Category Archive: Historic Properties
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Memories preserved – Foundation names home a historic structure
09/13/2001
By Maggi Newhouse – TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wanda Forsythe Clay says there’s a lot of love within the walls of her Carnegie home.
She can sit in the rocking chair her great-grandmother used to rock her grandfather George B. Forsythe, born in 1836.
She can walk into the room where her mother, Grace, gave birth to her in 1927.
And she can sit in front of the marble fireplace where she and her two sisters, Madeline and Virginia, once played parlor games.
Now her memories have become a part of local history.
The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation designated the Forsythe Home, owned by the three sisters, as a recipient of a plaque designating it a significant historic structure in the Pittsburgh area.
The Forsythe Road home, a Georgian/Victorian style home built in 1850, was one of 27 structures given the designation this year.
One reason the building stood out for the selection committee was the sheer amount of information the Forsythe sisters were able to provide about the history of the home, said Cathy McCollom, director of operations and marketing at the foundation.
Forsythe Clay chalks that up to the lifetime she has spent in the home and the two generations of family before her.
Her grandfather, George B. Forsythe, was born in Finleyville in 1836. At age 25 he went off to fight in the Civil War. When he came back four years later, he purchased a 340-acre farm in Collier Township.
In 1886, he moved to the 90-acre farm that became the Forsythe home. That’s where he raised his three children with his wife, Lettie.
Their child Joseph, Clay Forsythe’s father, stayed in the home and raised his three daughters there along with 2,000 white leghorn chicken as a poultry farmer.
The large chicken house still stands, but along the way, the family sold off much of the land to Carnegie for the creation of Carnegie Park.
Wanda Forsythe Clay chose to stay in the home she and her sisters grew up in to raise her own four children.
Her husband, Victor, didn’t mind, she said. “He loved it.”
Now she, her husband and her sister Virginia share the home.
While the times have changed, many remnants of the past remain on the site and in the home itself. Original wood posts still stand on the front porch. The original shutters still grace the windows.
And in the side yard, remnants of an old stone spring house are still visible.
Forsythe Clay said the small structure was used to store the family’s cheese, butter and eggs. In the winter, her grandfather would go to Chartiers Creek and cut a block of ice from the frozen waters and use it to keep the food fresh through the summer.
And inside, the original wood staircase is still in the foyer of the home.
“My sisters and I used to slide down the banister,” she said with a laugh. “Luckily, my grandchildren don’t know about sliding down staircases.”
Walter Kidney, a member of the historic plaque designation committee, said the good condition of the house stood out on the sisters’ application for the plaque.
“The house itself has maintained a good bit of integrity,” he said.
Forsythe said she is thankful her family has been able to keep the home in its condition.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s a lot of work, but there are so many memories here.”
– Maggi Newhouse can be reached at mnewhouse@tribweb.com or at (412) 306-4535.
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Other historic structures
The Historic Landmarks Plaque Committee of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation awarded 27 plaques to buildings across Allegheny County. Plaques are given to structures that are remarkable pieces of architecture, engineering, construction or planning, or impart a rich sense of history and are at least 50 years old.
Structures in the south and west suburbs that will receive plaques this year are:
– The Forsythe Home, 920 Forsythe Road, Carnegie; built in 1850.
– Gilfillan Farm House, 1950 Washington Road, Upper St. Clair; built in 1857.
– Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, 214 Mansfield Blvd., Carnegie; built in 1920.
– Homestead High Level Bridge, Monongahela River at Mile 7; built in 1935-37.
– St. Mary Magdalene Church, East 10th Avenue and Amity Street, Homestead, built in 1895; renovated in 1936.
– St. Michael Archangel Church, Ninth Avenue and Library Place, Munhall; built in 1927.
– Stewart Avenue Lutheran Church, 2810 Brownsville Road, Carrick; built in 1927.
– Walker House, 1026 Third Ave., Elizabeth; built in 1844.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review -
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation designates 27 buildings historic
09/10/2001 TRIBUNE-REVIEW
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation recently designated 27 buildings in the region as significant historic structures.
Each site will be identified with a plaque. The foundation has reviewed nominations once a year since 1968 and awards plaques to structures that are a significant part of the region’s local heritage.
“In some circles, our plaque program is all people know of Landmarks,” foundation spokeswoman Cathy McCollom said. “They say, `Oh, you’re the plaque people.'”
To qualify, landmarks must be remarkable pieces of architecture, engineering, construction or planning. Alterations and additions cannot substantially lessen their value, and they must be at least 50 years old. They also must qualify for the foundation’s inventory of significant structures and landscapes, and they cannot be located in historic districts bearing a plaque.
