Category Archive: Historic Properties
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New designs for Route 28 gains support – Proposals would spare church, industrial park
By Joe Grata,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Thursday, July 17, 2003Alternative designs initiated by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation only six months ago appear to be gaining support for the eventual reconstruction of a two-mile stretch of Route 28 between the North Side and Millvale.
Both options would save St. Nicholas Church, the first Croatian Roman Catholic Church in the United States, although the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese wants to close it, and Millvale Industrial Park, although the owner wants to get rid of it.
Historic preservation groups are rallying around the two sites along the dangerous, congested highway.
At a PennDOT-sponsored open house at the Boathouse on Washington’s Landing yesterday, many of the 300 people who turned out to look at plans and meet with engineers appeared to favor “Alternative 6,” which proposes to rebuild Route 28 essentially where it is, rather than “Alternative 5,” which would place six lanes of traffic on a 30-foot overpass only a flying hubcap away from the stained-glass “rose window” above St. Nicholas’ main entrance.
“No. 6 is a superb plan,” said Jack Schmitt, chairman of the Religious Structures Committee of Preservation Pittsburgh, who said new access and parking would enable the church’s dwindling congregation to grow. “It saves the church, preserves the green hillside and is cheaper” by $40 million.
No. 6 could be even cheaper if it were up to Andrew A. Lang Jr., owner of Millvale Industrial Park, home to a dozen small businesses.
Historic groups want to save that site because one of the buildings housed a brewery in the 19th century.
“There’s nothing historic about it,” Lang said of the building, which is now mostly a warehouse. “It’s been altered and remodeled 15 times. You’d never know a brewery ever existed there. Why does someone else have an interest in saving my place when I don’t?”
Tom Fox, PennDOT District 11 assistant executive for design, said while he may be inclined to accommodate Lang’s wish, federal laws require PennDOT to prove there’s no prudent and feasible alternative to buying and demolishing a historic structure, even though it might cost $20 million to save the one Lang owns.
Plans to rebuild the two miles of Route 28, known as the “death stretch” because of its accident history, have languished for years.
The highway, an extension of East Ohio Street past the Del Monte/Heinz plant, is a narrow four lanes with no divider or shoulders. Traffic bogs down at signals at the 31st and 40th street bridges.
PennDOT proposes spending $160 million to $200 million to reconstruct the stretch, although the timetable does not call for construction to begin before 2008.
Until six months ago, PennDOT’s design options would have eliminated St. Nicholas Church and Millvale Industrial Park and dislocated about 80 households, including some on Eggers Street atop Troy Hill. The plans would have meant constructing up to 20 miles of retaining walls over the two-mile stretch to shoehorn a limited-access expressway between the steep hillside on one side and Norfolk Southern Railway tracks on the other.
Fox credited George White, a retired civil engineering professor who is with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, for coming up with new ideas that have since been modified to conform to the terrain and geometry at the two bridge intersections.
“My take on [the open house] is that the people favor Alternatives 5 and 6,” Fox said. “We’ll study the comments and recommend a final alternative for the draft environmental impact statement and hold a public hearing on it early next year.”
Nos. 5 and 6 would provide nonstop traffic flow on Route 28, as did the earlier plans, although the speed limit with No. 6 would be 40 mph and the horizontal profile would be narrow: a 5-foot sidewalk in front of St. Nicholas, a 2 1/2-foot-wide curb, two 12-foot southbound lanes, a concrete divider, two 12-foot northbound lanes and another 2 1/2-foot-wide curb.
Fox said accidents and breakdowns would stop traffic, as opposed to Alternative 5, which provides 10-foot-wide shoulders in each direction by elevating parts of the highway toward the river, over the railroad line.
White said special legislation could permit PennDOT to acquire half of the 52-foot-wide railroad right of way and build No. 6 as a first-class transportation facility at the present elevation, increasing the frontage at St. Nicholas and keeping the hillside in its natural state.
White said train traffic is so infrequent that Norfolk Southern does not need all of the four tracks passing through the site.
