Category Archive: News Wire Services
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Group lobbying to save Turtle Creek school building junior high
By Mike Scheinberg
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Thursday, December 15, 2005Members of the Committee to Save Turtle Creek High School are continuing a campaign to block plans to replace the 88-year-old landmark with a new junior high.
They spoke passionately at last week’s school board meeting in favor of renovating the old school, which is now East Junior High School, rather than building a new one.
“The building is sound and in excellent condition,” said Bob Mock, a spokesman for the committee. “We believe renovation of the building would be much more cost-effective. This building is a landmark. It is a slam dunk for national historic preservation.”
Another committee member, Connie Morenzi, said the Woodland Hills School District should not change the outside appearance of the school in any way.
“Turtle Creek residents can’t afford any more taxes,” said Kip Quinlan, a Turtle Creek businessman. “I went to the old Turtle Creek High School, and so did my kids. The district does not need a new building for only about 300 students.”
District officials said earlier that both new construction and renovation would cost between $17 million and $20 million.
However, school district Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Christopher Baker said yesterday it would cost $400,000 more to renovate East than it would for a new construction.
“That’s because architects’ fees are higher for renovation and any change orders would also be higher,” Mr. Baker said.
Speaking in favor of razing the old school, Valerie Pearson, of Braddock, said a new building would have a better environment for the students.
HHSDR Architects of Pittsburgh stated in an August report that the current overall condition of East Junior High is poor. They pointed to problems with the windows, exterior doors, science rooms, auditorium, swimming pool, and many other areas.
Two school board members are still not sold on renovating or building a new school in Turtle Creek.
“We need to take a look at our enrollment and our boundary lines,” said board member Robert Tomasic. “One possibility is to move all of the junior high kids to West [Junior High] and have six elementary buildings for grades K-six.”
Board colleague Fred Kuhn added, “West has a beautiful field, track, tennis courts and outdoor basketball courts, but East has nothing.
“I think we should look at other options.”
The board had considered moving East to the old Eastmont School site or to a site adjacent to Woodland Hills High School on Greensburg Pike, but both of those proposals failed to get the five needed votes.
Board member Randy Lott has supported keeping the school in Turtle Creek all along, saying the community needs a school.
The old Turtle Creek High School was built in 1917 and was renovated in 1978 at a cost of $4 million. In 1981, it merged into the Woodland Hills School District and later became a junior high.
“This building is very important to the community,” said Ronald Yochum, of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. “Sometimes new isn’t always better.”
“Would they tear down the Cathedral of Learning?” Mr. Mock asked of the landmark building on the University of Pittsburgh campus.
More discussion on the building plans is expected at the school board legislative meeting in January.
(Mike Scheinberg is a freelance writer.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Neighbors protest Walgreens sprawl
By Violet Law
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, December 11, 2005More than 20 people rallied at the proposed site of a new Walgreens Saturday afternoon to protest the pharmacy’s plan to raze three homes to make way for a driveway.
The protesters said although they welcome the convenience of having the store nearby, they object to the company’s plan to push beyond the existing commercial lot into a quiet residential area.Most of the protesters live in Park Place, a sliver of a neighborhood between Point Breeze and Regent Square. The Walgreens that is being planned at the southeast corner of Penn and South Braddock avenues is within a few blocks of their homes.
“Once you start moving the commercial line into residential property, that is a green light for more developers to come,” said Marisa Osorio, 38, who lives on South Braddock Avenue. “We want to avoid the commercial sprawl.”
Waving handmade cardboard signs and standing in ankle-deep snow that had piled up at the busy street corner yesterday, the residents maintained that they are not opposed to neighborhood development. They would be happy to live with a Walgreens that stays within the confines of what is now an Exxon gas station, they said.
The residents plan to take their objections to the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment when the proposal comes before the board Thursday.
Violet Law can be reached at vlaw@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7884.
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City historic group approves plan for crumbling Downtown building
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, December 08, 2005Pittsburgh’s Historic Review Commission cleared the way yesterday for the partial demolition of a crumbling four-story, city-owned building at 439 Market St., Downtown, amid fears that the failing structure is becoming increasingly unsafe.
“Time is of the essence. I can’t stress that enough,” said city Bureau of Building Inspection Chief Ron Graziano, a commission board member, before the vote.
The city proposal approved by the board involves the demolition of the building’s Graeme Street facade, gutting the interior, stabilizing some walls, and erecting a temporary enclosure to protect what remains from the elements. The plan, estimated to cost $100,000, would save the Market Street facade, which is considered to be more historically significant.
Still to be determined is who will pay for the work.
