople’s borders. Zelienople Elementary School and High School were torn down in the 1960s. Students living in Zelienople attend Connoquenessing Elementary School, in the neighboring borough of Harmony, and Seneca Valley Middle, Intermediate and Senior High Schools, in Jackson Township.
Although many of the shops and restaurants lining Main Street have retained their facades, the types of businesses have changed, Bessor says. The antiques stores have been replaced by gift shops. “For 60 years, Buhl House was owned by an antique dealer, and people came from all over to buy antiques,” Bessor says. The home now is operated by the historical society and is open for tours.
Ketterer’s, owned by two sisters, was a popular clothing and dry goods store when Bessor was growing up and “almost everyone in town” bought shoes at Blum’s shoe store, which closed in the 1980s after being in business for almost 100 years. Today, it is a bicycle shop.
The Strand Theater, which is undergoing renovation, was where children would flock to the Saturday matinees. “In those days, Saturday night at the movies was a big deal,” Bessor says.
The Strand closed its doors in 1984. In 2001, Ron Carter, of Cranberry, formed the nonprofit Strand Theater Initiative to raise $5 million for its restoration. The goal is transorm the theater, which was built in 1914, into a performing-arts center for touring groups, off-Broadway plays, classic films, orchestras and bands.
To date, the theater’s facade has been renovated, and a new marquee lights up Main Street at night. Work on the theater’s 2,700-square-foot interior is under way. Recently, 300 seats were removed and auctioned to raise funds. “There’s nothing like it in the North Hills,” Carter says. “The Strand Theater will be a destination and another reason for people to come to Main Street. It will feed into the restaurants and shops.”
Today, shoppers strolling along Main Street will find an array of shops reflecting old and new, ranging from Mathew Jewelers — in business for 60 years — to Tattoos by Boney Joe, Room to Grow toy store and C.T. McCormick Hardware, specializing in Lionel Electric Trains.
“Business is good,” says Claudia Brueckman, owner of Gift Baskets, Flowers & More. “Zelienople is still a walking town, and people are now into exercise. The events and attractions bring people into town.”
Borough Manager Don Pepe describes Zelienople as “a town of sidewalks.”
“Sidewalks promote communities,” he says. “We still have pressure to compete with the strip malls, but Zelie still retains itself because the type of businesses here seem to thrive and have found a niche.”
Mayor Tom Oliverio says residents have a great deal of pride in their town. “Everything grows off of that. People love their Main Street, and they keep the shops vital,” he says. “At the hardware store, you can buy one bolt at a time, not the entire package.”
Events commemorating Zelienople’s history and celebrating holidays draw huge crowds from Zelienople and neighboring communities, Pepe says.
One popular event, sponsored by the Zelienople Lion’s Club, is an annual summer horse show. In its 44th year, the event has been renamed Horse Trading Days and is Zelienople’s premiere attraction, attracting as many as 40,000 people during three days in July.
The borough has four or five parades a year for holidays like Halloween, where children and their pets dress up and parade down Main Street. When Santa arrives at Christmas, he takes up residence at Four Corner Park, where he is visited by thousands of children.
“People love the parades. A town is not a town unless you have a Main Street with a parade,” says Oliverio, who enjoys watching the parades with his grandchildren.
The Kountry Kitchen is a favorite among residents and commuters who work in Zelienople. Eating lunch at the family-style restaurant, Kelvin Mack, 22, says Zelienople was “an amazing place to grow up.”
“We could walk to wherever we wanted to go — the park, the pool, the basketball court. My favorite sight is coming down the hill off of Route 19 from Cranberry into Zelienople at night. I like the way the streets and buildings are lit up,” says Mack, who lives in Evans City.
Built in 1902, the Kaufman House is a destination restaurant and bar that attracts visitors from throughout the region, says owner Ken Pilarski, of Cranberry. “It’s popular because of the food, the location in a quaint town and the history of the town and building,” he says. Early in the 20th century, the railroads housed workers in the 32 rooms at the Kaufman House. The hotel portion of the building closed several years ago, Pilarski says.