One more entity is planning to weigh in on PennDOT’s plans — the Riverlife Task Force, a group promoting preservation and controlled development along the city’s river corridors.
Attorney Ted McConnell of Kirkpartrick & Lockhart, a Downtown law firm that advises the task force, was at the open house, examining a total of 11 options that were posted on easels around the room.
“We’re concerned about the hillside, the visual impacts and the community impacts of what PennDOT plans to do,” he said. “We’re looking at the alternatives and determining if there are some appropriate mitigation measures that we can recommend.”
Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1985.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Groups welcome Route 28 options
By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 17, 2003PennDOT won’t decide until early 2004 whether to rebuild Route 28 through the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church or around the Pittsburgh-designated historic building.
Those who want to spare the church are happy now that PennDOT is considering two new ways of improving a 2-mile stretch of Route 28 from Millvale to Pittsburgh that would spare the building, in addition to two other plans that would require tearing down or moving the church.
“This is what we have been striving for,” said Robert Sladack, who co-chairs the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation that has been fighting to preserve the church, the first Croatian Catholic church in the United States. “Now, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
PennDOT hosted an open house Wednesday evening at the Three Rivers Rowing Association Boat House, on Washington’s Landing, putting two new concepts on display that would preserve the church. PennDOT now will select one of four proposals and intends to begin construction in 2008.
More than 100 people turned out for the open house.
“It’s difficult,” said Tom Fox, the assistant district engineer at PennDOT’s Allegheny County-based District 11 office. “I plan to sit down and look at what everybody said here tonight.”
The fate of the church situated just feet from the southern end of Route 28, also called the Allegheny Valley Expressway, has been the subject of a heated dispute. Early designs put the new road through the church property, which upset church members and preservationists.
The dispute prompted PennDOT to develop two concepts that spare the church by using elevated lanes.
Of equal concern are the 60,000 motorists who drive Route 28 daily. The project, which is estimated to cost between $140 million and $200 million, would eliminate the traffic signal intersections at the 31st Street and 40th Street bridges that are choke points.
By the time work begins in 2008, PennDOT intends to have finished building a direct connection between Route 28 and Interstate 279, Fox said. He wants construction on the link to begin in about three years.
Those fighting to save the church feel they’re now on the same page as PennDOT.
“We commend PennDOT for their creative solution to Route 28 improvements, their willingness to have open, public discussion and their sensitivity in saving our local heritage,” said a statement from Preservation Pittsburgh.
Aside from the church, there are some residential concerns, especially for people who live in Troy Hill atop the hillside adjacent to Route 28.
“My concern is if my house is going to be impacted by this,” Rita Steinmetz said. “My other concern is the stability of the hillside and the possible noise effects.”
The owner of the Millvale Industrial Park, which sits along Route 28, is unhappy that the two new PennDOT options would spare his 6-acre property, which is home to 12 businesses. Andrew Lang wants PennDOT to buy his property when the stretch of Route 28 is rebuilt.
“I want them to take the building,” Lang said.
Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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PennDOT offers four options for Route 28
By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, July 15, 2003State transportation officials on Monday unveiled two proposals for widening Route 28 that would spare the historic St. Nicholas Church on the North Side.
Two other proposals still under consideration, however, put the 100-year-old building in the path of a wrecking ball. Pittsburgh City Council in 2001 approved a historic designation for the church, which belongs to the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. The historical designation doesn’t rule out demolition of the building, but it complicates the process.
Engineers from the state Department of Transportation yesterday outlined four remaining alternatives for the project during a briefing for public officials on a study of estimated costs and the feasibility of the proposals.
“This at least … gives some viable alternatives for public consideration,” said Edward Pugh, an aide to state Sen. Jack Wagner, a Beechview Democrat. Pugh was among about two dozen municipal representatives and legislative aides who attended the session at the state Department of Environmental Protection offices on Washington’s Landing in Pittsburgh.
To present the four alternatives to the public, PennDOT will hold an open house Wednesday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Three Rivers Rowing Association boathouse, 300 Waterfront Drive, also on Washington’s Landing.