Last summer, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation offered to lend the city up to $33,000 to fix the roof and clean up the building inside. The loan amount later was amended to a maximum of $75,000 in legislation that passed City Council. But foundation officials have received no formal notification on whether the offer has been accepted by the Murphy administration.
Preservation Pittsburgh has been trying to retain the Market Street facade and the rest of the building as part of a plan to develop a “transit cafe” at Fifth Avenue and Market.
(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Structure to be razed
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, December 8, 2005The Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission Wednesday agreed to allow part of a historic three-story building off Market Square to be demolished, though its unique facade will be preserved.
Although it is not known who designed the 130-year-old brick building at 439 Market St., it and an adjacent “twin” are the only structures remaining in the region that have decorative cast-iron window heads and sills, according to Cathy McCollom, chief program officer for the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
The commission voted unanimously to allow the city, which owns the Downtown building, to hire a contractor to tear down the structure’s buckling rear wall and gut the interior. Most of the roof already has collapsed, which caused it to become structurally unsound.
“From a building inspector’s perspective, I would recommend total demolition — it’s an accident waiting to happen,” said commission member Ron Graziano, who heads the city’s Bureau of Building Inspection.
Graziano and the rest of the seven-member board supported a proposal by the city’s engineering and construction department to shore up the building’s side walls with bracing and construct a temporary roof and rear wall that would be replaced once a development plan is in place for the area.
Graziano suggested that board members who raised concerns about the look of the temporary rear wall not be “too picky” since any permanent changes would have to be approved by the commission. The commission is responsible for approving exterior designs to any buildings in city historic districts that are visible from public rights of way. The rear of the building is along Graeme Street.
Landmarks and the historic preservation group, Preserve Pittsburgh, supported partial demolition of the building. Landmarks, which previously offered to take over a number of Market Square buildings so they can be preserved, recently offered the city a no-interest loan of up to $75,000 to help pay for the work.
That should be more than enough. Al Kovacik, of the city’s engineering and construction department, said the partial demolition and reinforcement work would cost between $29,000 and $42,000. The cost for tearing the whole building down is estimated at about $55,000.
“With the approval of this plan, the city can spare a historic facade and save money at the same time,” Kovacik said.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or .
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Architectural historian was true Pittsburgher
By Jerry Vondas
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, December 3, 2005While Walter C. Kidney was renowned as one of the foremost architectural historians in the country, in his adoptive city of Pittsburgh he was known for his philanthropy and humility.
“Walter knew the breadth and range of the history of architecture worldwide,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “Walter also knew Pittsburgh’s buildings in great detail and could place their significance against that sweeping backdrop.”
Mr. Kidney, of Mt. Washington, an architectural historian with the foundation, died Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005, at UPMC Presbyterian hospital, Oakland. He was 73.
He had the ability to analyze and summarize buildings in an erudite, yet witty way, Ziegler said.
Jack Miller, director of gift planning for the landmarks foundation, said Mr. Kidney’s expertise touched a broad range of people.
“Walter received a call from a woman who wanted to know what kind of windows she should place in a house that Walter figured had no historical significance.”
Miller recalled how Mr. Kidney, who lived on Mt. Washington, would ride the incline every morning to Station Square to the foundation offices.
“There was nothing pretentious about the man who wrote 20 books that are considered the bibles of historical architecture,” Miller said. “(Probably) very few people on the incline realized who he was.”
The summers he spent at his grandmother’s rooming house in Oakland helped to spark his interest in architecture. Mr. Kidney frequently said that the eclectic architecture of the neighborhood — including Greek Revival (Mellon Institute and the Masonic Temple) and the neo-Gothic (the Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh) — was inspiring.
Born in Johnstown, Cambria County, and raised in Philadelphia, Mr. Kidney was an only child. His father taught both English and Latin.
After graduating with a degree in philosophy from Haverford College in Delaware County, Mr. Kidney worked at Random House in New York City, where he wrote definitions for the Random House Dictionary.
In the early 1950s, James D. Van Trump — who, along with Ziegler, established the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation — observed Mr. Kidney’s diligent research at the Carnegie Library in Oakland.
“Jamie said that there seemed to be a very interesting person doing research in the art, music and Pennsylvania rooms of the Carnegie,” Ziegler recalled. A subsequent meeting with Mr. Kidney began a long-lasting personal and professional relationship.
“Through the years, Jamie was so impressed with Walter’s expertise that Walter was the only one that Jamie would entrust his manuscripts for editing,” Ziegler said.
The first of Mr. Kidney’s many books was “The Architecture of Choice: Eclecticism in America 1880-1930,” published in 1974.