Residents at Lutheran SeniorLife Passavant Retirement Community, on North Main Street, enjoy “the walking town atmosphere of Zelienople,” says Laura Roy, Passavant’s executive director. “They can walk to the grocery store, shops, bank and restaurants.”
Established in 1905 as the Old People’s Home, the retirement community has grown from eight acres to 42 and serves 650 residents in assisted-living, independent-living and skilled-nursing facilities, Roy says.
Originally named the Orphans Home and Farm School, Glade Run, on West Beaver Road, was founded in 1854 by Rev. William Alfred Passavant and offers residential services to abused and neglected children.
Zelienople’s demographics are a mix of older, longtime residents and families moving in to raise their children in a small-town atmosphere, Pepe says.
In addition to Passavant Retirement Community, which employs more than 300 people, Sysco Food Services of Pittsburgh, Billco Manufacturing, BNZ Materials, ITT Leopold and Robinson Industries are major employers. The 100-year-old Robinson Industries employs 100 people, manufacturing fan equipment for steel, aluminum, mining and utility companies.
Because the borough encompasses only two square miles, there’s not much room to grow. Three hundred acres of land, owned by Glade Run, is the last large parcel left and is being considered for single-family and multi-family development, Pepe says.
Pepe says he would love to start a project to beautify Main Street by burying the utility cables and improve parking.
A picturesque borough that offers historic charm with modern living, Zelienople lives up to its description by the Chamber of Commerce as a place “Where the Past Is Always Present.”
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Can the former Fourth United Presbyterian Church be saved? – Friendship landmark abandoned and crumbling
By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Saturday, July 7, 2007With its rugged presence, the former Fourth United Presbyterian Church holds a prominent corner in Friendship, at the intersection of Friendship and South Pacific avenues. But for how long? It’s a good building fallen on bad times.
Built in the 1890s when the Richardsonian Romanesque was in vogue, the sandstone church has an arcaded porch with three arches supported by massive columns. Inspired by the welcoming, triple-arched porches of several of Richardson’s civic buildings, this one also promises shelter and security.
Sadly, the building no longer provides either. From the outside, the lack of maintenance is apparent in the missing windows and mortar. But that doesn’t prepare you for the scene of utter devastation and chaos inside.
In a first-floor hallway, water bubbles up from a hole in the floor, causing the floor tiles to buckle under puddles. Because water leaks through a portion of the roof when it rains, a staircase has rotted, and mold and mildew are everywhere. In the sanctuary, plaster falls from the ceiling onto the pews and paint peels from the columns, which still carry their Byzantine capitals, one of the interior’s few grace notes that have survived unscathed.
Stained-glass windows have been removed and replaced by plywood, which is falling away, or by nothing at all. Furniture is strewn about and packaged food still stands on the kitchen counters. In an office room, file cabinets hold manila folders full of church records.
It looks as if the congregation just up and left, which is exactly what happened several years ago, said the Rev. Lorraine Williams. The Fourth United Presbyterian Church — not to be confused with the still-active Fourth Presbyterian Church at Friendship Avenue and Roup Street — closed in the 1960s. Then it rented the church building to a school for about 10 years, the Rev. Williams said. She and her former husband, also a pastor, purchased the church in 1976 from Pittsburgh Presbytery. He now suffers from Alzheimer’s in an assisted living facility. She left their congregation in the mid-1980s and now is pastor of a church she declined to identify because she did not want to associate it with this situation.
She said the congregation that abandoned the church — the Greater Pittsburgh Gospel Deliverance Center — now calls itself New Day Ministries and rents space in Emory United Methodist Church. But her name is still on the deed. The Rev. Williams said she, too, was appalled at the condition of the building when she was last inside about two years ago.
The church has been on the market for more than a year and been under agreement three times, including twice with the same buyer. Neither was able to come up with financing for what they wanted to do — demolish the church and replace it with townhouses.
The Rev. Williams said windows and other objects were sold and removed from the building when it looked as if it would be demolished.
For the past year, the church has been listed with Tim Kimbel, president of Star Real Estate, and is now priced at $165,000. Mr. Kimbel will hold an open house on Monday and Tuesday for qualified bidders. About 20 parties expressed interest in the property while it was under agreement, including two who’d like to turn it into a neighborhood arts center. Of those 20, nine will be touring the building. Others are welcome to do so, but they must call Star Real Estate at 412-494-4110 on Monday morning to report their interest.