The road project, expected to cost between $140 million and $200 million, is expected to unclog traffic along a 2-mile corridor and make Route 28 safer by separating southbound and northbound traffic and widening the existing lanes. Federal highway funds are expected to cover about 80 percent of the cost.
An alternative still being considered that would spare St. Nicholas Church — site of the first Croatian Roman Catholic parish in the Western Hemisphere — is a modified version of a plan developed by George R. White, chairman of the transportation committee of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
“You live again to fight another day,” White said when told PennDOT had advanced a version of his plan.
The plan — which involves elevating the highway above railroad tracks that run adjacent to Route 28 — would be the more expensive of the alternatives, according to PennDOT’s estimates. It would cost about $200 million. The next closest alternative would cost about $160 million.
“I don’t know what the politicians will decide, but the cost is close enough … that it merits public debate,” White said.
Other alternatives include:
Construction that cuts into the hillside with terraces in the Troy Hill area of the North Side, cutting a swath through properties along Route 28, including the church, the Millvale Industrial Park and Feilbach Street in Millvale.
Construction that would cut less into the hillside but would cause railroad tracks to be moved, as well as demolition of the church and industrial park.
Construction of an “urban artery” that would be more narrow than the other alternatives because it would have only 2-foot gutters, instead of 10-foot shoulders. This plan would avoid the church.
All options include four 12-foot lanes, with auxiliary lanes for traffic moving to and from the 31st Street and 40th Street bridges, said Thomas C. Fox, an assistant district engineer with PennDOT. A key element of the project is to keep northbound and southbound traffic from being stopped by traffic signals which make it possible for other vehicles to use the bridges.
Construction is not expected to start before 2008. The project is slated to be completed in 2011.
David M. Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5614.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Homeowner wants to make sure Heathside Cottage will outlive her
By Gretchen McKay,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Saturday, July 12, 2003Anyone who’s ever fixed up a neglected old house knows it takes more than time and money. It takes some of your soul.
Judith Harvey in the “urban garden” at her Fineview home. She restored the dilapidated Gothic Revival cottage then bought the abandoned house next door, had it torn down and created the garden. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)
Just ask Judith Harvey. She spent close to five years restoring Heathside Cottage, a six-room Gothic Revival cottage in the North Side’s Fineview neighborhood. Snow White herself would feel at home within its rounded walls and fanciful gingerbread trim.
“Some houses talk to you,” says Harvey with a delicate shrug of her shoulders. “I knew the moment I saw its chimney from the street up above that I had to have it.”
What one person loves, however, another might surrender to the wrecking ball. So soon after the meticulous restoration was complete, the former librarian began worrying about her tiny house’s future. What would happen when she was gone?
“It really troubled me,” she recalls. “It was important that I find a way to protect it.”
A member of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, Harvey said her first thought was to simply leave it in her will to the historic preservation group. It didn’t matter if it used it as an art gallery or a study; all she wanted was peace of mind that her 165-year-old house — which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and bears a Landmarks plaque — would survive intact for years to come.
But while gifts of property provide Landmarks with much-needed cash to support its mission, “we’re not in the real estate business,” says Jack Miller, director of gift planning. Besides, even though Landmarks would get the proceeds from the eventual sale of the house, buyers would be able to do anything they wanted with the property. So he suggested protecting it first, then making a “retained life estate” gift.
Here’s how it works: Harvey granted a facade easement to Landmarks that guarantees no one could ever change the exterior of the house. She then deeded the house to the foundation but retained the right to live in or rent it for the rest of her life. She would also be responsible for property taxes and maintenance.
Heathside Cottage sits on Caroma Street in Fineview. Owner Judith Harvey is making sure that the house and all the work she put into restoring it will outlive her by making a “retained life estate gift” of the property to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)
“Nothing changes until the day she dies,” Miller says.
But what about taxes? Harvey is entitled to a charitable income tax deduction. Also, the property is no longer part of an estate that could be attached — by a nursing home, for instance — if Harvey could no longer care for herself. The best part, however, is that Harvey’s home and handiwork will be preserved for future generations.