One of his recent publications, “Hornbostel in Pittsburgh,” documents the more than 70 projects that Henry Hornbostel designed in the Pittsburgh area.
Although Mr. Kidney had been freelancing for the landmarks foundation for a number of years, he decided in 1980 that it was time to join the staff.
In the ensuing years, Mr. Kidney also worked with Pittsburgher Magazine, writing feature articles — primarily on local architecture and geographical city profiles — and editing copy. One of his more provocative articles in Pittsburgher was his “Problems and Possibilities on the South Side.”
“Landmarks became Walter’s family,” Miller said. “He’s donated his annuity to Landmarks. He also made funds available to Haverford College, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera and the Architectural Archives of Hunt Library at Carnegie Mellon University.”
Mr. Kidney donated his large collection of classical and operatic records to the music department at Carnegie Library, Miller said.
Among Mr. Kidney’s numerous historical and architectural memberships, he was a member of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, a group founded in 1939 to perpetuate the memory of river workers and the preservation of river history.
There will be no visitation. A tentative date of Jan. 22 has been chosen for a memorial service.
Jerry Vondas can be reached at jvondas@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7823.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Historian knew his architecture locally and worldwide
By Jerry Vondas
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, December 2, 2005While Walter Kidney was renowned as one of the foremost architectural historians in the country, in his adoptive city of Pittsburgh he was known for his philanthropy and humility.
“Walter knew the breadth and range of the history of architecture worldwide,” said Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “Walter also knew Pittsburgh’s buildings in great detail, and could place their significance against that sweeping backdrop.”
Walter C. Kidney, of Mt. Washington, an architectural historian with the foundation, died Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005, of sepsis at UPMC Presbyterian hospital, Oakland. He was 73.
Ziegler said Mr. Kidney had the ability to analyze and summarize buildings in an erudite, yet witty way.
Jack Miller, director of gift planning for the landmarks foundation, recalled how Mr. Kidney’s expertise touched a broad range of people.
“Walter received a call from a woman who wanted to know what kind of windows she should place in a house that Walter figured had no historical significance.”
Miller also recalled how Mr. Kidney, who lived on Mt. Washington, would ride the incline every morning to Station Square to the foundation offices.
“There was nothing pretentious about the man who wrote 20 books that are considered the bibles of historical architecture,” Miller said. “(Probably) very few people on the incline realized who he was.”
The summers he spent at his grandmother’s rooming house in Oakland helped to spark his interest in architecture. Mr. Kidney frequently said that the eclectic architecture of the neighborhood — including Greek Revival (Mellon Institute and the Masonic Temple) and the neo-gothic (the Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh) — was inspiring.
Born in Johnstown, Cambria County, and raised in Philadelphia, Mr. Kidney was an only child. His father taught both English and Latin.
After graduating with a degree in philosophy from Haverford College in Delaware County, Mr. Kidney worked at Random House in New York City where he wrote definitions for the Random House dictionary.
In the early 1950s, James D. Van Trump — who, along with Arthur Ziegler, established the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation — observed Mr. Kidney’s diligent research at the Carnegie Library in Oakland.
“Jamie said that there seemed to be a very interesting person doing research in the art, music and Pennsylvania rooms of the Carnegie,” Ziegler recalled. A subsequent meeting with Mr. Kidney began a long-lasting personal and professional relationship.
“Through the years, Jamie was so impressed with Walter’s expertise that Walter was the only one that Jamie would entrust his manuscripts for editing,” Ziegler said.
Throughout his career, Mr. Kidney published 20 books, beginning with “The Architecture of Choice: Eclecticism in America 1880-1930,” published in 1974.
One of his recent publications, “Hornbostel in Pittsburgh,” documents the more than 70 projects that Henry Hornbostel designed in the Pittsburgh area.
Although Mr. Kidney had been freelancing for the landmarks foundation for a number of years, he decided in 1980 that it was time to join the staff.
In the ensuing years, Mr. Kidney also worked with Pittsburgher Magazine, writing feature articles, primarily on local architecture and geographical city profiles, and editing copy. One of Mr. Kidney’s more provocative articles in Pittsburgher was his “Problems and Possibilities on the South Side.”
“Landmarks became Walter’s family,” Jack Miller said. “He’s donated his annuity to Landmarks. He also made funds available to Haverford College, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera and the Architectural Archives of Hunt Library at Carnegie Mellon University.
Mr. Kidney donated his large collection of classical and operatic records to the music department at Carnegie Library, Miller said.
Among Mr. Kidney’s numerous historical and architectural memberships, he was a member of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, a group founded in 1939 to perpetuate the memory of river workers and the preservation of river history.
There will be no visitation. A tenative date of Jan. 22, 2006, has been set to coincide with his Jan. 24, birthday.