After the open house, to be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday and from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Mr. Kimbel will take bids on the property.
“This is not an auction,” he said. “We want people to submit their highest and best offer” by Thursday, along with a refundable deposit in the amount of their choice between $1,000 and $5,000. He and the Rev. Williams then will decide which to accept or counter-offer.
The Rev. Williams said the income from the sale would be distributed to a church ministry but not to New Day Ministries.
The church’s architect is unknown; several local and out-of-town firms were working in the Richardsonian Romanesque style in the 1890s here. Nevertheless, the building is a neighborhood landmark, although not, unfortunately, an official city historic landmark nor part of a city historic district. Demolition will require only a permit and, Mr. Kimbel said, about $85,000, according to estimates he had received from demolition contractors who looked at the building.
Jeffrey Dorsey, director of the neighborhood nonprofit Friendship Development Associates, said his group was inside the church as recently as late winter.
“By our estimate it’s close to a $2 million project to rehab it,” he said, adding that while Friendship is full of preservationists, they are also realists. “It’s just not a front-burner project for us because we have other projects going, mostly on Penn Avenue,” including development of the Glass Lofts at Penn Avenue and Fairmount Street.
Can this church be saved? Yes, it can and should. But it will take someone with vision — and very deep pockets.
(Architecture critic Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590. )
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Monroeville history can be viewed on Web
By Jake Panasevich
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 5, 2007In the past month, Monroeville Historical Society president Lynn Chandler has witnessed what she thinks are the organization’s most exciting changes since she became a member 27 years ago.
Those changes are allowing history to be pieced together by Monroeville natives scattered across the country.After six years of work and nearly a year of revision, the Monroeville Historical Society’s improved Web site is up and running at www.monroevillehistorical.org.
“The advantage to have an organ to reach out to the public is very important,” Chandler said. “We hear from people from all over the country. The fact that we can do all of this is wonderful.”
The site features a much-expanded “Our Photo Album” with more than 600 pictures. They are organized into different categories, such as people, events and street scenes. One category displays multiple shots of the same location that illustrate changes in the local landscape over the years.
The “Significant Houses” and “Monroeville’s History” sections have been updated and expanded with the help of feedback given by visitors to the site.
The society’s Web designer, Jeff Federoff, said the information on the site is presented more clearly, and it’s easier to navigate. It allows visitors to search and download articles with ease, he said.
“There’s more menu options available,” said Federoff, a Monroeville native who now lives in Forest Hills. “You can view articles faster with the new menu options.”
Family profiles have been added to the Web site. This section contains biographical sketches of 20 families who helped shape the community. The society collected information for the profiles over the years.
The profiles are a work in progress. The society is seeking additional information on the Tilbrook, Snodgrass, Lang, Simpson, Speelman, McMasters and McGinnis families.
It is seeking comments, corrections, additional photos and ideas on how to improve the site. People can contact Louis Chandler, the Web site coordinator, and Lynn Chandler’s husband, at lchan@alltel.net or 724-327-6164.
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Building on Saltsburg history
By Paul Paterra
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 5, 2007A builder is doing his part to preserve the historic flavor of downtown Saltsburg, and he’s hoping to entice new residents in the process.
Bob Sekora, of Salem, purchased buildings at 214 and 216 Washington St., as well as the structure in the rear of one of the buildings, which he’s converting into three townhouses that might be ready for tenants in two or three months.
“I’m a retired engineer, and I’m always building something or restoring something,” Sekora said.
He’s giving the buildings a modern touch with insulation and gutters, but the structures willl retain their 19th-century look, including colonial-style shutters and traditional color schemes.
The buildings are deeply connected to Saltsburg’s history. The Indiana County borough of little more than 900 residents was founded in 1769 where the Kiskiminetas River is formed by the convergence of the Conemaugh River and Loyalhanna Creek.