Built around 1855 by bridge engineer James Andrews, the brick cottage is so unusual that it was featured in Rick Sebak’s 1997 documentary “North Side Story.” It is a model of Early Victorian design, with lacy bargeboard, a steeply pitched roof and diamond-paned sash windows. And its location on a hilly outcrop gives it a mighty fine view of Downtown, hence the neighborhood’s name.
Harvey bought the dilapidated house in 1992 as a weekend “playhouse,” then moved in permanently after her husband died in 1996. She also purchased the abandoned house next door and then had it torn down to create an urban garden (the stone foundation serves as a wall).
The largest rooms in the two-story cottage measure just 14 feet square, though the 11 1/2-foot ceilings on the first floor –many with beautiful wallpaper — lend an airy feel. Antiques and collectibles reflect Harvey’s love for anything old.
But there are some modern touches, as well. A large mirror above the mantel in the “futon” room is an inspired background for several smaller mirrors; Harvey herself designed the dining room’s enormous rosewood sideboard, which was handmade in Pakistan.
A narrow staircase leads to the light-filled second floor. Here, slanted walls and a whimsical diamond-shaped window in the bedroom (it’s held up by a chain attached to a hook) add to the cottage’s storybook feel. A slender, pointed “lancet” window in the bedroom-turned-closet room reminds visitors of the home’s Gothic roots. Harvey couldn’t bear to think of it in ruins.
“It’s protected as much as it can be,” she says. “It’s where people can see history and be a part of it.”
“Judith obviously cared very much about the property, so it worked out well,” says Miller.
Many people are not aware that they can give their house or farm — or in the case of one donor, a pizza manufacturing plant — to a charitable organization.
Miller says such “planned gifts” work best for people who want to do something for the community and, in some cases, receive income from an asset that is not normally an income-producing property. With a planned gift, donors find that they are able to contribute more than they thought possible while still providing for their family. Miller is quick to note that no one should enter into one of these agreements without the advice of a lawyer and/or financial consultant or accountant.
Harvey’s retained life estate gift of Heathside Cottage, the first gift of its kind to Landmarks, is only one way to go, Miller says. A charitable gift annuity, for instance, allows someone to give a gift of property in exchange for fixed income payments for life that are based on the age and number of beneficiaries. An added benefit is an upfront tax deduction.
A charitable remainder trust, by way of contrast, permits someone to transfer a property to a trust, avoid capital-gains tax and receive a fixed or variable payment each year for up to 20 years or the lifetime of the income beneficiary. Like the annuity, the gift also carries a federal income tax deduction for the donor.
Lucille Tooke chose the charitable remainder trust option when she donated her historic property, Hidden Valley Farm in Pine, to Landmarks in 2001.
Tooke and her husband, Jack, bought the farm in 1954 and spent the next 40 years raising their three daughters on its 64 acres. After Jack died in 1993, it became increasingly difficult for Tooke to take care of it on her own.
“It got to be more than I could handle,” says Tooke, a longtime Landmarks member who now lives in Chambersburg, Franklin County.
So in 2000, she asked Landmarks officials if they knew anyone who might be interested in buying and preserving the property. Most of the land surrounding the farm, which was built in 1835 by Lewis Ross and his wife, Temperance, had already been developed. The thought that it, too, might one day become part of the ‘burbs “made me shudder,” says Tooke.
Unlike Harvey, Tooke was ready to sell the house so she could move closer to her daughters. However, she also needed an income to meet living expenses. Landmarks helped her work out a plan.
She avoided capital-gains tax by turning the farm over to the trust and received a charitable deduction for a portion of the property’s value and a percentage of the trust’s value each year.
When the trust put the farm up for sale, Landmarks had the right to match the highest bid and ended up buying it.
Before reselling it, Landmarks added deed restrictions that required owners to get prior approval from Landmarks before altering the house’s exterior. They also stipulated that the land could not be subdivided or used for non-agricultural commercial purposes.
Even though the restrictions lowered the selling price and made it more difficult to find a buyer, it helped preserve a historic landmark.
