Category Archive: Historic Properties
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House by house, North Side renovations go on
Saturday, November 10, 2001
By Bette McDevitt
Pittsburgh Post GazetteRehabbing one house can ruin your life, or your marriage,” says Nick Kyriazi, chairman of the Housing Committee for East Allegheny Community Council.
Now try doing 15, while also building five new homes, and you get an idea of how stressful life can be for Kyriazi and other members of this North Side neighborhood group.
It’s a major undertaking, even for a group accustomed to renovations. In 1993, the council did four new houses, in 1996, seven houses, both new and renovated, and in 1998, four renovations.
This $3.4 million project has been hectic but satisfying, Kyriazi said as he walked the streets of a neighborhood that runs from East Street to Cedar Avenue, and from Dunloe Street, at the foot of Fineview, to Pressley Street.
The 20 new or restored houses are on Cedar, James, Middle, Tripoli, Suismon and Pressley streets. Some are tall and skinny, some short and wide, some with turrets, some twins and one triplet. All but the new houses are about 80 percent finished and two are sold, including the centerpiece of the project, 810 Cedar Ave.
The grand dame of the 20 sits across from the East Allegheny Commons. The community council purchased the house four or five years ago, when it had a gaping hole in its roof and other evidence of neglect.
“People called this one ‘the graffiti house.’ An absentee doctor owned it, and neighbors were constantly painting out the graffiti,” said Ernie Hogan, associate director of the North Side Leadership Conference, the project manager for this development and others in nine North Side neighborhoods.
The inside and outside of the home cried out for major restoration. But a few people, including city Councilwoman Barbara Burns and Mark Masterson, a former employee of the North Side Leadership Conference, saw it as a chance to do even more, to make it a showcase of new technology and environmentally friendly construction techniques and materials known as “green building.”
“We are using recycled products, and the house was refurbished with steel rather than wood studs,” Hogan said. “We are using environmentally safe paints and the kitchen floor is made of recycled tires.”
The group got some help from the Green Building Alliance and Conservation Consultants on the South Side. Dietrich Industries provided the steel framing.
But the real groundbreaker here is the heating and cooling system. Geo Environmental Drilling Co. has gone 300 feet below the ground, seeking water at a constant 55 degrees. The water will be sent through coils to heat and cool the house.
“It’s a heat pump, which I have in my house, except that you use water for heat and cooling instead of outside air,” Kyriazi explained. “You draw the heat out of the water, and transfer it to the air to heat the house. To cool, you reverse the cycle.”
The group originally intended to install the system in several houses, as well as the James Street Tavern and the Old Towne Laundromat. But by the time the package was in place, one of the largest grants had expired, and they were able to afford the system for only one house.
The house, which is nearly finished, is also getting a state-of-the-art electrical system, controlled by a computer and equipped for high-speed Internet, multimedia entertainment and other current technologies. Sargent Electric donated some of the services and supplies.
“You will be able to turn on and off any lights from a phone,” said Hogan. “The house has incorporated everything that would have been grand about this house, and high technology, too.”
The Cedar Avenue home sold for slightly more than its $300,000 price tag because of a few extras the buyer wanted. Most of the homes are priced between $120,000 and $150,000, though one with only the exterior restored is selling for $53,000.
Over the next few months, environmental and educational groups will be allowed to tour 810 Cedar. Before the owner moves in, the community council also hopes to hold an open house to show off its many features to the public. In addition to gee-whiz technology, it is a fine example of a modified restoration.
“Plumbing, heating and wiring are easy. It’s the restoration that’s difficult — all the woodwork, the mantels, the balusters on the staircases,” said Kyriazi.
Architect Yoko Tai had one big advantage — the house’s twin next door. Martha Pasula’s house, whose interior is in the original state, served as a mirror for restorers. Tai duplicated some of the twin’s features in the blueprints, and Kyriazi and other volunteers helped to match balusters, doors and mantels from the cache of items they have been collecting from demolished houses for 25 years. Team Construction is the general contractor.
Sam Cammarata, a retired brick layer who lives in the neighborhood and regularly visited the houses being restored, was particularly taken with the work of master carpenter Jim Graczik.
“That guy is an artist,” he said.
Graczik’s handiwork is evident in the newel posts and spindles of the staircases at 810 Cedar.
The house’s old slate mantels were in as many as 20 pieces and had to be reassembled. They are painted to look like marble and have gold incising as decoration. Kyriazi thinks the slate pieces may have been dipped, like an Easter egg, in a solution with color floating on the top.