Jerry Vondas can be reached at jvondas@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7823.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Can Braddock find a future in its rich historic and natural resources?
By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, December 02, 2004From the lofty corner of Spring and Anderson streets, Braddock looks much as it did more than 60 years ago, when Thomas Bell imagined steelworker Dobie Dobrejcak living nearby, in the last house on what he called Summer Street.
From his front porch, Dobie had “as fine a view as one could want: Braddock and North Braddock spread out before one, the river, the hills, and on summer evenings the lights of Kennywood Park winking through the smoke above the blast furnaces” of the Edgar Thomson Works, Bell wrote in his 1941 book, “Out of This Furnace.”
On Braddock Avenue today, it is clear that the town Dobie, his father and grandfather knew is no more. While the mill is still there, transforming molten steel into slabs, it employs only about one-fifth of the 5,000 people who worked there during World War II.
There isn’t much left of the once-bustling main street it looms over, and by the end of the year there will be even less of it. Fifteen buildings on Braddock Avenue and nearby streets are slated for demolition, and eight more will be taken down as funding allows. More than 230 buildings in Braddock have been demolished since 1995, creating both loss and opportunity.
So many demolitions caused the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation to determine earlier this year that Braddock is no longer eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The decision and its ramifications for Braddock and beyond are worth examining, as Braddock looks to the future and as historic buildings across the state continue to age and crumble.
While Braddock officials woo real estate developers and consider building a strip mall, grocery store and industrial park on Braddock Avenue, others envision a future built in part on the community’s historical and natural resources.
The county’s most recent strategy for Braddock and the rest of the Mon Valley will be rolled out tomorrow morning at a summit in McKeesport. The Mon Valley Economic Development Strategy, in the works for almost two years, will recommend focusing development around five hubs determined to have the highest potential, in Hazelwood, McKeesport, Duquesne, Clairton-Elizabeth and the Carrie Furnace site.
Braddock should be developed at the same time as the Carrie Furnace site, Dennis Davin, director of economic development, said yesterday. New businesses, streetscape improvements and a Main Street program on Braddock Avenue are the goals, along with mixed-income housing built around the hospital and other sites.
A storied past
While Braddock is no longer officially historic, the landscape holds international significance for the role it played in the French and Indian War. On July 9, 1755, on a hillside overlooking the Monongahela River, British Gen. Edward Braddock and about 1,400 men were defeated by almost 900 French and Indians sent out from Fort Duquesne. Braddock refused to let his men break rank and take cover, and for more than three hours they were easy targets for opponents who shot from behind trees.
Braddock’s reinforcements retreated to Philadelphia, leaving the frontier to be defended for the next three years by young George Washington, who took four bullets through his coat and had two horses shot out from under him at the Battle of Monongahela, but escaped–miraculously, some thought–without injury.
Almost 40 years later, on Aug. 1, 1794, about 6,000 Whiskey Rebels from the rural Western Pennsylvania townships rallied at Braddock’s Field with the intent of plundering Pittsburgh, symbol of the hated whiskey tax and the urban culture it represented. To escape the rebels’ wrath, Pittsburgh agreed to banish men that the rebels regarded as the worst offenders, then further won over the invaders by distributing casks of whiskey among them. Pittsburgh was spared.
“The rebels rallied at Braddock’s Field because everyone knew where it was,” said Robert Messner, an attorney who has raised more than $1 million toward construction of a Braddock’s Field museum at the corner of Sixth and Baldridge streets in North Braddock, where the battle is thought to have been joined. Messner, who believes history can be used to leverage economic development in the community, has acquired three acres of land and two commercial buildings, one of which will be the location next summer for programs commemorating the 250th anniversary of the battle.
Braddock’s eligibility for the National Register, however, owed not to its antique past but to the buildings associated with its rise as a steel town. It originated with the Allegheny County survey that Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation produced from 1979 to 1984, in preparation for its 1985 book, “Landmark Architecture: Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.”
Even in 1981, as the buildings were surveyed, many of the businesses were boarded up, abandoned and decaying, and there already were many vacant lots. Nevertheless, the borough requested historic status for part of Braddock Avenue in 1989, hoping the designation would help turn things around.
Four sections of Braddock were determined to be eligible for the National Register in 1991: a five-block stretch of Braddock Avenue; the Talbot Avenue residential district; the Maple and Wood streets residential pocket; and an institutional area comprising the library, post office and nearby residential streets.
But borough officials never commissioned the paperwork that would officially put it on the register and make it eligible for the 20 percent federal tax credit for rehabilitation. Instead, more and more buildings were abandoned by their owners and allowed to deteriorate.