“The land and building will be there forever,” says Miller. “And one day, when urban sprawl takes over, the public will be able to see what an early 19th-century farm looked like.”
OK, you’re thinking, a property has to be of historical or architectural significance for Landmarks to be interested in it. Not so. Mary Ann and Tony Kopczynski recently donated the buildings that housed their pizza manufacturing business in McKees Rocks in the form of a charitable gift annuity. In exchange for the 5,000-square-foot warehouse and adjoining office building, the couple receive fixed annual payments for as long as they live.
They also got a sizable federal charitable income tax deduction for the gift portion of the property transfer.
“It gave them an opportunity to retire without having to worry about selling the property,” says Miller.
For more information on the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s Planned Giving Program, visit http://plannedgifts.phlf.org/or call Jack Miller at 412-471-5808, ext. 538.
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Foes, lack of funds may scrub Cathedral of Learning cleaning
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, July 6, 2003Hold the hoses.
Some fans of the Cathedral of Learning would rather bathe it in light than in baking soda.University of Pittsburgh officials last month announced plans to scrub the building with baking soda to remove a black, 70-year-old coat of industrial pollution. The project won’t start unless they can raise $3.5 million to pay for it.
“I love the cathedral the way it is because I’m so aware of the history of the grass-roots people through the Nationality Rooms,” said E. Maxine Bruhns, director of the Nationality Rooms Program.
She said many people who built the Nationality Rooms in the 1920s worked in the steel mills.
“The steel heritage is exemplified by the dark and light portions of the building,” Bruhns said, “and to clean it just to be spanking clean is not a good reason unless it’s a detriment to the stone.”
Cliff Davidson, an environmental engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, also opposes the artificial cleaning. Having studied erosion on the cathedral for the National Park Service, he prefers to let Mother Nature do her own work.
“Every time it rains, the building gets a tiny bit cleaner, and I’ve been watching that process over the last 10 years,” he said. “I rather like the way the cathedral looks now.”
Davidson has found that changes in the color of the building reflect differences in wind flow patterns and the angle of the rain.
“It’s almost a teaching instrument for the forces of nature,” Bruhns said.
Whiter spots have been scrubbed by wind-driven rain over the years. But the darker spots in nooks and crannies could take centuries to clean naturally if they can be cleaned at all, Davidson said.
“Yeah, he’s right,” countered Al Novak, Pitt’s interim vice chancellor of institutional advancement. “How long do you wait it out?”
Doris Dyen, director of cultural conservation for the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, has mixed emotions about the cleaning.
Speaking for herself, not her organization, she appreciates how many buildings in the city are being spruced up.
“At the same time,” she said, “you can lose a little bit of a sense of what Pittsburgh was like for 100 years when all the buildings were showing the effects of the 24-hour-a-day operation of the steel mills in the area.”
She favors polling residents — especially the children who sent their dimes to build the cathedral, if they’re still alive.
G. Alec Stewart, dean of the University Honors College, would take a different tack. He would rather light the building at night instead of cleaning it.
“It would make a stunning addition to the night skyline of Pittsburgh if we were able to illuminate it as significant monuments are in other major cities,” he said, comparing it to the Washington Monument.
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation has not taken a position on the cathedral. But foundation President Arthur Ziegler said, “I think the building is handsome as it is. We have a much stronger feeling that the building should be illuminated at night.”
Bruhns also supports illumination. She said she talked to a French lighting engineer two years ago about illuminating the Cathedral. He estimated it would cost at least $1 million for design and installation of fixtures without cables.
“The illumination of the tower is important because it was always considered a beacon of higher education and learning,” she said. “It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than cleaning.”
Novak shrugs off the to-clean-or-not-to-clean dilemma.
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “Everybody looks at it and says that it has charm. I guess that’s a personal taste question.”
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7828.
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Neville tombstones now on family grounds
By Meredith Polley
For the Tribune-Review
Thursday, July 3, 2003Though it took almost 200 years, three tombstones nearly as old as the American republic have found a final resting place at Woodville Plantation.