“When I look at these, I think they are too intricate to have been painted by hand,” he said.
It is the kind of question he ponders as he visits houses built in the same period on tours around the city, the country, and recently, a trip to Spain.
“You observe and learn, and soon you begin to speak Victorian,” he said.
The house’s first floor has been opened up to create a large living room with a dining area. A powder room has been added and the kitchen overlooks a shared courtyard and a renovated four-room apartment above a garage.
On the second floor is a master bedroom, a bath with a Jacuzzi, a laundry room and a dressing room or study. The third floor has three bedrooms and a full bath.
Funding for the project came from grants, donated labor and loans. Money came from the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, Buhl Foundation, the Community Design Center, Allegheny County, North Side Bank, National City Bank, and National City’s Community Development Project.
For Kyriazi and others on the council, the project’s greatest success is creating more single-family, owner-occupied residences.
“We want properly restored, well-maintained houses, not absentee landlords, multifamily dwellings or remuddled, derelict buildings,” he said.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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O’Hara log cabin deemed historical landmark
By Tawnya Panizzi
Staff writer
Friday, October 19, 2001O’HARA: The red metal-sided exterior of Margaret and Andrew Weil’s home belies the historical treasure inside.
Passers-by likely would not guess that the interior of the home along White Gate Road is true to its 1797 log cabin construction, down to the choppy ax marks embedded in the wood.
“We think of this as a great treasure, we always thought so,” said Margaret, who with her husband has lived in the James Powers Homestead since 1958.
The Weils’ 18th century-era cabin might be the oldest, and perhaps the only home of its kind remaining in the Lower Valley.
That has earned it a place in the history books. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation named the home, and its 14-acre site, as one of 27 significant historical structures chosen in 2001. An Historic Landmark plaque will grace the property in hopes of spreading, or at least, securing its story.
Powers is thought to be the first settler in the Fox Chapel area. He, as were many soldiers after the Revolutionary War, was given a depreciatory land grant after returning from battle. His brother, John, built a log cabin, which has since been demolished, on nearby Field Club.
“So few older buildings exist,” said Cathy McCollom, director of operations and marketing for the Landmarks Foundation. “The fact that it is an authentic log cabin is really special. There are a lot of reproductions. This is the real thing.”
The Historic Landmarks committee reviews as many as 50 nominations each year. The program was founded in 1968 to recognize structures and landscapes throughout Allegheny County as vital pieces of local heritage.
Eligibility hinges on architecture, renovation and age. The Weils’ home was eligible for the honor because the construction imparts a sense of history, few alterations have been made and it is over the required 50-year mark.
“It is very worthy,” said Margaret, who plans to erect the plaque on a granite stone in the front yard. “It means something to the neighborhood, and to the city. Few people know, now it’s written down.”
Although the front road is paved and an oven has replaced the fireplace as a means of cooking, the couple never allowed renovations that would detract from the story behind the home.
Ironically, it was commonplace in colonial days to hide the workmanship and tell-tale signs of a log cabin.
“Ladies then didn’t want log cabins,” Margaret said. “They covered them up with air space and plaster.”
The first home along White Gate Road fell in line with the times. It was covered with a burnt sienna metal siding and no one would guess the detailed work underneath.
The only giveaway is the stone chimney that rises from the original fireplace, which was used to heat the cabin and cook for Powers and his eight siblings. Margaret said the stone rising is similar to homes in historic Williamsburg.
It took little work to restore the interior to its authentic look.
Prior owners ripped down wallpaper and removed plaster, and behind the air pocket, the log cabin stood pristine.
“People come in and stop in their tracks,” Andrew said. “There, they’re standing in a 200-year old log cabin.
“When you think back to that time, there were Indians living here then. Nine children were raised in this 20-by-20-foot room.”
There have been four previous owners of the home, from which you can hear the waters of Powers Run trickling.
In fact, several members of the Powers family have paid visits and reminisced with the Weils about how the cabin was maintained as part of a farm during the World War II-era.
One such visit came last year, after one member of the Powers family, home for a school reunion, knocked on the door.
“He was about 80,” Andrew said. “He talked about being born and raised here, and he was very pleased that we’ve kept it.”
It was the Weils’ intention by nominating it for historical designation to preserve the homestead for future generations.
The Landmarks Foundation has bestowed 400 historical designations throughout the county.
The marking offers no legal protection from those who would want to alter or demolish the structures. What it does is tell the world that the building is significant, McCollom said.