More than 400 structures in Allegheny County have received this designation.
“It’s a way to raise awareness about the number of significant historic structures we have in Allegheny County,” McCollom said. “We hope that we’re hitting the best and the finest, and we still have more to go before we hit them all.”
This year’s designees are:
– Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, North Side
– Troy Hill Fire Station No. 39, Troy Hill
– Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Pittsburgh Branch, Downtown
– The Forsythe Home, Carnegie
– Cecilia and Robert Frank House, Shadyside
– Gilfillan Farm House, Upper St. Clair
– Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Carnegie
– Homestead High Level Bridge, Monongahela River at Mile 7
– Hot Metal Bridge, Monongahela River at Mile 3
– Pittsburgh Children’s Center, Oakland
– James Powers Homestead, O’Hara Township
– “Meado’ cots,” Point Breeze
– Andrew W. Mellon House, Shadyside
– Muse House, McKeesport
– Parkstone Dwellings, Point Breeze
– Penn Avenue Entrance to Allegheny Cemetery, Lawrenceville
– St. John the Roman Catholic Church (Church Brew Works), Lawrenceville
– St. Mary Magdalene Church, Homestead
– St. Michael Archangel Church, Munhall
– St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Hill District
– Schenley Bridge, Schenley Park
– Seldom Seen Arch, Saw Mill Run Boulevard east of Woodruff Street
– Sixteenth Street Bridge, Allegheny River at Mile 1.3
– Stewart Avenue Lutheran Church, Carrick
– Walker House, Elizabeth
– West End Bridge, Ohio River at Mile One
– Wilpen Hill, Sewickley Heights
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Tribune Review -
Heinz Hall celebrates 30 years as home of the symphony
09/06/2001
By Mark Kanny, Tribune Review Classical Music Critic
When the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra moved from the Syria Mosque in Oakland to the former Loew’s Penn Theater on Sixth Street, Downtown, it had its own home for the first time. It also marked the start of what has become the Cultural District, centralizing the arts Downtown among the corporate giants that support it.
The venue’s 30th anniversary was commemmorated Wednesday with a plaque from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation that recognizes the importance of Heinz Hall architecturally and to the city’s quality of life.
The opening of Heinz Hall on Sept. 10, 1971, was national news, covered by two reporters from the New York Times, as well as other out-of-town journalists. The major Pittsburgh papers were on strike, but local coverage was provided by the Valley News Dispatch and Market Square news.
The symphony had previously performed in Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland, but its stage is too small for a full symphony orchestra, let alone choral works such as Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Syria Mosque was no more than a stopgap, with serious acoustical problems.
Hopes were high for the new hall. At the time, conversion of movie theaters into concert halls was considered a good way to save money, since completely new buildings are more expensive to build. City music lovers took note of the success of the conversion of Powell Hall in St. Louis, which boasts warmly appealing acoustics.
Alas, opening night was a gala social event and an acoustical disaster. Heinz Hall has been visually appealing from day one, but sound is the most important feature of any concert hall.
Although out-of-town critics liked the sound on opening night, Pittsburgh music lovers were vociferous in condemnation of Heinz Hall acoustics. So much for some critics!
Part of the difficulty was that the large chorus needed for Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony forced the shell surrounding the performers out of position opening night. When the shell was in the position intended by acoustician Karl Keilholz in the following weeks, Heinz Hall sounded much better, but still had serious problems, especially the lack of bass.
Most of the problems derived from the financial necessity to use Heinz Hall for opera, ballet and theatrical productions. Multi-purpose halls always suffer in comparison with dedicated concert halls. In fact, it took a decade for musicians to win a hardwood stage floor. Hardwood is more stressful for dancers, but necessary for good bass response.
A major renovation in the summer of 1995 greatly improved the acoustics, but certainly did not solve all the problems. Local music lovers will hear a new sound next week, when a new seating arrangement will provide added focus to the string sound.
The first music played in Heinz Hall was Beethoven’s “The Consecration of the House” Overture. Only musicians can truly consecrate a concert hall and fulfill its potential to transform the lives of those in attendance. The more than 2,500 symphonic concerts and more than 4,000 other performances since opening night have made Heinz Hall the heart of music life in Pittsburgh.
– Mark Kanny can be reached at (412) 320-7877 or mkanny@tribweb.com.