Braddock borough administrator Ella Jones said she doesn’t know why the borough never pursued listing on the register, only that by the time she arrived four years ago, many buildings were too far gone for anything but demolition.
In 2003, the borough and the county economic development office hired preservation architect Charles Uhl to document the current condition of the buildings. Of the 75 buildings on Braddock Avenue that could be considered contributing to a historic district, Uhl found 23 to be “economically and structurally unsalvageable.” That leaves two-thirds of the remaining historic buildings standing — 52 buildings over a five-block area, an average of 10 buildings per block.
Uhl found the Talbot Avenue area “not an appealing residential district,” with most houses covered with artificial materials. Three large commercial buildings on Talbot have failed roofs and are condemned. In the Maple and Wood streets area, the 35 houses are mostly wood-frame, and all of those are covered with artificial siding. In the library-post office area, Uhl reports both of those structures are either individually listed on or eligible for the National Register, and the nearby housing artificially sided and/or interrupted by vacant lots.
The borough didn’t need the Bureau for Historic Preservation’s permission to demolish the buildings, but it wanted to use federal funds in the form of Community Development Block Grant money to do so, and that would have triggered a lengthy review process involving documentation through measurement and photography.
Uhl’s report and a site visit convinced the bureau to reverse itself. It has done so only once before, in 2002, reversing the 1992 eligibility ruling for Renovo, Clinton County, incorporated in 1866. Like Braddock’s historic district, Renovo’s had suffered a loss of integrity through demolitions.
“Although the history of Braddock and its contribution to the history of the steel industry in America is significant, the district no longer can reflect this significance due to a loss of integrity,” preservation bureau director Jean Cutler wrote to the county economic development office in January.
Demolition by neglect
“We understand the state and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission have to follow standards and have criteria,” said Cathy McCollum, director of operations and marketing at Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “Our concern is not that they declared it ineligible, but that it got to that point. It’s demolition by neglect.”
To Dan Holland, chair of the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh, the reversal “sets a dangerous precedent for historic districts and structures across the Commonwealth,” as he wrote in a letter of protest in February to PHMC director Barbara Franco. The letter also stated that the “unilateral decision to undo the designation of the Braddock Historic District without public input or comment reduces Braddock’s chances for revitalization.”
Municipalities should not be rewarded for allowing demolition by neglect and not enforcing codes, said Susan Shearer, president of the nonprofit advocacy group Preservation Pennsylvania, based in Lancaster. The message the reversal sends to other communities, she added, is that if they allow buildings to deteriorate to the point of no return, the eligibility can be lifted.
Jones acknowledged that over the years, building codes in Braddock were not always enforced “to the fullest degree.” But, she added, if property owners now don’t maintain their buildings, they’re taken to the magistrate. If they fail to comply, they face fines and the possibility of jail.
Preservationists agree that even when there is no immediate use for historic buildings, they should be stabilized and mothballed until new investors are found. But where will the money to do so come from?
“If the state was interested in keeping those buildings intact, I think the state had some responsibility in providing some funds so that those buildings could be maintained,” said Jones. “We would have preferred to restore, absolutely. Those buildings hold a lot of history.”
Braddock may be the most egregious example of demolition by neglect, but it’s far from the only one.
“You see it in every single county,” said Janet Milkman, president of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a statewide land use and conservation alliance. “Developers always say it’s so much easier to build out [of the city] or new than build in older communities, and in a lot of ways that’s true.
“The state policy has to be: Remove barriers and provide incentives” for rehabilitation.
The greening of Braddock
The Braddock historic district’s ineligibility for the National Register will have minimal impact on the Mon-Fayette Expressway project, because the Section 106 review triggered by the eligibility already has been performed. The Turnpike Commission will still provide photographic documentation of the buildings to be demolished and work with a citizens advisory committee to help integrate the highway and the community.
Designed to avoid Braddock Avenue, the highway would parallel it and be built mostly within a former railroad corridor. But it would remove 73 buildings — the same buildings the preservation bureau signed off on when they were considered to be contributing to the historic district.
To show the expressway’s impact on Braddock and to stimulate community dialogue, Lawrenceville architects Jonathan Kline and Christine Brill built a scale model of Braddock and North Braddock. The land and buildings taken for the highway, which would be elevated on a 25-foot-high berm, are expressed as a removable overlay.
“The berm is cheaper than [supporting it on concrete] piers,” Kline said. “But it will take up more land and be more of a barrier.”
Last June, the Lawrenceville couple and their scale model spent a month in Braddock as part of a team of artists commissioned by Carnegie Mellon University to look at ecological approaches to land-use planning and public space development in Braddock and North Braddock.