It is a public acknowledgment that would hopefully cause a future owner to think about the changes they make.
“We know there is a risk, but we hope that whoever buys the property will feel as keen about it as we do,” Andrew said.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
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Landmarks Completes Preservation of Hidden Valley Farm
We recently announced a rural preservation program and acquisition of Hidden Valley farm located in the Mars-Gibsonia area of the county by purchase from a charitable remainder trust established by Lucille Tooke to benefit Landmarks.
Recently, we completed the sale of the property to a private owner after he agreed to place protective easements on both the 1835 brick farmhouse and the 64 acres of beautiful western Pennsylvania hillside farm.
The buyer plans to restore the front porch and rebuild a barn similar to the original that was destroyed by a fire more than a decade ago.
The area is rapidly developing both residentially and commercially. The Treesdale Farms development is nearby as is sprawling Cranberry Township.
The proceeds of the sale will be allocated to further historic farm preservation. We are now trying to raise considerable funds to enlarge this program so that we can acquire other historic farms in Allegheny County.
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Diocese to decide on churches’ historic status
09/30/2001
By Brandon Keat TRIBUNE-REVIEW
When the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation designated 27 historic structures this year, St. Mary Magdalene Church in Homestead and St. Michael Archangel Church in Munhall were on the list.
But the Pittsburgh Diocese has not yet decided whether to accept the designations and the plaques that come with them.
Inspired by the recent events surrounding St. Nicholas Church on the North Side, where a last-minute historic designation threatens to block the diocese’s plan to sell the church, diocese officials met Wednesday to re-evaluate historic designations.
“The decision is that we want to have a procedure where, before a plaque such as that can be accepted, it will have to be reviewed by the diocese,” said the Rev. Ron Lengwin, a spokesman for the diocese.
Lengwin said a decision on the two churches should be made soon, once a specific process for arriving at a decision has been established.
“We’re just in the process of determining how approval will be given,” he said. “It’s not going to be very complex.”
Lengwin said many of the diocese’s churches have been among the more than 400 historic structures designated by the foundation since the group’s plaque program began in 1968.
He said this designation, which places a plaque on the building or structure indicating its name, date of construction and architect, has not been problematic for the diocese in the past.
Such a designation “could become a matter of pride for a parish,” Lengwin said.
“There are a number of buildings in the diocese that have received this. It doesn’t impose any restrictions on the building, it’s just recognition,” Lengwin said. “It’s a rather simple matter, but it’s part of a larger issue that’s rather important to us.”
That larger issue – one that does trouble the diocese – is other historic designations, such as the one given by the City of Pittsburgh to St. Nicholas Church.
Those designations can prevent the diocese from selling churches.
“It imposes restrictions on a building that could limit the church in its mission and ministry,” Lengwin said.
“The church supports the notion of historic preservation. It’s done that since the founding of the church. But not nonconsensual historic designation.”
In May, Pittsburgh City Council designated St. Nicholas a historic structure, which might interfere with the diocese’s plans.
Lengwin said the situation with St. Nicholas, which the diocese wants to sell to the state Department of Transportation so it can be demolished and allow for the expansion of Route 28, is not the first of its kind for the diocese. Similar scenarios have played out at St. Leo on the North Side and St. Michael on the South Side.
“There are other incidents, (St. Nicholas) is just the latest one,” Lengwin said.
Cathy McCollom of History and Landmarks said the designation does not prevent the owner of the building from altering, selling or demolishing it.
“It’s not legally restrictive,” she said.
McCollom said some structures are nominated by their owners, while others are selected by the foundation’s staff because they are “buildings that we feel are important to be acknowledged.”
McCollom said the east suburban churches were nominated by the foundation’s staff.
“They’re both built by significant architectural firms,” she said.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
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Landmarks Completes Preservation of Hidden Valley Farm
We recently announced a rural preservation program and acquisition of Hidden Valley farm located in the Mars-Gibsonia area of the county by purchase from a charitable remainder trust established by Lucille Tooke to benefit Landmarks.
Recently, we completed the sale of the property to a private owner after he agreed to place protective easements on both the 1835 brick farmhouse and the 64 acres of beautiful western Pennsylvania hillside farm.
The buyer plans to restore the front porch and rebuild a barn similar to the original that was destroyed by a fire more than a decade ago.
The area is rapidly developing both residentially and commercially. The Treesdale Farms development is nearby as is sprawling Cranberry Township.