The stone house at 214 Washington St. is the town’s oldest building, reportedly constructed in 1827. In the Pennsylvania Canal’s heyday, brothers Robert and William McIlwain established a general store there.The brick building at 216 Washington St. once housed a drugstore, along with the office of Dr. John McFarland, the town’s first physician. McFarland wore many hats throughout his life, including a stint as director of the Indiana County Medical Society. He later served in the state House of Representatives and was one of the first directors of the Northern Pennsylvania Railroad.
P.J. Hruska, council vice president, says Sekora’s plans to keep the buildings true to form are important.
“To some people, it’s life or death,” Hruska said. “I want to keep it that way myself, (but) I know it’s hard and expensive to do it that way. It looks good to people coming into town. It’s important to me personally, and I know it’s important to a lot of people in the town.”
Local historian Jack Maguire appreciates Sekora’s efforts.
“That’s important to have that attitude, to preserve that rather than just tear it down,” said Maguire, president of Historical Saltsburg Inc. and past president of the Saltsburg Area Historical Society. “It’s important to have somebody who has the energy to do that.”
Sekora wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You don’t have a historic district if you tear your structures down. We’ve removed over 180 years of changes and modifications. It’s like doing an archaeological dig on a building. It’s really the only way you can find the true history of a structure,” he said.
He’s already received inquiries from people interested in renting the townhouses, but he hasn’t decided just what he’s going to do with the other buildings.
“They can be private residences, or I can seek a permit and change the use and make them commercial,” he said.
After completing the townhouses, Sekora will focus on 214 Washington St. He’s planning to have that completed in about two years.
Sekora will call his enclave of buildings Canal Commons, because the townhouses will face Canal Park, as will the rear entrances of 214 and 216 Washington St.
Sekora, who’s doing most of the work himself with the help of some family members, hopes to plant a seed for growth in the community.
“Saltsburg is a well-kept secret,” Sekora said. “You have everything you want here. It’s a very peaceful, quiet community. There’s a very broad range of ages. There’s a lot of senior citizens, but you also see a lot of youth. It’s a family community. There’s going to be more people coming. There’s more restoring that’s going to be done.”
Paul Paterra can be reached at ppaterra@tribweb.com or (724) 836-6220.
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Property owner uncovers log home
By MICHAEL DIVITTORIO
Daily News Staff Writer
July 3, 2007
McKeesport Daily NewsOne of the four known log cabins in Elizabeth Twp. has been uncovered after the new property owner wanted to tear down the building.
Jeff Heinichen, an Elizabeth Twp. resident and owner of five properties in the community, said he bought the property at 1235 Greenock-Buena Vista Road in February from a real estate company because it looked horrendous.
“I come home this way every day, and I got tired of looking at the eyesore. So that’s why I was going to buy it just to tear it down ’cause I was tired of looking at it, and then when I went to tear it down, this is what I found,” Heinichen said.
Ronald Morgenstern, one of the Elizabeth Twp. Historical Society founders and current board member is a walking encyclopedia full of knowledge about Heinichen’s purchase, and beyond.
“That was the old Kelly farm owned by Andrew and Dave Kelly in the early 1800s. It stretched from Everglade Drive, Wexford Drive, Dalewood Street, State Street, Constitution Boulevard and the Greenock Heights area. Constitution (Boulevard) was just a dirt road then. There was an entrance to a coal mine, and the land was next to the Calhoun farm,” Morgenstern said.
The Calhouns, Mohlmans and the Widanys were the other families to have log cabins, he added.
The Kelly farmland was purchased in sections by several different families and Greenock United Methodist Church.
“The Barncords bought the portion of land where Jeff is now from the Kellys in the 1900s. Dave Oberdick bought the land of Everglade and Wexford Drive in the early 1940s for a housing plan. I cut brush and trees and was laying out where the street was going there in 1942,” Morgenstern said.
Morgenstern, 81, was born and raised in Elizabeth Twp. and can give historical tours of numerous sites within the township.
“There are more than 300 points of historical interests here,” he said.
The cabin is supported by eight huge logs that are stabilized by railroad .
“It serves as what an I-beam does in a house today,” Heinichen said.
A coal furnace with pipes leading up through the basement, wooden floor joists, and more than three-fourths of a fieldstone chimney are among the original pieces of the cabin on the 11/2-acre site.
