Category Archive: News Wire Services
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Teacher wants Point View’s history documented
Brad Pedersen
Staff Writer, South Hills Record
Trib-Total Media
Thursday, April 5, 2007The Point View Hotel is all but history, though Sarah Martin, a teacher from the city’s Knoxville neighborhood, hopes to help document what happened in the building before it is torn down.
“Saving the Point View is moot,” said Martin. “It’s going to be torn down and there’s not much chance of saving the physical facility. What I’d like to do is document it as carefully and well as possible before it is demolished.”
A three-story medical facility will be built at 3720 Brownsville Road, where the Point View stands, for now. The projected plan is to tear the Point View down to build the facility for Brentwood Medical Group.
The medical group was recently granted a zoning variance, allowing them to build a three-story facility in the area zoned for two-story structures. According to Ralph Costa, Brentwood building inspector, without the variance, Brentwood Medical Group would have had to build an expanded two-story building, which they feared would impact parking space around the facility.
Martin has been taking groups of students throughout the city on hikes of documented Underground Railroad routes for the past 15 years. She has been coming to Brentwood for the past eight years.
According to Martin, Brentwood, the Hill District, North Side and Mount Washington have the most credible evidence of Underground Railroad activity.
“Those four areas of the city I’ve done for a long time,” said Martin. “I’m very much interested in hiking and walking and children and history, so it all comes together for me.”
There are no specifics on when the Point View was built, although most estimate it was built during or before the 1820s along the Brownsville Road carriage route. When it was constructed, it was a part of Baldwin Township, which was broken into several villages, including Point View. Brentwood became a borough in 1915.
The hotel boasted eight modest rooms and the most famous was referred to as the President’s Room. Prior to their presidencies, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan and Zachary Taylor stayed in the room. It is also one of few structures standing that served as an Underground Railroad “station” in Allegheny County, along with the Bingham House in Chatham Village and the Morning Glory Inn, Southside.
“I’m going to hold their feet to the fire,” said Martin.
Martin has contacted the Brentwood Medical Group and feels that they are willing to work with her efforts in documenting the site, whether it be allowing her to take photographs of the inside or displaying a plaque.
According to Martin, Brentwood Medical Group representatives told her that they are looking into allowing her access to the building. The group has not given Martin a definite answer, though she is optimistic about the project.
Along with photographs and a plaque, Martin is also hoping to bring an archaeologist to the Point View, either before or during its demolition. She hopes to verify the age of the columns in the basement.
“It is a part of our history that needs to be reconciled and shared,” said Martin. “History usually just talks about the institution and what happened. All the small people along the way did things, it gives us perspective and balance and helps us to understand that not everybody is on the same issue and page.
“It’s an opportunity to get to know and revisit that, to know that there were people there to help runaway slaves and they were not all in favor of institutional slavery. It helps us see both sides of people and help us understand how we got through that period, even prior to the civil war.”
Since the time of the presidential stays and Underground Railroad, the building has gone through several updates, including the addition of the kitchen and bar area, aluminum siding and many other changes. These changes have prevented the Point View from achieving a historical landmark designation. A high cost to restore the Point View to its original state has kept previous owners from earning the designation.
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Historic designation sought for Turtle Creek school
By Daveen Rae Kurutz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, April 2, 2007Peter Rubash has a vested interest in Turtle Creek High School.
His grandfather helped dig the foundation for the building, now known as East Junior High School, 90 years ago, and most of his family graduated from the school.“It’s a grand old building, very charming,” said Rubash, 47, of Churchill. “It clearly has historical significance.”
The Woodland Hills School District facility has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places amid controversy over whether to keep the school open.
The district, which has undergone several evaluations on whether to consolidate schools, voted in March to begin the process of closing East Junior High School, citing the building’s age and declining enrollment.
“We’re very proud and happy for the Turtle Creek community to have a resource such as this,” Woodland Hills Superintendent Roslynne Wilson said. “We all feel extremely lucky to live in an area so rich in history.”For a structure to be added to the registry, it must meet three criteria:
* It must be at least 50 years old.
* It should be associated with events of local or state historical significance.
* It must embody a type or school of architecture.