The proceeds of the sale will be allocated to further historic farm preservation. We are now trying to raise considerable funds to enlarge this program so that we can acquire other historic farms in Allegheny County.
Contact: Jack Miller at jack@phlf.org
Director of Gift Planning
412-471-5808 -
Wrecking ball ends quest to preserve historic house – Fast-food restaurant slated for construction on site
09/28/2001
By Daniel Reynolds TRIBUNE-REVIEW
The Wilkinsburg house where one of the pioneers of commercial radio did his earliest work was demolished Thursday, despite efforts by preservationists to save the structure.
“I feel like we failed,” said Rick Harris, treasurer of the National Museum of Broadcasting, a Forest Hills group that tried for years to convince government officials and foundations to give them the money to save the building.
Harris and his group are still trying to establish a museum commemorating Frank Conrad, the Westinghouse engineer and former Wilkinsburg resident whose engineering team sent the first shortwave radio broadcasts around the world.
But yesterday, Harris said he could only stand, watch, and snap a few photos as the house Conrad did some of his early work in was demolished.
“I think years from now people will look back and say ‘It’s just a shame that they couldn’t save it. What was wrong with people back then in the 1980s and 1990s and early 2000 that they couldn’t have gotten a few hundred thousand together to buy it and restore it?'” Harris said.
Cathy McCollom, director of operations for the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, has said her organization spent significant amounts of time working with Harris’ organization.
She said the group never could find a way to preserve the house Conrad rented in a way that would be financially feasible.
Contractors for the Wendy’s Corp. began tearing down the house at 577 Penn Ave. down yesterday afternoon.
The house that Conrad rented from approximately the mid-1910s to the early 1930s was sold to Wendy’s in August by Elks Lodge No. 577, which has since moved to Wilkins Township.
Wendy’s plans to build a new restaurant on the site. Harris said the restaurant chain has given him permission to gather remnants of the brick structure after demolition to include in a museum or some other fitting display.
Harris said the beginnings of commercial radio took place in the house’s garage and music room, where Conrad assembled groups of musicians and narrators for early radio broadcasts throughout the Pittsburgh area.
Conrad’s experiments evolved into local broadcasting stalwart KDKA, the first commercial radio station in the world.
Later on, Conrad led a Westinghouse team that broadcast the first world-wide short wave radio broadcasts from a lab in Forest Hills.
Forest Hills officials are negotiating with Harris’ group to determine whether a museum can be established in Forest Hills dedicated to Conrad’s work.
The National Museum of Broadcasting was able to salvage the Wilkinsburg garage of the home that Conrad rented. The bricks from that garage are stored on pallets in a warehouse owned by the Thomas Rigging Co. at Keystone Commons in Turtle Creek.
Harris’ group hopes to rebuild the garage as part of the museum, but Forest Hills officials have not yet announced where in the borough that might be able to occur.
In January, the Forest Hills site of Conrad’s early work was designated as historically significant by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review
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Church murals depicting spiritual, cultural lives of Croatian immigrants draw renewed attention
By Mary Thomas,
Post-Gazette Art Critic
Thursday, September 27, 2001In an overhead mural inches above the visitor, the face of the Blessed Virgin is contorted in horror. Tears well from her widened eyes as she steps between two soldiers on a battlefield, grabbing a bayonet to halt its thrust. She’s depicted as a Croatian peasant, in a blue dress that’s pleated and embellished with a panel of folk embroidery, and with the fleshy hands, shoulders and breasts of a farm wife rather than with the delicate features generally given to Christ’s mother.
This “Holy Mother” is only one of more than 20 unique murals that cover the interior of tiny St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale, transforming the demure Romanesque structure into a jewel box of cultural, political and artistic expression that’s gained it National and Pittsburgh Historic Landmark designations.
The murals were painted in 1937 and 1941 by Croatian artist Maxi-milian (Maxo) Vanka, the subject of an exhibition at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center. They are considered by many to be his masterworks. Beginning Saturday, the center will offer tours that combine a walk through the exhibition with a bus trip to the murals.
In the small church that clings to the side of a hill, as do many of the workers’ homes in this former mill community, visitors will see both religious and secular imagery that addresses spiritual beliefs, cultural practice and man’s humanity or lack thereof.
Vanka often paired his subjects, and two of the most compelling scenes pay tribute to the Croatian parishioners: “The Croatian Mother Raises Her Son for War” and “The Immigrant Mother Raises Her Son for Industry.” In the former, a group of women in white garments keep watch over the lace-draped coffin of a young soldier. In the background, rows of white crosses angle toward an ominous sky.