The second floor features three bedrooms, with 7-foot ceilings.
Heinichen’s find was one of great significance, according to historical society officials.
“It always had clapboard siding for as long as I can remember. It’s a very historical find, and I hope he preserves it,” Morgenstern said.
Pittsburgh History & Landmark Foundation Property and Construction Manager Thomas Keffer took a look at the log cabin Wednesday morning.
“I was very impressed,” Keffer said. “It’s in good standing condition and a nice discovery for Elizabeth Twp.”
Keffer assists individuals with preparing their homes or
properties before an application is presented for consideration to their potential landmarks before a presentation is made to the foundation’s plaque committee.
“I offered him (Heinichen) advice and answered his questions,” Keffer said.
Keffer is not on the plaque committee, but knows the requirements of a building in order to be considered a landmark.
A structure has to be at least 50 years old, very close to its original construction and natural colors, and “having a landscape close to the building’s era is a nice touch,” he said.
“It’s a landmark now. With proper restoration it will certainly pass,” Keffer added. “There needs to be work done on the roof and the chimney needs to be put back.”
According to Heinichen, the history foundation might acquire the log cabin and could continue the preservation efforts.
Keffer also looked at another property of Heinichen’s Wednesday, a house believed to be built in 1840 that was turned into a preschool at 5303 Smithfield St.
Aside from the vinyl siding, Keffer said the house is in excellent condition with its original windows and other features.
Keffer said he would help Heinichen with this additional structure, and try to have it declared a landmark.
mdivittorio@dailynewsemail.com
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Hartwood mansion getting some repairs
Monday, July 02, 2007
By Ann Belser,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteTalk about your fixer-upper.
Last year, when the molded plaster ceiling at the mansion at Hartwood Acres collapsed, the cost of restoring just the ceiling was $189,000. The furnishings and woodwork brought the total for the disaster repair to nearly $300,000.
For instance, repairs to the piano — an unusual art-case Steinway grand piano with eight hand-carved legs and inlaid woodwork — cost $11,000.
Now that the great hall is back together, and the house has been reopened for tours, there’s still a lot to do.
Anyone who owns an old house can sympathize.
The slate roof needs to be replaced, which could cost about $1 million.
And then there are the basic repairs from decades of wear to the furniture and rugs.
Sylvia Easler, recreation superintendent of the Allegheny County Parks Department, has been caring for the mansion for the two decades she has been working for the county.
Like anyone with a home, she can wander from room to room pointing out the work that needs to be done: a silk Chinese handmade rug in the servants’ quarters needs to be rebound; the carpet in Mary Flinn Lawrence’s room is wearing down, and a former servants’ room, which is now used for storage, needs to have the plaster repaired after the room is fixed.
Much of the deterioration of the furnishings, the home’s records and fabrics can be slowed by installing a climate control system. The home does not have air conditioning, but the county is trying to obtain a grant for the project.
In the stable, the woven-wheat mats in front of each of the stalls have deteriorated and Mrs. Easler has not found anyone who knows how to duplicate the way the Lawrences had them woven so the heads of the wheat were included in the weaving.
The good news last week was when Jim Dugan, a seasonal worker at the park, showed her that the toilet in the stable had been replaced and was working.
Mr. Dugan is spending a portion of the summer cleaning and oiling the wood in the stable.
“They kept the barn neater than the house. This was a showplace,” he said.
One of the most historically interesting projects on the home’s horizon is restoration of the 1908 Aeolian house organ.
Jim Stark, the treasurer of the national Organ Historical Society, said his organization is planning its annual convention in Pittsburgh in 2010 and one aspect of that convention may be to restore the mansion’s organ.
The organ was given to Mrs. Lawrence before the mansion was built in 1929, a gift from her father, state Sen. William Flinn, when she was living at home with him in Highland Park.
Mr. Stark said the organ has had some repairs over the years, but the leather, which was used for the bellows and to open and close the valves on the pipes, has dried and cracked so it no longer functions. “That has to all be redone.”
Mrs. Easler said the estimate to have the organ professionally restored 15 years ago was $115,000. Mr. Stark said the society can do it for about $45,000, which is the cost of parts.