With many vacant lots returning to nature — usually through neglect and often in unsafe places — Kline and Brill suggest that when redevelopment does come to Braddock, some of those green spaces could be retained and incorporated in the plans. Parts of Tassey Hollow, a ravine separating North Braddock from Swissvale, could be made accessible, and the Sixth Street stream could be restored to a more natural condition to show proper storm water management.
Some of the vacant lots on Braddock Avenue could be used to interpret the borough’s history as a sort of outdoor museum, Brill said. Their ideas, still evolving, will be exhibited next year.
Jones said she would like to see “some greenery on Braddock Avenue, and well-designed street lights and a time clock in the center of town. I want it to have a sense of place, so people in this town will be proud to say they live in Braddock.”
Will it also, one wonders, be a place Dobie Dobrejcak would recognize?
(Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.)
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Newspaper is a symbol of owner’s commitment to community, philanthropy
By Marisol Bello
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, December 1, 2002The River City Brass Band’s 25 brass players and three percussionists jam throughout western Pennsylvania, introducing listeners to their lively repertoire of classical music, popular tunes and marches.
In the Mon Valley during the last 12 years, the Government Agency Coordination Office, an assistance program sponsored by California University of Pennsylvania, has helped small manufacturers to win more than 9,000 government contracts worth more than $445 million and to save or create almost 15,000 jobs in the region.
And in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood section, the Rev. Marie Jones rebuilt her 15-member Baptist church 10 blocks from her home after vandals burned down the wooden clapboard church she led in Westmoreland County.
Three disparate groups in different parts of the Pittsburgh area. But one tie bonds them together: They’ve all benefited from the Scaife family tradition of community involvement.
“I’ve never seen them, I’ve never met them,” said Jones, who at 75 still preaches from her new church every Sunday. “But they’ve been so kind and merciful.”
The Scaife family tradition of philanthropy has been forged not only through charitable foundations that donate millions of dollars to local causes, but also through one of the region’s fastest growing newspapers lucky alternative to its older, staid competitor.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s meteoric growth from a 1,000-circulation daily newspaper into an award-winning daily with more than 400 employees, four bureaus and three editions, is a testament to the commitment of its owner and publisher, Richard M. Scaife.
Ten years ago, in the wake of a bitter strike that led to the demise of one of the city’s two daily newspapers, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was born.
Scaife, descendant of a family that helped establish Pittsburgh’s manufacturing legacy, wanted to establish a new legacy as publisher and founder of the region’s No. 1 newspaper. He is adamant that a community with only one newspaper is impoverished.
His impact on southwestern Pennsylvania, however, spreads beyond the newspaper’s circulation.
The charitable efforts of Scaife and his family reach into the most unexpected places, building on a foundation laid in the first half of the last century by his father and mother.
The impact over the last six decades is almost incalculable. While the Scaife contributions for public policy initiatives are well-publicized, the family has donated millions upon millions to little-known causes throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area.
Over the last four years alone, Scaife, through three family foundations, has contributed more than $11 million to more than 50 organizations and efforts throughout western Pennsylvania.
The foundations the Allegheny Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Carthage Foundation have helped groups that participate in everything from sponsoring summer programs at the Boys & Girls Clubs to renovating the historic public libraries in Homestead and Braddock.
The newspaper also has its own foundation. In the last two years, Trib Charities has donated almost $55,000 to six local organizations, including Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Pittsburgh Firefighters Association.
From his 39th-floor office overlooking Downtown’s main attractions the Point, Station Square, Mt. Washington and PNC Park Scaife said his efforts are rooted in a desire for good government for a region with so much to offer.
“It is good government to have a city not about to go bankrupt,” Scaife said. “I want to create an environment where jobs are being created and people are moving into, and not out of, the area.
“Ideas have meaning,” he continued. “I’m trying to give people a choice with ideas and what’s best for this country.”
A tradition that spans six generations
The Scaife family has been an integral player in Pittsburgh history, going back to six generations of Scaifes when Jeffrey Scaife, Richard Scaife’s great-great-great grandfather, opened a tin, copper and sheet metal factory in 1802. The factory became the oldest manufacturing company west of the Alleghenies.
Over the years, the company added steamboat work and other metalwork products as it passed down the line to Richard Scaife’s great-great grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather and eventually his father, Alan M. Scaife.
Alan Scaife, and his wife, Sarah, strengthened the family’s extensive community involvement. Alan Scaife served on the University of Pittsburgh’s board of trustees and on Magee Hospital’s executive committee.