The latter pointedly illustrates that life wasn’t easy in the land of promise, where immigrants often faced savage societal prejudices and dangerous working conditions. These women mourn the death of a son who died in a mine accident. It’s based on a true Johnstown event, and the family would lose three other sons in the same day during rescue efforts.
It’s not coincidental that the women are dressed like the blue-garbed “Holy Mother.” According to folklorist Frances Babic, in Christian Slavic folk tradition the women’s communal mourning of the dead assumes “a communion with another mother: Mary, Mother of God.”
Another dramatic and effective pairing is the idealized “Justice,” countered by the breathtakingly ominous, larger-than-life figure of “Injustice,” whose face is hidden beneath a gas mask. In one hand, she holds a bloodied sword and in the other scales which tip in favor of a pile of gold that outweighs a loaf of bread — symbolic of the body of Christ.
Vanka, in a Nov. 14, 1941, article in The Pittsburgh Press, said the inspiration for the work was Nazi occupation. “Hitler says march in, take all, go into Czechoslovakia, into Poland, into all countries. There is no justice today.”
The startling image of a woman chained to a cross represents the suffering peasant mother but is also allegorical for the oppressed, seized countries of Europe.
“The mother is enchained and crucified, because for one assassinated soldier they now kill hundreds,” Vanka explained. “At her feet is a destroyed church and town, and a jail, all bloody to show the cruelty. Hands are reaching through the bars of the jail, asking for help from the mother country, but she can do nothing.”
The mural commissions
The Rev. Albert Zagar was the pastor who commissioned the murals. When he contacted Vanka, an extraordinary collaboration began between two men of faith — a deeply spiritual artist and an unequivocally trusting priest.
Zagar’s only requirement was that some of the images be of a religious character.
Vanka complimented Zagar as the “only priest in 100,000 who is courageous enough to break with tradition, to have his church decorated with pictures of modern, social significance.”
Zagar and Vanka were both born in Yugoslavia and taught at the University of Zagreb, but they didn’t know one another. In America, they came together to produce visual aids that would help the Croatian immigrants cope with their longings for home while adjusting to their new country. By 1937, more than 50,000 Croats had settled in the Pittsburgh region.
Doris Dyen, a folklife specialist who’s now director of Cultural Conservation for the Steel Industry Heritage Corp., explored the dual role of such imagery in her paper “Aids to Adaptation: Southeast European Mural Painters in Pittsburgh,” which appeared in the Library of Congress’ “Folklife Annual 1990.”
Croatians, she said, “used religious beliefs and church affiliation as a tie to the Old Country and a way of adapting to the new. Iconography and the decorative arts … were particularly significant in the process of adaptation, affording as they did a wide range of symbolic expression, while also affirming traditional values.”
Dyen also speculates that Vanka may have seen the work of Diego Rivera. Certainly Vanka’s grandiosity and social content remind one of the great Mexican muralist, who was active at the time.
Vanka also combines aspects of folk and academic painting, bringing a variety of influences together to form what is mostly the passionate expression of one man.
‘The Gift of Sympathy’
Vanka was an illegitimate child of nobility, born in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1889, and taken to Croatian peasants to be raised, a common practice at the time. His birth connections did avail him later of a privileged education including studies at the Zagreb Royal Academy and the Royal Academy of Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium.
Contributing to his sensitive, observant and politicized nature were service with the Belgian Red Cross in World War I and an ethnographic expedition south of Zagreb. Vanka was an acclaimed portraitist and a professor at the Academy of Beaux Arts in Zagreb when he married Margaret Stetten, an American, in 1931. When the war closed in on Zagreb, the couple left for New York City, where they lived until their final move to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1941.
Vanka enjoyed traveling and visited many sites in the United States and abroad. He drowned while swimming off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 1963.
The History Center exhibition, “The Gift of Sympathy: The Art of Maxo Vanka,” addresses his life and his artistic output, showing the range of stylistic and subject interests he had.
In 1990, the nonprofit Society for the Preservation of the Murals of St. Nicholas — Millvale was formed to support their care and conservation. For information, call 412-820-9292.
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Pieces of history – Five eastern suburban sites among those being honored
09/25/2001
By Brandon Keat – TRIBUNE-REVIEW
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation has awarded plaques recognizing the historic significance of five structures in the eastern suburbs
The structures, among 27 sites designated by the foundation this year, include two homes, two churches and a bridge. The foundation has been awarding the plaques to Allegheny County landmarks since 1968.