Mr. Stark said while the organs at the Carnegie Libraries in both Braddock and Homestead also need to be restored, the organ at Hartwood is a better job for his group.
“The house organ at Hartwood is small enough that it is something we can take on.”
The organ, he said, was “rich folks’ home entertainment” in the early decades of the 20th century.
The organ at Hartwood is especially interesting because it is the only house instrument by the Aeolian company to have survived in Western Pennsylvania and because it is a player organ for which the rolls are still at the mansion.
Mr. Stark said the plan is to restore the organ, which is in the basement (the sound comes up through panels in the living room wall that open when it is played), and install a parallel electronic system that can play the organ through a computer.
“I’m so excited and they’re so excited,” Mrs. Easler said.
(Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699. )
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Summit Inn Resort provides relaxing escape
By Jennifer Reeger
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, July 1, 2007The psychics sat at the resort’s bar a few years back, regaling patrons with tales of the spirits around them.
But Karen Harris figured the psychics were phony. The women made no mention of the one soul who should have been lingering at The Summit Inn Resort: her father, Donald Shoemaker.“If there was somebody here, it would be my dad, because he loved this place,” Harris says.
Shoemaker and his wife, Eunice, loved the Summit so much that they borrowed from the bank and sold what they could to buy the resort in 1964, seven years after moving there to manage the inn near Farmington, Fayette County.
And while the Shoemaker family has spent 50 years tending to the resort atop Summit Mountain in the Chestnut Ridge along Route 40, those 50 years are only half the story.
This year, the Summit Inn, a grand old resort hotel on 1,000 acres, celebrates its 100th anniversary.It was opened in 1907 by a group of Uniontown businessmen, who thought a hotel overlooking their town along the National Road would make a good investment.
Tourists weren’t flocking to Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob back then — they didn’t exist — so the Summit and the beauty of the Laurel Highlands were the attraction.
From the inn’s wraparound porch, visitors can gaze out over five counties. And Harris says that on a clear day, the U.S. Steel building in downtown Pittsburgh is visible.
Ten years after its opening, the inn played host to the “American Science Wizards,” including Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, who raced down the mountain in automobiles. A copy of the guest register from their visit hangs in the hotel lobby, complete with signatures and room assignments.
In 1918, Leo Heyn took over as manager of the inn. Twelve years later, he bought the resort. Eunice Shoemaker, 81, says Heyn “really got this hotel on the map.”
Heyn was a “real colorful character” who kept two dachshunds at the resort to greet guests. A Bichon Frise, named Tootsie, serves as the resort’s mascot.
Under Heyn’s watch, the Olympic-sized outdoor pool was built, complete with high and low dives. He used to have contests for people to walk on logs in the pool, Shoemaker says. And Heyn added skiing to the resort’s offerings, although today, the Summit closes for the winter.
Summit Inn advertisements from the 1930s still hang on the walls. Harris, 52, chuckles recalling some of the claims, such as the inn being free of asthma, fireproof and having no mosquitoes.
At the time, guests could pay $50 to become “King for a Day,” which offered an unlimited expense account and the opportunity to eat everything from caviar to Maine lobster.
“I was thinking about today how much it would cost to have somebody be ‘King for a Day,’ ” Harris says.
The inn hit harder times during the Depression and war years, as fewer people were taking driving trips. The Heyn family sold the hotel in 1946 to Maxwell Abell.
In 1957, Donald Shoemaker moved his family from Bedford so he could take over as manager of the Summit. Eunice Shoemaker recalls that the Mission and Craftsman-influenced building had fallen into disrepair.
The owner was in Chicago and didn’t care to spend money on the inn, Shoemaker says. Her husband was ready to take a job in Puerto Rico when he was offered the chance to buy the inn.
“We sold everything we could and got money from the bank,” Shoemaker says.
They bought the inn in May 1964 and started renovations. They did a few rooms at first, enough so that Shoemaker could invite her bridge club over and not be embarrassed.
“For years, my father was a conservationist. If he could save anything, it was saved and it was used,” Harris says.
The whole family joined the effort to make it work. They lived across the road from the inn but spent most of their waking time at the resort. Harris was 5 when she and her parents moved there.