East Junior High School meets all of these criteria easily, said Jill Henkel, who advocated its addition to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation.
The building, which reflects the classical revival style of architecture, is visible from any point in the borough, she said.
“East Junior High School has really become the central point of the town,” said Henkel, 46, of Turtle Creek. “Sometimes, you have to save something just because it’s worth saving, for a pure, unselfish reason.”
Two representatives from the school district, Wilson and school board president Cynthia Lowery, attended a March meeting with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation. While Wilson did not address the committee, Lowery spoke against including the school on the registry. She said she spoke as a resident, not as president of the board.
“We went there to find out what was going on,” Lowery said. “I decided to speak. I spoke for myself.”
Wilson said that putting the school on the registry would not restrict what the district could do with the building.
Adding the school to any list of historic buildings is only a first step, Rubash said.
“It doesn’t really mean anything unless we have added funding because of it. Just because it’s named to the registry doesn’t mean it will be saved,” Rubash said. “That building needs a lot of love, and a lot of help.”
Daveen Rae Kurutz can be reached at dkurutz@tribweb.com or 412-380-5627.
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Dormont’s Hollywood Theatre reopens with a twist
By Laura Pace,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, March 29, 2007Boris Karloff would be rather at home in the dark, dank basement beneath the remodeled Hollywood Theatre in Dormont.
So mused the film buffs who have taken over the old-style movie theater, which opens tomorrow after a total restoration.
“This is the only theater I’ve worked in that isn’t haunted,” said manager Dan Bahur, who is reprising a role of his own. He managed the theater 20 years ago and will oversee its re-opening tomorrow.
But the rebirth of the Potomac Avenue theater has a twist. It is being operated by The Bradley Center, a residential program for children from traumatic backgrounds of abuse and abandonment, said the center’s chief financial officer, Garry McGrath.
The Mt. Lebanon campus houses about 70 youths in its McNeilly Road facility, which is within walking distance of the theater.
The theater has hired about 14 of the kids, ages 16 to 19, as staffers, to sell tickets and snacks and be ushers and cleaners. For many of them, it will be their first job interacting with the public.
They will start out making minimum wage but will have the chance to move up to higher pay as they become mentors for other children who want to work there.
The three-pronged goal is to provide a “sheltered vocational opportunity” for the kids, who also will be part of a revitalization of a community by bringing the theater, which closed in 1998, back to life, Mr. McGrath said. Also, if the theater brings in more than its projected $380,000 annual operating budget, the funds could help raise money for needed programs and items such as clothes for the kids.
A staff counselor will be available to help them through the challenges of the job and the theater will be part of their education.
Upstairs from that musty basement is a totally refurbished theater, replete with high definition DVD projectors and digital cable TV projectors alongside the classic 35mm film projectors. Dolby Digital sound surrounds the room. The red, comfortably cushioned seats rock and armrests, which fold up, have cup holders.
According to cinematreasures. org, the theater was built by Warner Bros. Theaters in the late 1940s.
The seats are 23 inches wide, some of the widest in the industry, Mr. McGrath said, and they are set back 50 inches from the row in front — so far that patrons won’t have to get up if someone in the row has to leave, nor will they get kicked in the seat back by a toddler.
Red runway lights line the aisles and new curtains cover the walls. A bank of coffeehouse-style seating sits off to the side in the back of the theater and the original balcony has been preserved. Plans include a party room or cry room for infants on the side of the balcony.
The renovation to seating and A/V equipment cost $260,000 and was paid for by grants. Since The Bradley Center leases the building, the landlord kicked in some improvements as well.
The theater will be showing second-run movies and the hopes are that the center can get permission from the NFL and the Steelers to run Steelers games. Scaffolding over the stage could allow for musical events.
Concessions are half of what they are in conventional theaters, with a candy case stocked with the ubiquitous Sno Caps and Raisinettes for around $2.
A handicapped accessible bathroom is in the refurbished lobby but the general Art Deco-style rest rooms are downstairs, along with a lounge that will host an art show of pieces the youths have produced at the center.
Mr. McGrath grew up in Mt. Lebanon and spent some of his youth at the Hollywood Theatre, which also was known for midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Nothing that salty will be shown these days. Films will be rated PG-13, PG and G only.