The original gravestones of Revolutionary War Gen. John Neville, his wife, Winifred, and their son-in-law, Isaac Craig, have been returned to the family estate in Collier.
A small lean-to on the grounds is nearly complete, and will protect the three stones from further exposure to the elements.
The stone slabs are cracked, worn and faded. Only a few phrases of the original epitaphs are legible, and Isaac’s rock is in two pieces.
“In the old days, people were always buried on their own plantation,” said Nancy Bishop, president of the Neville House Associates, volunteers who run programs at the historic home. “Having the stones here makes us feel like we’re a real plantation.”
The associates plan to dedicate the new structure and the tombstones on Aug. 7 and 10. The event will coincide with a 200-year celebration of Neville’s death, on July 29, 1803.Dressed in colonial attire, the associates plan to re-create the general’s funeral. Visitors may pay their respects at a closed-coffin viewing, and perhaps even hear the original eulogy.
The arrival of the Neville family tombstones — moved three times in the last two centuries — will fit right in with the bicentennial event.
“We’ll have something concrete, from that time,” said Dorothy Plank of Scott, one of the associates.
Neville was a close friend of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, and was a member of the Federal Convention that ratified the Constitution. He also was a tax collector, and his mansion known as Bower Hill was burned during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.
Woodville Plantation, also known as the Neville House, was his original residence in the area and it now is a National Historic Landmark.
When Neville died in 1803, he was buried in an Episcopal church graveyard in downtown Pittsburgh, alongside his wife, who had died a few years earlier. His daughter, Amelia, and her husband, Isaac, followed.
Later, a surveying error allowed Presbyterians to lay claim to graveyard land near the Episcopal church. The Neville graves and many others were moved in 1902 to Allegheny Cemetery.
Over the years, the stones deteriorated and about 25 to 30 years ago a visiting descendant, Theodore Diller, decided they were in such poor condition that replacements would be needed.
New monuments were placed at the graves of John and Winifred Neville and Isaac Craig at the cemetery in Lawrenceville. Amelia’s original marker was in better shape, and remained at her grave.
Diller gave the three old markers to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Albert Tannler of the foundation said the stones were kept in a garden at the foundation’s old headquarters at the Post Office Museum on the North Side.
Julianna Haag of Mt. Lebanon, one of the associates, said her husband saw the tombstones in the late ’70s, covered in weeds and dirt at the North Side building that now is the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum.
As the Neville House Associates prepared to mark the 200th anniversary of the general’s death, the Haags recalled the stones and contacted the foundation about them. The group ended up acquiring the stones, and moving them to the plantation grounds last fall.
Neville’s house remains a glimpse into Colonial America.
Woodville was one of three plantations built by Neville and his son, Presley, and it remained in the family’s possession from its completion in 1785 until 1973, when its last occupant, Mary Wrenshall Fauset, died.
At one point, the house was in danger of being demolished, but a group of women in surrounding areas campained to save it. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation later purchased the property.
The Neville House Associates organized in 1976, to restore the home to its original state and offer tours. The home now is open from 1 to 4 p.m. each Thursday and Sunday, and for special events.
The elegant yellow and white house has antique furniture, original woodwork, family portraits and window etchings by Colonial visitors, and is considered an accurate representation of early American plantation life.
“If you wanted to go to Williamsburg, but couldn’t go that far,” Haag said, “we’re the next best thing.”
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Murphy: City moving to tear down eyesores
By Tom Barnes,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Saturday, June 07, 2003Since last fall, the Murphy administration has reduced the number of vacant and condemned buildings in the city from 1,250 to about 800, but much still must be done to correct the problem of abandoned property, Mayor Tom Murphy said yesterday.
He said he hopes to either raze or rehabilitate the remaining 800 condemned structures over the next four years.
He spoke at a daylong Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation symposium on the problem the city faces from the years-long existence of empty, dilapidated properties and vacant lots.
Murphy said the city is using two main techniques to reduce the number of abandoned buildings, which can be in danger of collapsing, be used as hangouts by drug addicts or criminals and pose a visual blight on a neighborhood. He said the city is actively trying to demolish empty, dangerous structures while also working with neighborhood development groups to fix up those that are worth saving.