“The Mon Valley has been a little weak as far as plaque building, but yet it has a lot of great architecture,” said Cathy McCollom of the foundation.
Many historic structures are nominated by their owners, while others are nominated by the foundation staff.
Staff members are responsible for nominating all five of the structures that were selected in the Mon Valley this year.
McCollom said staff members working in the Homestead historic district have been struck by the impressive structures in the Mon Valley.
“Whenever staff sees these things, they have a tendency to nominate them,” she said.
The most well known of the historic sites is the Homestead High Level Bridge, which connects Homestead to the city of Pittsburgh.
It was selected largely because it utilized cutting-edge technology when it was constructed from 1935 to 1937.
Its innovative Wichert truss allows the bridge to automatically adjust to unpredictable stresses and settling.
“This was at a time when there were no computers and you didn’t know quite how the stresses would pile under loads,” said Walter Kidney, an architectural historian with the History & Landmarks Foundation.
The two residential houses – the 1820 Muse house in McKeesport and the 1844 Walker house in Elizabeth – remain much as they were when constructed.
“There aren’t many houses of that period in that condition of integrity,” Kidney said.
Ted Erkman, a McKeesport native, jumped at the chance to buy the Muse house about 30 years ago.
He said he and his family have worked to maintain the house’s historic aspects.
He said the house, which was built by slave labor and has only had four owners since it was constructed, is “probably the oldest in McKeesport. We tried to save what we could in it. We’ve tried to keep it up.”
The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh owns the two churches that received the historic designation this year – St. Mary Magdalene at the corner of 10th Avenue and Amity Street in Homestead, and St. Michael Archangel on Ninth Avenue and Library Place in Munhall.
Kidney said both churches were designed by noted architects.
The Rev. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese, said the diocese has not decided if it will participate in the plaque program.
He said in light of the recent controversy surrounding St. Nicholas Church on the North Side, the diocese has decided to take a hard look at historic designations for its buildings.
Some St. Nicholas parishioners have fought the diocese’s decision to allow the demolition of the church to make way for the Route 28 expansion project.
St. Nicholas received a different type of historic designation – from City Council – in July.
“We’re just looking at the whole idea and determining what our position is going to be,” Lengwin said.
The nonprofit Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation was formed in 1964 to identify, preserve and educate people about important architectural landmarks, historic neighborhoods and designed landscapes.
Since 1969, it has awarded more than 400 plaques to remarkable pieces of architecture, engineering or construction that are a least 50 years old and have not been extensively altered. The plaques are expected to go up within the next six weeks.
The History & Landmarks Foundation designation does not confer any type of protection on the sites selected. And it does not prevent the property owners from making changes to their structures, though the foundation can remove the plaque if it believes the changes lessen the historical value of the site.
“It’s an acknowledgement by expert archaeologists and historians who know that the building is significant, but it does not prevent owners from changing it or affecting it,” McCollom said.
The cost of the plaque, which typically includes the structure’s name, the date it was built and the name of the architect, is shared by the property owner and History & Landmarks.
Bronze plaques cost about $200, and cast aluminum runs about $130.
McCollom said the foundation recognition can help property owners interested in pursuing historic designations from the state or federal government.
“What it does is offer some significant public acknowledgement, which sometimes plays out to help it in the future,” she said. “People know right up front it’s an important building. It’s a sign they’ve been judged by people who know.”
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Local landmarks
The following have been designated significant historic structures by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation:
– Homestead High Level Bridge – Constructed between 1935 and 1937, it was designed by engineer George F. Richardson. The bridge utilized cutting edge technology for the time.
– The Muse House – Located at 4222 Third St. in McKeesport, the house was built in 1820.
– The Walker House – A Greek revival- style house located at 1026 Third Ave. overlooking the Monongahela River in Elizabeth. It was constructed in 1844.
– St. Mary Magdalene Church – A Romanesque church located at the corner of 10th Avenue and Amity Street in Homestead, designed by Frederick Sauer and built in 1895. A 1936 restoration was done by Button and MacLean.
– St. Michael Archangel Church – An Italian Romanesque church located at the corner of 9th Avenue and Library Place in Munhall, designed by Comes, Perry & McMullen and built in 1927. It features a statue of St. Joseph the Worker by noted sculptor Frank Vittor.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review