Sarah Scaife, meanwhile, founded the Sarah Scaife Foundation in 1941 to assist traditional charitable efforts, such as the Children’s Zoo, the Pittsburgh Zoo and tree-planting initiatives throughout the city’s 88 neighborhoods.
The family’s philanthropic bent often placed it in the center of history.
It was the Sarah Scaife Foundation that provided the original risk capital that allowed Dr. Jonas Salk to build his laboratory and conduct his research into a polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh. The foundation gave the doctor two grants, totaling $35,000, in the late 1940s and early 1950s that led to the discovery that eradicated polio.
In 1958, Richard Scaife took over the family’s philanthropic reins.
He became chair of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, shifting its focus to public policy organizations and initiatives. He created the Allegheny Foundation, which became the vehicle to do most of the community work that the Sarah Scaife Foundation no longer funded.
During Scaife’s early work with the foundations, the seeds of a partnership that would eventually transform part of the city were planted between him and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. History & Landmarks’ efforts in urban renewal and preservation complemented Scaife’s commitment to conservation and his love of history.
In the 1960s, History & Landmarks began work on mass urban-renewal programs throughout the city. Swaths of Manchester, the Mexican War Streets and the South Side were rehabilitated.
Scaife’s foundations provided the start-up money for renovations, demolitions and low-interest loans to low-income residents who wanted to buy or repair their homes.
Arthur Ziegler, executive director of History & Landmarks, said it was the first urban-renewal program that did not displace residents. The money provided by the Scaife foundations was integral to their efforts, Ziegler said.
“The grants continued to help us enlarge and expand the projects,” he said. “They provided the first funding for inner-city urban restoration work.”
The successful pairing led to the next big project: recreating Station Square.
In the mid-70s, the Scaife foundations, along with History & Landmarks, became interested in a project to reuse an existing rail station. Station Square was the ideal candidate.
Scaife donated more than $11 million in start-up money to History & Landmarks to develop the project. Today, Station Square is a booming economic generator for the city of Pittsburgh. It is one of the projects Scaife is most proud of.
“Not a dime of federal and state money went into that project,” Scaife said. “And unlike other projects, Station Square pays taxes to the city.”
Since then, the foundations have also provided funding to restore the once-grand libraries in Homestead and Braddock.
The reach of Scaife’s civic involvement extends to the arts and nature as well. Groups funded by the foundations represent Scaife’s interests, including education, the arts, culture and historical preservation.
Continuing a tradition begun by his mother, Scaife donated works of art to the Carnegie Museum. In 1974, he donated a new wing to the Carnegie and filled it with his mother’s art collection.
The Trib celebrates 10 years
In 1970, when the owners of the almost 100-year old Greensburg Tribune-Review wanted to sell the newspaper, Scaife bought it for about $5 million and became its publisher.
Twenty-two years later, a vicious strike hit Pittsburgh’s two competing newspapers, leading to the demise of the afternoon paper, The Pittsburgh Press.
Scaife thought a community with only one newspaper was impoverished, so he turned to the company’s president, Ed Harrell and said, “Start a newspaper in Pittsburgh.”
“I’m a newspaper junkie,” Scaife said. “I think the people of this region need a choice. Compare it to being in a supermarket. How would you like having one choice of ice cream or one choice of soda? Pittsburgh is fortunate to have the choice of more than one newspaper. Most cities don’t offer that choice.”
Scaife’s love of newspapers goes back to when he was 9 years old and recuperating from injuries he suffered after falling off his horse. “I had a lot of time on my hands,” he said.
So he read a lot. He read every newspaper he could get his hands on from all over the country and around the world, comparing the style and content of each one. “It was a hobby. I even named my horse News Girl.”
His passion for newspapers reached its height on Dec. 17, 1992, when the first edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review hit the newsstands and began its decadelong challenge to be the region’s dominant newspaper.
It started with a circulation in the city of just over 1,000 copies.
The mostly young staff of about 15 worked out of a converted three-story warehouse in Station Square. At first, they shared the first floor with other businesses, but eventually the paper took over the entire building.
“It was a pioneering adventure,” said Eric Heyl, who began working for the paper a month after it started operating. Today, he is the paper’s nationally recognized, award-winning humor columnist.
“We were doing something that had really not been done before in modern journalism,” he said. “There was no book to fall back on and that was part of the charm.”
The editorial staff consisted of seven reporters and one city editor. There was no copy desk and reporters had no access to wire services and most of the modern amenities journalists take for granted. But the group had heart.
“We practiced guerrilla journalism. The point was to hit them where they aren’t and get the stories they weren’t writing or were too lazy to get,” Heyl said of the competition.