The city undertook an aggressive demolition program in Homewood last fall, razing 120 buildings at a cost of $700,000.
Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler urged that buildings be looked at for a second chance.
“We were concerned to learn of the city’s possible plan to demolish several thousand buildings,” he said. “We believe that in many cases, these buildings, although abandoned and often in poor condition, can still be community assets.”
To demolish some of these older buildings “is to lose architectural and economic assets,” Ziegler said.
By holding yesterday’s symposium, said Landmarks official Cathy McCollom, “We hope we can spur some discussion for a broader look at other solutions. Demolition should not be the only one.”
Yesterday’s conference was held at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland and attended by 250 community activists and housing officials. Speakers outlined some financial techniques, such as federal tax credits, that have been used here and in other cities to restore old, vacant structures.
Stanley Lowe, vice president of Landmarks and former director of the Pittsburgh Housing Authority, estimated that there were as many as 12,000 vacant buildings in the city, a far greater number than the 1,250 that the city Bureau of Building Inspections last year had officially condemned.
“For the last 15 years, we’ve always had at least 1,500 buildings on the condemned list,” Murphy said. “We would tear 200 or 300 down and another 200 or 300 would go onto the condemned list. A house or a block of houses that are vacant and abandoned in a neighborhood just drags the whole neighborhood down.”
He is trying to be aggressive in removing such hazardous urban blight. But contrary to criticism from some historic preservationists, Murphy also said he’s willing to consult with community groups and City Council members to find which structures in a neighborhood are historically important and worth saving for reuse.
(Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Group Works to Save Only Surviving 18th Century Stone House in City of Pittsburgh
April 14, 2003
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, in conjunction with the Hazelwood Initiative, Inc., Doug Shields from City Council District 5, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, are working to preserve the Woods Home, an important historical site located in the Hazelwood section of the city.
The group is submitting an application for Save America’s Treasures to the National Parks Service which, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, administers this grant program, the purpose of which is to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage. Grants for preservation and/or conservation work on nationally significant historic structures and sites are awarded through a competitive process in amounts of up to $1 million.
Doug Shields, former administrative assistant to Councilman Bob O’Connor and acting administrator for District 5, said, “We are grateful to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation for funding a preliminary structural review of the Woods Home. It is an important community asset and we hope that the Save America’s Treasures funding will allow us to rehabilitate the structure.”
The Woods Home, built of cut stone, is one of only three surviving 18th century structures in Pittsburgh, the other two being the Fort Pitt Blockhouse at the Point and the Neill Log House in Schenley Park.
“The house is in pretty bad shape now,” said Arthur Ziegler, President of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, “but the structural analysis undertaken by Landmarks Design Associates does show that it is still possible to restore the structure, and because of its significance as a rare survivor of late 18th century architecture this makes it worth while to continue to explore funding mechanisms to rehabilitate it.”
The site is already designated as an Historic Landmark by the City of Pittsburgh and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Woods family, at one time wealthy and socially prominent, were the pioneer landowners in Hazelwood. The vast extent of the Woods holdings may be imagined when it is stated that the original area embraced all of the land between “Frankstown” at Second Avenue and Forward Avenue in Glenwood, extending from the river to Squirrel Hill. The first survey of Pittsburgh was made in 1784 by Colonel George Woods; the present Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh honors him. George Woods, the Colonel’s son, was a prosperous lawyer who in 1792 built the estate he called “Hazel Hill.” Hazelwood, in fact, received its name from him.
While the Woods Home is important in terms of Pittsburgh’s history, the home has national significance as well. According to research conducted last year by Bob O’Connor, at the time Councilman for District 5, it was found that Stephen Foster, recognized as America’s first professional composer, spent a lot of time there in the mid-1800s. He apparently wrote or performed a number of his most famous songs at the Woods House. The Woods family piano is now housed at the Stephen Foster Memorial in Pittsburgh.
The deadline for the Save America’s Treasures grants is May 20th. The group is also exploring other funds and a sustainable use for the building.