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Homewood Cemetery tree-cutting plan rankles landscapers
Wednesday, August 29, 2001
By Patricia Lowry, Post-Gazette Architecture Critic
In removing hundreds of trees from Homewood Cemetery, its chief operating officer says he’s just following a plan devised by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Not exactly, says the man who wrote the March 1998 analysis of existing conditions and recommendations for landscape restoration.
“I’ve never seen clearing done in a historic landscape with such a broad brush,” said Barry Hannegan, PHLF’s director of historic design programs.
Hannegan and PHLF horticulturist Greg Yochum served as consultants to the project, working with Landmarks Design Associates, which developed a preservation plan for the buildings, drives and infrastructure. The group recommended the work, estimated to cost $2.8 million, be done over a 10-year period to spread out the cost, with stabilization achieved first and restoration later.
Established in 1878 on what had been part of Judge William Wilkins’ estate, Homewood Cemetery was designed as a lawn or park cemetery, with no mounded graves and no stone coping or fences around graves to break up the unified landscape.
To create the cemetery, the heavily wooded Wilkins land was virtually clear cut. Most of the mature trees that exist today were planted by William Allen, superintendent from 1907 to 1935, a Welshman who had worked at London’s Kew Gardens and a former manager of Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery.
America’s first landscaped cemetery, Mount Auburn in 1831 pioneered the rural, romantic style that soon replaced the overcrowded, unkempt, urban graveyards and churchyards. As much a pleasure ground for the living as a reliquary for the dead, Mount Auburn featured fenced plots and monuments in a sylvan setting of winding roads, trees, shrubs and ponds.
In 1855, the superintendent of Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery banished the individual plot fences that were giving cemeteries a cluttered, chaotic appearance. Adolph Strauch’s “lawn plan” heralded a new kind of cemetery, with headstones under 2 feet high and the occasional taller monuments and sculptures set in an open, park-like landscape of meadows and gently rolling hills.
Homewood remains Pittsburgh’s only lawn and park cemetery, although later parts developed according to the fashion of the day, with geometrically patterned, art deco-inspired sections, mausoleums, flush markers and urn gardens added in the 20th century.
“Through the years the cemetery does reflect these various philosophies, and that’s why we’re so unique” in Western Pennsylvania, said assistant treasurer and cemetery archivist Marilyn Evert, co-author of “Discovering Pittsburgh’s Sculpture.”
And while Homewood banned fences, it did allow families to install trees and shrubs on their plots. Over time, many of the cemetery’s trees, either self-seeded or planted by William Allen or by plot owners, have become overgrown, diseased or storm-damaged.
With buildings also needing attention, the cemetery turned to Landmarks Design Associates for a plan for structures and landscape. While Hannegan’s landscape report establishes guidelines, it is not a working document with tree-by-tree recommendations.
Because there was no documentation for the landscape design beyond the cemetery’s collection of historic photographs, “We recommended the reinforcement of historic elements where we could perceive them,” Hannegan said. “For example, we urged the re-establishment of the row of sycamore trees [planted along Dallas Avenue in the 1920s]. They had lost their identity as a major boundary feature and we thought that should be recovered.”
While the report suggests the cemetery “re-establish the line of sycamore along Dallas Avenue by planting new trees where earlier ones have been lost,” nowhere does it recommend the removal of all of the trees except the sycamores.
Still, much of the clearing of the dense, volunteer trees, while shocking, was necessary to protect the graves and tombstones they had grown up around and to prevent further damage to the cemetery’s perimeter iron fence.
Stump grinding along Dallas is under way, and when the 66 new sycamores, each 6 to 8 feet tall, are planted this fall and spring, the fence repaired and the tombstones reset, the changes will have been a long-term improvement. On a tour of the cemetery last week, Hannegan said planting hydrangeas under the sycamore canopy would buffer and soften the transition between street and cemetery.
William Heinnickel, the cemetery’s chief operating officer, said trees will be cut along the cemetery’s other borders “if they become an annoyance or interfere with the plan.” While there is no immediate plan to cut trees along Forbes Avenue, some will be cut eventually because they’re interfering with phone and power lines. The LDA report makes no specific recommendations for trees along Forbes.
“I really haven’t looked at Forbes yet,” Heinnickel said. “I selected Dallas first because that’s where our front gate is and I want that to be the nicest.”
The landscape around the cemetery’s three granite mausoleums also has been significantly altered, with dozens of evergreen trees, mostly yews, removed.
The LDA report advocates “a careful, knowledgeable program of pruning,” then adds, “Failing this, the existing materials should be removed and replaced by less vigorous types.”