Admission is $3 and opening movies include “Dreamgirls” and “Night at the Museum.” Friday’s show times are 5:15 p.m. for Night and 7:45 for Dreamgirls. Saturday and Sunday show times are 2:30 and 7:45 p.m. for Dreamgirls and noon and 5:15 for Night.
The phone number is 412-343-1756.
(Laura Pace can be reached at lpace@post-gazette.com or 412-851-1867. )
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Mexican War Streets May Grow
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Thursday, March 29, 2007The Mexican War Streets Society next month will present its proposal to expand the historic boundaries of the Central North Side district.
The society submitted its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places late last year and awaits a decision by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Historic Preservation. The upcoming public meetings are part of the nomination process, said Greg Mucha, a board member of the society.
The state bureau manages the National Register of Historic Places for Pennsylvania, which has recognized the Mexican War Streets since 1975. It has been a city historic district since 1972.
Expanded federal recognition would not effect the boundaries the city recognizes.
The Mexican War streets, whose original developer fought in the Mexican War and names streets after battles and genderals, now extend one block north from North Avenue o North Taylor Avenue, and four blocks west to east from Buena Vista Street to the west side of Sherman Avenue. The proposed expansion would go north to Armandale Street and include part of Carrington Street, Charlick Way and Reddour Street.
Mike Eversmeyer, a preservation expert who until recently chaired the city’s Historic Review Commission, has done the application paperwork for the society. He will present the proposal April 9 at the Central North Side Neighborhood Council’s general membership meeting at 7 p.m. at 1310 Arch St..l and April 17 at the Mexican War Streets Society’s general membership meeting at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church on North Avenue.
Mr. Mucha said the proposed boundaries are rough because demolition has left parts of some streets without enough historic fabric to be included.
“But we erred on the side of inclusion and decided to leave it up tot he state” to do the pruning” he said.
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Nonprofit developer suing Munhall council
By Jan Ackerman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, March 29, 2007A nonprofit organization that wants to build seven homes for low- and moderate-income families behind a historic Munhall library has stirred up bad feelings by suing Munhall council for rescinding project approvals.
Relations are so strained between Munhall and the Mon Valley Initiative that state Reps. Marc Gergely, D-White Oak, and Bill Kortz, D-Dravosburg, issued a joint statement urging the parties to resolve their differences out of court.
The representatives are concerned that a government-funded nonprofit is suing one of the governments it is supposed to be helping.
“This lawsuit sends out a harmful message to Munhall and surrounding communities … .” said Mr. Gergely.
MVI filed suit against Munhall on Feb. 26, asking a judge to order the borough to approve the plan and allow construction to begin. The nonprofit organization contends that Munhall council violated the law by trying to add the property to a historic district after the subdivision plan had been approved.
Munhall Councilman Michael Terrick said council isn’t trying to stop the project.
“We are just asking them to meet historic district standards,” he said.
Stephani Greenleaf, spokeswoman for MVI, said the organization will not comment because of the litigation.
Last fall, Mon Valley Initiative, which builds “affordable housing” in Rankin, Braddock and Homestead, was seeking approvals to build seven homes on two-plus acres between 11th and 12th avenues, Louise and Andrew streets.
MVI planned four-bedroom, 21/2-bath, vinyl-sided homes with 1,860 square feet, front porches and garages. The homes would be priced at $130,000, but some would sell for less, depending on the buyers’ income.
Some neighbors of the property are unhappy with the proposal; they say it will destroy the area’s historic character.
By a 5-2 vote, council approved the subdivision plan Jan. 17. The meeting minutes said the planning commission OK’d it with the understanding that “the historic district status that is now in the process will apply to this development when it actually occurs.”
On Jan. 24, MVI applied for seven building permits.
At a special meeting Jan. 26, council voted to expand the boundaries of the historic district to include the MVI property. It also voted to rescind the approval of the subdivision.
According to MVI’s lawsuit, the borough received a legal opinion saying that it would violate the law if it tried to include the MVI property in the historic district after the subdivision had been approved.