“I could not have envisioned an operation like this,” Heyl said in the expansive North Shore office the Trib calls home today. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I don’t think can be duplicated today in American journalism where newspapers are shutting down, not starting up. ”
Jim Kubus was the paper’s only full-time photographer at the time. He remembers how he and a string of freelancers processed film in a broom closet in the men’s room. Whenever a female photographer worked in there, she hung a homemade sign on the door alerting anyone who wanted to use the restroom, “Woman in darkroom.”
Slowly, the paper grew. Attractive subscription deals for new readers, targeted marketing in the city and suburbs, and aggressive reporting began to cement the paper’s position in the region.
In 1997, the Trib went high-tech with a 13-acre $43 million press facility called NewsWorks in Marshall Township. The new plant was essential to the paper’s growth. The new presses allowed the paper to print color on virtually every page.
Two years later, the Pittsburgh Trib moved to its new newsroom and business offices, the sprawling third-floor office at the old Clark Candy Co. factory on the North Side. It was quite a change from the fledgling operation that bustled in Station Square.
“We went from this penny-in-the-fuse-box situation, where it was like, ‘Let’s do this to get by,’ ” Kubus said. “We went from that to cutting-edge technology. Our paper was the first in the region to be all digital in photography.”
Over the last decade, the Trib built a tradition of journalistic excellence, as more of its writers and editors won local, state and national honors for hard-hitting news stories.
Special investigative reports, such as Pittsburgh’s financial crisis, the area’s unguarded nuclear and chemical plants and the state’s financially troubled lottery, have added to the newspaper’s goal of presenting readers with local, timely, in-depth issues.
Last year’s report on “blood money” investments in questionable foreign companies persuaded the state to re-examine its pension funds. And state lawmakers opened their office expenses to public scrutiny after the Pittsburgh Trib revealed no accounting existed for $1.5 million in state tax money spent by western Pennsylvania House members.
“The biggest challenge faced by the Tribune-Review is habit, but we’re succeeding in home sales, and new people moving into the community are buying the Tribune-Review,” Scaife said. “Ultimately, we want to control this market. We want to be the No. 1 source of news in Pittsburgh.”
Scaife philanthropy today
Today, the Sarah Scaife Foundation is worth about $300 million, the Allegheny Foundation about $40 million, and a third foundation, the Carthage, which funds only public-policy groups, about $25 million. The range of organizations they’ve touched is wide indeed.
Take the North Side’s River City Brass Band, which for 12 years has been a beneficiary of the Allegheny Foundation. Over the last four years alone, the group has received $200,000.
Marilyn Thomas, executive director, said the grants are integral. They help with operating costs and have no strings attached.
As a result, the band is able to perform more than 100 times a year in eight communities, from Homestead to Upper St. Clair, and in cities around the country. The band not only plays old favorites and marches, it commissions new works and has recorded several CDs.
In Hazelwood, the Rev. Jones and her New Hope Baptist Church had little hope for a new church after vandals burned down the white wooden-clapboard building in Westmoreland County where she held services for her 15 parishioners.
The church had no insurance on the building and no money to rebuild it. After the fire, Jones preached in the grassy field where the charred remains of the church smoldered.
But after her plight appeared in a story in the Tribune-Review, the Allegheny Foundation, with Scaife’s urging, gave the church $25,000 to find a new building.
“I opened up the letter saying they were giving us $25,000 and I screamed,” she said. She thought it was a joke at first.
Jones was so grateful that for a number of years she sent the foundation’s staff a Christmas card with $1 inside.
In 1999, the church bought for $15,000 a two-story building in Hazelwood that had been a nuisance bar. Jones used the rest of the grant to renovate and paint the deteriorated building, install a new furnace and buy knickknacks at Goodwill, such as the two angels one black, one white that light up when plugged in and the gold-colored candlestick holders that decorate the church.
To this day, Jones doesn’t know how or why the foundation found out about her, or why it gave her the money.
Whoever told them about the church, she said, “was someone who had a Christian heart. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have helped us.”
In the Mon Valley, a different type of effort is at work. The Government Agency Coordination Office, based at California University of Pennsylvania, has helped area manufacturers recover from the steel decline that began in the late 1980s. The office works with those companies to help them win government defense contracts.
As a result, they’ve created and saved thousands of jobs in the depressed Mon Valley and brought millions of dollars to the region. For more than a decade, the Sarah Scaife Foundation has funded the project.
The group is another example of Scaife’s interest in education and in encouraging programs that promote personal responsibility.
Joanne Beyer, who until recently oversaw the Allegheny Foundation, said, “We support the idea that private action and personal responsibility are the key to a better world.”
Marisol Bello can be reached at mbello@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7994.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review