Heinnickel said the yews will be replanted, perhaps as early as next spring or fall. He said a mature maple and pin oak also were cut down because they were dropping leaves onto the roofs and causing leaks. The mausoleums’ roofs will be replaced.
Evergreens — hemlocks and yews — adjacent to the administration and chapel buildings were removed, according to the report, which advised these trees had “grown beyond [their] desired role as an ornamental setting for the buildings.” The cemetery has asked garden designer Marley Wolff to create a planting plan for this area, based on historic photographs.
At the pond area, near the main entrance on Dallas, LDA’s recommendations were to “remove all invasive plant materials from the small grove to the west of the pond including wild grape vine and ‘nuisance trees’ such as ailanthus” and “prune existing mature trees.”
Instead, the area around the pond was leveled, and what had been a wild bird habitat with mature mulberry, cherry and maple trees is now a barren landscape.
“There were trees there that would have created a little backdrop for the pond,” Hannegan said.
Heinnickel said he had the trees cut down because they were a safety hazard.
“You had a blind curve that you couldn’t see around,” he said.
Thinning the trees and removing the grapevine, however, would have achieved the same end.
Hannegan also recommended planting eight willows along the south edge of the pond, in keeping with its 1920s appearance, when willows surrounded the pond. Heinnickel hopes to plant a dozen willows around the pond, and that will be done in October, weather and manpower permitting. The cemetery also plans to dredge and restore the pond; what was once a reflecting pool is thick with cattails and water lilies that almost entirely cover its surface.
Throughout the cemetery, about 200 storm-damaged and diseased trees will be removed, following the LDA report.
While the report also recommends identifying and labeling with botanical names about 100 trees throughout the cemetery, Heinnickel said he has no plans to do so. That should be reconsidered, because it would acknowledge and interpret the cemetery as the informal arboretum it has become, and could be done at no great expense.
It also would be a gesture of goodwill to the neighborhood, which still is grieving the unanticipated loss of the trees and bird habitat.
While privately owned, the nonprofit cemetery is viewed by many as an extension of adjacent Frick Park. Neighbors have a sense of ownership about the place, but they don’t have a say. Heinnickel doesn’t expect to give them one because he believes public input would be too diverse to be helpful.
Maybe so. But in the interest of being a good neighbor, the cemetery could keep its neighbors better informed.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Homestead Council upset it didn’t know of plans for historic firehouse
Wednesday, August 15, 2001
By Jim Hosek, Tri-State Sports & News Service
Correction/Clarification: (Published Aug. 22, 2001) Homestead Councilman Marvin Brown was incorrectly identified in the Aug. 15 South as saying he joined Councilwoman Joan DeSimone in being upset to learn from the Post-Gazette about Homestead’s receiving a Hillman Foundation grant toward renovating the borough’s historic firehouse.
Homestead Council expressed displeasure Monday about being kept in the dark about a possible $2 million renovation of the borough’s historic firehouse and possible grants for the project.
Irvin E. Williams, president of Ebony Development, told members he has worked with the volunteer fire department and Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation on refurbishing the building and adding an annex to make it into a municipal center to house the fire department, plus municipal and emergency medical offices.He said many funding sources have been identified, so the borough would need to contribute only about $200,000; he has applied for grants from sources he declined to identify; and his company would manage the project and assemble a construction team.
“But this is our project, and this is our first meeting with you,” Councilwoman Cheryl Chapman said. “The building belongs to the borough,” added Councilwoman Joan DeSimone. “Council has to make the decisions.”
DeSimone and Councilman Marvin Brown said they were upset to learn from the Post-Gazette about the borough receiving a grant from the Hillman Foundation for the firehouse. They wanted to know if the borough really has that and other grants identified by History & Landmarks — and where the money is.
Joe Hohman of Resource, Development & Management Inc., which oversees the borough’s financially distressed status for the state, was taken aback by Williams’ comments about putting together a construction team. “All the work would have to be bid competitively,” he said.
After hearing everything, Williams said, “Until this council supports this project, this rehabilitation and expansion will go nowhere.”
Council agreed to form a municipal complex committee of DeSimone, Chapman, Evan Baker and William Batts and meet with Williams and the fire department.
If hired by council as project manager, Williams said his fee would be 4 percent of the project, instead of an industry standard of 8 or 10 percent. He encouraged council to act quickly, because, “there’s an urgent need to get this building fixed.”
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Important moments in history of Soldiers & Sailors
Monday, August 13, 2001
1891 — The local posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans from the Civil War, introduce the idea of a memorial hall to recognize veterans of the “War for the Suppression of the Rebellion of the Southern Slaveholders,” known today as the Civil War.