“The lobby really was my living room,” she says.
“She grew up with the hotel, and that’s why she’s able to run the hotel so well today,” Shoemaker says.
When Harris was little, she was paid a penny for every fly she killed. She folded napkins, too.
“The day (guests) came in, I’d sit on the porch and wait for someone my age,” she says. “When they’d leave, I’d hide because I didn’t want them to leave.”
As she got older, Harris became popular among friends.
“I used to have slumber parties, and my friends could not wait until it was my turn,” she says.
With its multiple staircases and lots of nooks, it’s easy to get lost in the massive building. But it also has a sense of intimacy.
“I think that’s the attention that our guests of today totally enjoy,” Harris says. “It’s more comfortable. Even though we have 94 rooms, it has the feel of a bed and breakfast.”
Harris says many guests think of mountain resorts from two movies — “The Shining” and “Dirty Dancing” — when they see the Summit.
But the inn made history in its own right, having been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
Things have changed over the years. Shoemaker remembers that the inn used to be run like a cruise ship.
“You had something planned every day and night,” she says.
Today, guests enjoy relaxing by the outdoor pool or swimming in the heated indoor pool. They might golf a round at the nine-hole course or play video games in the game room. But many guests choose to stay at the Summit and venture out to other attractions in the Laurel Highlands.
And while there used to be a formal dress code for the dining room, today’s guests arrive in jeans and shorts. Guest rooms have private baths, televisions and air conditioning. No two rooms are decorated the same.
“A building like this is just a constant renovation and upkeep. We just do what our eyes tell us needs to be taken care of,” Harris says. “We take probably 15 rooms or more a year and redo them totally, and the others we’ll just paint.”
But many things have remained the same. Guests still walk to the lobby down a grand staircase, the sun shining on them from two large stained-glass windows.
In the lobby, they sit on the same Gustav Stickley furniture that Ford and Edison found there. And they can look at — but not touch — an 1868 Steinway square grand piano.
Carol Rubaker, 68, of Baldwin, Allegheny County, first stayed at the Summit in the early 1960s. She was looking for a place she and her then-husband could drive to for a getaway.
“It was only a 45- to 50-minute ride from Pittsburgh, and when we got there, it was like a million miles away from home,” she says.
“I love the old-fashioned charm of it,” she says. “No matter what room you get, you’re not beside an ice machine that’s clunking all night long.”
Rubaker says she’s stayed at the Summit every year since 1971.
“Everybody that knows me knows that I go to Uniontown for my vacation,” she says. “I’ve been to Hawaii. I’ve been on a cruise, but everyone remembers I go to Uniontown.”
Mary Boord, of Newark, Del., used to go to the Summit Inn as a child in Canonsburg, Washington County, about 65 years ago. She remembers the two dachshunds and the pool.
“The swimming pool had a slide going down into it,” she says. “I thought that was a lot of fun.”
She grew up and married her husband, Robert, a Masontown, Fayette County, native, and they moved away. About 12 years ago, on a trip back to Western Pennsylvania, the Boords, now in their late 70s, decided to take Route 40. They came across the Summit Inn and decided to stop for lunch and met some golfers, who had played the resort’s course. The Boords — golfers themselves — vowed to go back and try it out.
“In the past 12 years, we’ve been back 16 times,” she says. “That says we like it.”
“As a retired designer I look at the environment, and the lobby is sensational,” she says. “The rooms are all different, which is nice, because you have a lot of these cookie cutter places.”
The Boords note how friendly the inn’s owners and employees are.
“They must spend a lot of hours there tending their guests,” Robert Boord says. “It’s just nice to go somewhere where you’re recognized and you get to know them.”
The Summit should be in the family’s hands for a long time. When her father became ill in 1993, Harris started learning more of the business from him. By the time he died four years later, she was running the show.
Now the youngest of her three children, Amanda Leskinen, who just graduated from Washington & Jefferson College, will be helping more.
“She’s going to come back this year and start working, and maybe I’ll get to play a little golf,” Harris says.
Jennifer Reeger can be reached at jreeger@tribweb.com or 724-836-6155.
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