The lawsuit is pending in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
(Jan Ackerman can be reached at jackerman@post-gazette.com or 412-851-1512. )
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St. Nicholas is spared, but what about its windows?
By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tuesday, March 27, 2007Elsie Yuratovich was a pest, and I mean that in the most admiring and respectful way. She pestered me, she pestered the bishop, she pestered PennDOT, she pestered anyone she thought could play a role in saving St. Nicholas Church.
Thanks to Elsie, I have a voluminous file on the church, thick with photographs, postcards, anniversary booklets and her own memories written in her beautiful script. She never went to college and never took a course in public speaking, but she was the most dedicated and knowledgeable advocate the church ever had. Elsie always believed that then-Bishop Donald Wuerl would do the right thing by the church. Her faith in God and man never wavered.
So it was Elsie, who died almost two years ago at age 83, I thought of when I heard that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh was removing religious objects from the church, demolishing its altars and painting over its murals. If Elsie were still alive, this would have broken her heart.
In the life of a city, there are sadder things than the closing of a landmark church, but not many. For life-long parishioners like Elsie, whose grandparents were among the church’s founders, there is the inevitable grieving: disbelief, anger and often a profound sense of loss. For the city at large, it signals a shifting population — usually to the suburbs — and perhaps even the demolition of a building that has played an important role in its neighborhood and sometimes beyond.
St. Nicholas Church on East Ohio Street is an especially prominent one, at the foot of Troy Hill, along the Allegheny River and with three onion domes and stained glass windows that reflect the Eastern European roots of the first Croatian church in America. The church’s namesake fraternal twin — St. Nicholas in Millvale — was completed the same year, 1901, by the same architect, Frederick Sauer, but was destroyed and rebuilt after a fire in 1921.
A few days after the diocese closed the church in December 2004, it announced that it was forming a committee to study turning the church into a national Croatian shrine.
This was something that a group of former parishioners and supporters had lobbied for; they had formed the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation in 2000 to save the church, even as its fate seemed to have been sealed that year with the Route 28 expansion plans. The diocese had agreed to sell the church to PennDOT, and it would be demolished to make way for the widening of the road.
But in 2001, City Council designated the church a city historic landmark. Because the diocese opposed the designation, approval required a supermajority of council, and got it.
When PennDOT was able to draft new plans that shifted the highway toward the river to save the church, everyone who had worked and hoped and prayed for its survival breathed a sigh of relief.
Even the diocese seemed to be getting on board. A tentative sales agreement was drawn up between it and the newly formed Croatian American Cultural and Economic Alliance, which would buy the building and its contents for $250,000. But the deal fell apart, with the diocese and the Croatian group each blaming the other for the collapse.
For the Croatians, the ultimate deal-buster was that the diocese required that it be able to buy back the building for $100,000, even after they had completed their million-dollar transformation of the church into a shrine.
Why would the diocese insist on a non-negotiable clause it knew would be unacceptable? Why didn’t it do what Elsie always believed it ultimately would do, which was everything in its power to help the Croatians save their church?
Perhaps because a new suitor had entered the picture: the Follieri Group, an Italian development firm with ties to the Vatican that is seeking to buy and renovate Catholic church properties around the country, with limited success. But in this case, Follieri came up with a better offer — neither party is saying how much better — and the diocese accepted it. Follieri plans to purchase St. Nicholas Church and nine other buildings from the diocese.
The Croatian group still hopes to buy the church — not from the diocese, but from Follieri.
It has been disheartening to watch this unfold after the Croatian-Americans, whose national headquarters are here, worked so hard to preserve the church their ancestors built. For the diocese, the bottom line seems to be just that, the bottom line.
St. Nicholas is the only church that is a city historic landmark. After it was designated, then-City Councilman Bob O’Connor sponsored legislation, lobbied for by the diocese, stipulating that only the owner of a religious structure could nominate it as a landmark, and it passed.
But a church is never only a religious building; it is also one that speaks to the cultural and architectural heritage of a place.
The St. Nicholas windows, for example, depict the Croatian patrons Cyril and Methodius and other saints, and are the glory of the church. Sponsored by Croatian lodges around the country, which are also remembered in the glass, and made by Films Art and Glass Co. of Columbus, Ohio, they are an essential part of the church and its cultural significance.
The diocese hasn’t decided whether it will seek Historic Review Commission approval to remove the windows, which is required by canon law when a church no longer has a religious use. But what happens when canon law butts up against preservation law?
If the diocese wants to remove the windows from the church, it will need the commission’s approval. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, and that the diocese finds a way to do the right thing, for Pittsburgh, for the Croatians and for Elsie.
(Architecture critic Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590. )
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A fresh start for Wilkinsburg
By Marjorie Wertz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 25, 2007It was Col. Dunning McNair who laid out the first lots in what now is Wilkinsburg in 1790. He named his plan McNairsville and built the first mansion, Dumpling Hill.
The mansion eventually became the home of James Kelly, a wealthy businessman. Kelly bought thousands of acres and donated the land for churches, schools and two homes for senior citizens. It was Kelly who eventually would fight to make the borough independent.“Col. McNair had purchased about 266 acres, and he and Kelly developed the village,” said Jim Richard, a former borough tax collector and member of the Wilkinsburg Historical Society. Richard also is a member of the Wilkinsburg School Board.
But it was from the well-connected Wilkins family that the 2.03-square-mile borough eventually would take its name.
John Wilkins owned a lot of property in the village, while his brother, William, was a county judge, founder and first president of the Bank of Pittsburgh, legislator, state senator, minister to Russia in Tyler’s administration and, eventually, Tyler’s secretary of war.
In the 1800s, the area that became Wilkinsburg was annexed to the city of Pittsburgh. Kelly fought to make the village independent again, and, in 1871, he prevailed. Fifteen years later, on Oct. 5, 1887, Wilkinsburg was incorporated as a borough, and the community quickly grew.
The Pennsylvania Railroad laid its first tracks through the community in the mid-1800s. The Lincoln Highway would come through the borough in the early 1900s.
“We also used to have an airport in the Blackridge area of Wilkinsburg from 1930-38,” Richard said.
“Wilkinsburg was the home of a transportation network, with the highway as the main street, the railroad, and it was an early streetcar hub,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The borough’s access to Pittsburgh’s “amenities” made it appealing. Plus, it was known as the “city of churches.” And it was, and still is, a “dry” community — no taverns or bars are allowed in the borough.
Popular home-construction styles in the borough’s heyday included Queen Anne and Romanesque (1890s), as well as Colonial Revival, Federal and Vernacular (early 1900s). Many buildings remain, forming the foundation for the borough’s rich architectural heritage.
The historical society has written a book that will be published by Arcadia Publishing on April 30. The book features 220 photographs and will be available at local bookstores and through the Wilkinsburg Public Library.
Joel Minnigh has been head librarian for 31 years. The library was founded in 1899 as a branch of the first Carnegie Library in Braddock.
“In its heyday, it was the largest library in the state,” Minnigh said. “Our first librarian was Fred Evans, whose father designed the British House of Parliament.”
According to a report by the Wilkinsburg Neighborhood Transformation Initiative in December 2004, the borough, like many Allegheny County neighborhoods, began to experience declining and aging population in the late 1960s, which led to an eroding tax base, out-migration, loss of neighborhood schools, abandoned or underutilized buildings and decaying business districts.
After the borough began to decline in the ’70s and ’80s, criminal activity increased.
Mark Smith lived in Uniontown for 10 years before moving to Wilkinsburg in 1998. Smith was director of the Wilkinsburg Chamber of Commerce from 1998-2000 and now is involved in a real estate and community-development consulting firm.
Smith bought and renovated property along Jeanette Street. His book, “Boldly Live Where Others Won’t,” resulted from his interest in community development.
“My desire has been to convince people to become property owners and live in the community as resident landlords,” Smith said. “There’s this housing stock in Wilkinsburg of larger homes that lend themselves to duplexes and small, multi-unit apartments, in which the property owner can live in one unit and rent the others.”
Smith lists three advantages to buying property in Wilkinsburg: convenience, cost and conscience.
“You can get favorable appraisals and that leads to favorable financing plans. Plus, Wilkinsburg is 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh and 10 minutes from Monroeville,” he said. “Wilkinsburg has its issues, but for those who have vision and willing to stick it out and become a part of the solution, there’s opportunity.”
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation became interested in Wilkinsburg because of its history and the rich architecture of its buildings.
“Residents and local government officials asked us to try and assemble a program to create reinvestment in Wilkinsburg without relocating anyone,” Ziegler said. “We have developed a multi-pronged effort, which includes the use of our preservation loan fund to help some local nonprofits restore and renovate buildings.”
Kasey Connors, a Wilkinsburg resident and owner of Vintage Reconstruction, a restoration contracting company, also is involved in the Wilkinsburg Neighborhood Transformation Initiative.
The initiative came about when a development proposal called for demolition in the Jeanette Street area.
“The community felt so strongly about the historic nature of that area, we asked Landmarks to come in and help,” Connors said. “Landmarks brought their resources to the table with consultants and held multiple community meetings focusing on the Jeanette Street corridor.”
History & Landmarks was drawn to the project because of the architectural integrity of the Jeanette Street buildings, which were built in the 1890s and early 1900s.
Three houses along Jeanette Street and one along Holland Avenue were targeted for restoration. Restoration began in summer 2006 on the three single-family homes and one owner-occupied duplex.
“The houses will have special financing that includes $10,000 in soft mortgage provided by the county government,” said Michael Sriprasert, Landmarks’ assistant for real estate programs. “The houses will cost $70,000, but the buyer will have a first mortgage of $60,000. The $10,000 soft mortgage will be deferred until the buyer sells the home. If they sell after 15 years, the soft mortgage will be forgiven.”
Funding for the restoration projects came from Allegheny County, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Hillman Foundation and others.
The homes will be available for sale in early fall. Sriprasert said buyers can customize fixtures, paint and flooring if Landmarks has an agreement of sale in April.
Ziegler said History & Landmarks also might get into a restoration project with the historic Pennsylvania Railroad Station, which was built in 1916 but has been abandoned since the 1970s.
“The county wants us to look at the train station, which we’ve looked at many times,” Ziegler added. “That’s a big commitment.”
Connors is quick to commend History & Landmarks for its efforts in the community.
“I see them as a rescuing agent,” she said. “They brought these homes up to the standards on which historic districts are based.”
Mindy Schwartz saw opportunity in the form of gardens on vacant lots.
Schwartz operates Garden Dreams Urban Farm and Nursery on two vacant lots across the street from the Holland Avenue home renovation project. The business markets specialty and heirloom seedlings, sustainable gardening supplies and vegetables. A greenhouse in her Center Street basement allows her to grow 10,000 plants, including 80 types of tomatoes.
“My garden is a green oasis in the middle of a distressed neighborhood; a patch of green where life is growing,” Schwartz said. “The farm is a fountain of regeneration, in a way. It creates good energy and is a bright spot in town. It seems to have a significant impact in the community.”
Schwartz and two friends, Barb Kline and Randa Shannon, created Grow Pittsburgh, which teaches and facilitates urban agriculture. Its two affiliates are Garden Dreams and Mildred’s Daughters Urban Farm in Stanton Heights.
“There have been a number of people redoing houses and investing in the neighborhood,” Schwartz said. “My farm has been a magnet that’s excited and engaged people and has been a contributing factor in helping people want to invest in this neighborhood.”
She is working on another project in the Hamnett Place area of Wilkinsburg. The Hamnett Homestead Sustainable Living Center will be in a building Schwartz owns. The building will be transformed into a community center and greenhouse, where she will teach people how to grow food and achieve sustainability.
For Mayor John Thompson, the changes to the community in which he’s lived for 42 years are invigorating.
“I’m excited about the positive things I see happening in Wilkinsburg,” said Thompson, who took office on Jan. 2, 2006. “We have committees working together and focusing on seven areas — economic development, municipal services, human services, communications, education, beautification and housing.”
A much-needed grocery store, Save-A-Lot, opened Feb. 20 in the borough, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Generations Building, on the corner of Wood and Franklin, took place March 14. The newly renovated structure will have offices and housing. The Sperling Building, on the corner of Penn Avenue and Coal Street, was transformed into a six- to eight-unit apartment building.
“We’re also looking at doing single-family housing projects on McNair Boulevard,” Thompson said.
In December 2006, the police department hired a new chief, Ophelia Coleman, who served as a Pittsburgh Police detective for 20 years.
“She is very community-oriented. She knows what needs to happen here in Wilkinsburg,” Thompson said. “There’s truly a lot going on in Wilkinsburg. If you can’t get excited about what’s happening now, I don’t know what it will take.”
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The history:
Wilkinsburg, which was first home to settlers in the 1700s and broke away from Pittsburgh’s eastern flank in 1871, has made its share of contributions to the region’s history.
* It was home to President John Tyler’s secretary of war.
* It was a transportation mecca in the 1800s, with the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Lincoln Highway and a streetcar system running through it.
* It was where, in 1919, the first commercial radio station, 8XK, was broadcast from the garage of Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad; the station was a forerunner to KDKA radio.
* It was birthplace, in 1920, of Scholastic Magazine, founded by Wilkinsburg native Maurice Robinson as a newsletter for high school students. Scholastic Magazine would become Scholastic Publishing, publisher of the wildly popular “Harry Potter” series.
For all the borough’s historic value, though, the past several decades have brought economic and social ills that have coincided with an eroding tax base. But within the past few years, a renaissance has begun, as residents and nonprofits work to revitalize the community.
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Old school deserves historic status
JILL HENKEL
Letter to the Editor
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Turtle Creek
Thursday, March 22, 2007On March 13, 2007, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Bureau for Historic Preservation in Harrisburg held a meeting to review the nomination of the former Turtle Creek High School to the National Register of Historic Places.
In order for a property to be considered for nomination, certain criteria need to be met. The property should be at least 50 years old, should be associated with events that have made a contribution to the broad patterns of our history, or be associated with the lives of persons significant to our past, or should embody a type, period, or method of construction.
The former Turtle Creek High School, now Woodland Hills’ East Junior High School, meets these criteria. I was fortunate to be able to speak on behalf of the nomination, which is the result of countless hours of research by dedicated volunteers. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation offered its invaluable resources to help bring the nomination to fruition.
Also attending the nomination meeting were Woodland Hills school board President Cynthia Lowery and Superintendent Dr. Roslynne Wilson.
While I spoke in favor of the nomination, Mrs. Lowery asked the bureau to deny it! She spoke of a declining tax base in the Woodland Hills School District, and of not wanting to further burden the taxpayers therein by asking them to financially support two junior high schools.
Mrs. Lowery stated that she would like to close East. But if she truly has the taxpayers’ best interests at heart, she should be in favor of the nomination.
Owners of properties listed in the National Register may be eligible for a 20 percent investment tax credit for the certified rehabilitation of income-producing certified historic structures.
This [and available tax deductions and grants] would make the former high school very attractive to potential new owners.
If the school district wants to divest itself of this property, this building needs to be maintained accordingly. There are still costs associated with the day-to-day maintenance of a shuttered building. The school board speaks of an annual savings of more than $900,000 by closing East. Those costs will hardly drop to zero if that plan is carried through.
Mrs. Lowery spoke to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission of meeting opposition when plans for tearing down East and building a new multimillion-dollar school on the site were disclosed. Where was her concern for the fiscal burden on the taxpayer when that plan was formulated?
Mrs. Lowery stated to school board Vice President Marilyn Messina at the March 14 school board meeting that she attended the meeting in Harrisburg as a private citizen, which is untrue. She pointedly identified herself as the president of the Woodland Hills school board. One has to assume that she spoke as the president of the school board when she said, and I quote: “that the residents of Turtle Creek have been angry for 25 years because the merger forced them to desegregate.” She feels that that is the real motivation behind seeking the nomination to the National Register. I felt compelled to speak again in rebuttal. I stated in no uncertain terms the outrage that I felt at the suggestion that my fellow residents and I are racists carrying a 25-year grudge.
Despite Mrs. Lowery’s objections, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Bureau for Historic Preservation unanimously voted that the former Turtle Creek High School be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.
I’m sure that I speak for many concerned parents and taxpayers when I ask what Mrs. Lowery’s real motivation is.
JILL HENKEL
Turtle Creek