1906 — Land is purchased in Oakland for purpose of building the memorial.
1907-08 — Construction of the building, which was designed after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The architect was Henry H. Hornbostel.
1910 — Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall was officially dedicated “in honor of soldiers, sailors and marines from Allegheny County who served in defense of the Union.” The hall was managed by a board of Civil War veterans.
1936 — After $200,000 in federal Works Progress Administration money is spent to rehabilitate the hall, Hornbostel calls for it to be used as a meeting hall, for public and political meetings. Colonel C.H. William Ruhe, superintendent of the hall, disagrees. “The people were not creating a public hall, but a memorial for soldiers,” he says.
1946-47 — Allegheny County installs a new acoustics system and public address system and appropriated $47,000 to improve the roof and elevators.
1947 — A Pittsburgh Press story describes Soldiers & Sailors as “Oakland’s White Elephant,” which has “had about as much activity as a deserted monastery.” Political, un-American, controversial and foreign language meetings were prohibited; dancing, smoking and liquor were blacklisted.
1963 — The hall is rededicated to honor the memory of all veterans from all wars in which the United States may be engaged.
1967 — Pittsburgh History and Landmarks bestows “Landmark” status on the hall.
1974 — The hall is entered into the National Register of Historic Places.
1979 — The ship’s bell, from the U.S.S. Pittsburgh, is mounted on the front patio and dedicated.
1987 — The International Peace Pole is placed near the front door, a gift of an international visitor.
1988 — The veterans board sues Allegheny County after the commissioners fail to provide enough money for the hall to operate.
1989 — A parking garage is built under the front lawn of the hall as a way to generate additional revenues.
1991 — The hall is designated as a city historic structure by city resolution.
2000 — The hall leaves the control of Allegheny County and becomes an independent, nonprofit trust.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Help Protect Historic Places in Your Community: Historic Schools
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Help Protect Historic Places in Your Community: Historic Schools
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Old St. Luke’s Church, built in 1852, receives historical marker
Wednesday, July 18, 2001
By Bob Podurgiel
Pittsburgh Post GazetteChartiers Valley 10th-graders Heather Drudy and Nicole Striner joined amid smoke and thunder echoing from successive volleys of musket and rifle fire Sunday to honor a very old historic landmark.
The pair unveiled a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker commemorating Old St. Luke’s Church in Scott.
More than 100 people attended the dedication featuring remarks by the Rev. Leroy Patrick of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; the Rev. Robert B. Banse, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon; state Sen. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair; state Rep. Tom Stevenson, R-Mt. Lebanon; and the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
A Revolutionary War re-enactor from the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line and Civil War re-enactors from Company A, 9th Pennsylvania Reserves, fired volleys from their muskets and smooth bore rifles.
The Rev. Richard W. Davies of Mt. Lebanon, the vicar at Old St. Luke’s Church, said he was surprised and delighted when Murphy’s office told him last year the church had been approved for a historical marker.
For 13 years since retiring as an administrator with the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, he has helped preserve Old St. Luke’s and its history and to maintain the church as an active worship site.
He said that last year the church hosted two dozen religious worship services and 40 Christian weddings.
“I’m a priest, so I’m dedicated to theology, but in the past 13 years, I have come to love American history as well,” Davies said.
Striner and Drudy credited him with helping them learn more about American history last year when they were in ninth grade and visited Old St. Luke’s as part of their school course work.
The students said they studied the lives of Russell Stuart and Jane Williams, two people buried in the church’s cemetery.
“It gave us an appreciation of how people lived back then. It really opened our eyes to the history of the area,” Drudy said.
The burial ground at Old St. Luke’s contains the remains of several Revolutionary War veterans and many of the first Chartiers Valley settlers.
Davies said worship began at the site when it was an outpost of the British Army prior to the Revolutionary War, and chaplains to regiments stationed there conducted the services.
One of them, Maj. William Lea, who settled in the Chartiers Valley, donated the land for the church.
In 1790, a frame church was built on the site, and in 1852, the present stone church was constructed.
During Sunday’s ceremony, McCollom called the church a shining example of how people can pull together to restore and preserve significant old buildings.
While Davies is happy the church finally has received a historical marker, he also credits modern technology as an unlikely ally in helping with that effort.
After he was notified about the marker, he said the toughest job was back-and-forth communication between the history commission and himself over wording that would appear on the marker.
“If it wasn’t for e-mail and the Internet, we might still be working on it. The computer helped speed things along,” he said.
Bob Podurgiel is a free-lance writer.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette