Category Archive: News Wire Services
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Hammering away historically
By Rick Wills
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 15, 2004Wearing their trademark black wide-brimmed hats, Amish men pounded away Tuesday at the heavy oak timbers in a swirl of snow and piercing winter wind.
“I like to build them so they don’t sag, so they last almost forever,” said Melvin Weingerd, of Apple Creek, Ohio, one of seven men building a replica of an 18th-century barn at the Oliver Miller Homestead in South Park.The barn, which will house displays, is part of a restoration and expansion of the homestead, where the first shots of the Whiskey Rebellion were fired in 1794. The site became a National Registered Landmark in 1934.
Even with the help of a crane to hoist 1,000-pound oak beams, the group will need three days to finish a job that 100 Amish men typically finish in as little as four hours.
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Mon-Fayette Expressway extension will leave a heavy impression – Road cuts into history
By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Friday, December 10, 2004All along the 24 miles from Jefferson Hills to Oakland, the newly approved northern leg of the Mon-Fayette Expressway will cut through populated areas, affecting historic buildings and cultural and natural landscapes.
Older communities will be dwarfed and divided by an elevated, four-lane, limited-access toll road, and pristine hillsides will be sacrificed. Nowhere will its impact be felt more than in Braddock, Duck Hollow, Hazelwood and Turtle Creek.
The $2 billion project, which was given a go-ahead yesterday by the Federal Highway Administration, was 12 years in planning and is expected to take some 10 more years to build.
Here’s a look at the path it will cut:
After leaving Duquesne and crossing the Monongahela River, the highway would divide into two branches — heading east into Turtle Creek and west into Braddock, with both branches eventually connecting to the Parkway East.
It will run through North Braddock between Bell and Braddock avenues on concrete piers, then swoop down into Braddock, where it will travel through the borough on an elevated, earthen berm 25 feet high and 300 feet wide. It will run between Talbot and Woodlawn avenues, partly on an abandoned railroad right of way, then through several blocks now occupied by a mixture of houses and vacant lots.
The toll road will require the demolition of 73 buildings in Braddock and North Braddock that until earlier this year had been eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The state Bureau for Historic Preservation determined the district no longer qualified as historic due to a loss of integrity caused by demolitions.
But many historic buildings remain, including the Clawson brick row houses that lie in the expressway’s path, at 1223-1229 Braddock Avenue. Built between 1908 and 1915 by John Clawson and Thomas Scott, they are considered good examples of steelworker housing, although they now are vacant and deteriorating.
The highway would separate most of Braddock and all of North Braddock from the riverfront, with access only via tunnels through the berm.
It also would alter a landscape with historical significance: Braddock’s Field, site of a major battle in the French and Indian War. The battle site, on a hill in North Braddock, will overlook the expressway.
At Duck Hollow, perhaps the city’s smallest and most isolated neighborhood only two houses lie in the expressway’s path, neither of them deemed historic.
The Hollow is snuggled in a recessed valley where Nine Mile Run meets the Monongahela River, where blue heron and other water fowl often can be found. The highway’s impact on the riverfront and its green hillside from Nine Mile Run to Hazelwood is a great concern, said city planner Patrick Hassett.
While the turnpike commission will try to elevate the highway on piers, engineers don’t yet have enough information about the composition of the hillside to know exactly how to treat it.
“We may see some retaining wall there,” Hassett said.
The commission will work with the Nine Mile Run Design Advisory Team to address the highway’s overall appearance and scarring of the hillside. The commission suggests color, texture and detail-enhancing materials on retaining walls and roadway structures.
In Hazelwood, the expressway will be sunk 25 feet below street level at Gloster Street. New bridges would carry Elizabeth and Tecumseh streets and Hazelwood Avenue across the expressway. Three at-grade covers would be built over the toll road, each about 600 feet long, to allow parking and public open space on top and provide areas for potential new development.
The right-of-way would take 10 acres from the 222-acre National Register-eligible historic district, removing 18 structures. The most significant are a two-story, red brick L-shaped house with Italianate influences, built by James Barker in 1875, and the former D.L. Thomas dry goods store, built about 1895, which retains its original storefront and ornamental brickwork.
“Hazelwood is still evolving,” Hassett said. “The one big concession they made was to depress the highway but many of the other impacts were deferred to the final design stage.”
At Bates Street, where the toll road will connect with the Parkway East, the turnpike commission also has opted for a full interchange connecting to the Boulevard of the Allies, with ramps flanking and then traveling above Bates Street as it climbs to the boulevard. One of the ramps would eradicate the Shrine to the Blessed Mother, tucked away in a hillside grotto overlooking the parkway. About 25 buildings also would be demolished, although none are thought to have historical significance.
The highway’s eastern spur, after leaving Duquesne and crossing the Mon, would pass under two of the five concrete arches of the Westinghouse Bridge, erected in 1930 with a central span that was, at 460 feet, then the broadest concrete arch in the country.
The expressway would travel 60 feet above the borough of Turtle Creek on concrete piers. Its visual impact on Turtle Creek would be high, reports the turnpike commission’s Environmental Impact Statement, “since the overhead structure would extend across the downtown.”
The highway would come within 75 to 85 feet of three historic churches — St. Colman, McMasters Methodist and United Presbyterian.
As the expressway moves into final design, local preservation groups yesterday called for more study, reinvestment in existing infrastructure and features that would minimize the impact on hillsides and historic neighborhoods.
“We felt that the transportation industry had not proven the economic benefits” of the highway, “nor did they justify the exceptional cost,” said Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., president of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
“We now are facing major invasive surgery,” said Rob Pfaffmann, president of Preservation Pittsburgh. “We need to look for every opportunity to keep the road from cutting off arteries to historic neighborhoods, sites and riverfronts.”
(Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.)
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No decision reached on Woodland Hills’ East Junior High location
By Mike Scheinberg
Wednesday, December 08, 2004Woodland Hills school board members wrapped up their final session of the year last week without reaching a consensus on a location for a new East Junior High School.
So any vote on the school’s future will not be made until next year. Cost of the new building would be at least $17.1 million.
Board President Cynthia Lowery said she hopes a final decision can be reached at the January board meeting.
Lowery added that none of the municipalities in the school district seems to want the school.
“We are not getting encouragement from any of them,” she said. “But we have to put the school somewhere.”
Lowery, who still favors the Eastmont School site in Wilkins, said the current East Junior High site in Turtle Creek could be used for stadium parking.
“Eastmont is the best site available,” Lowery said. “East and West junior highs should be similar. The property down in Turtle Creek is too small.”
Board member Linda Cole agreed with Lowery.
“A new building in Turtle Creek would have to be three or four stories. New buildings like that are not being built these days outside of the cities,” Cole said.
“We have to do what is best for the children of the district,” Lowery said. “It is a little disheartening that nobody seems to want the junior high building in their community.”
The board is split on where to locate the school. Three possible sites have been under consideration. They include the present site, Eastmont and a site next to Woodland Hills High School in Churchill.
Board member Randy Lott said he favors keeping the school in Turtle Creek.
“The presence of the junior high there is important for the community,” Lott said. He added that he is not overly concerned about the new Mon Valley Expressway in Turtle Creek. Other board members have expressed concerns about noise and safety.
School board members planned to meet with Turtle Creek council members this week to discuss the junior high further.
Board member Robert Tomasic has indicated a preference for combining the district’s two junior highs into one big school near the high school. But Churchill police said they are against this proposal because they don’t want to patrol another large school building in the borough.
Cole said there are too many pupils for one junior high building.
“This is a huge decision,” Lott said. “We need to take our time with this.”
Approved at last week’s board meeting was a $2 million capital improvement plan for the schools. Business Manager Richard Day said the money would come from the district’s capital reserve fund and still leave about $3 million in the fund.
The list of improvements included $300,000 in upgrades to fields, tracks and scoreboards at several schools. Other projects included replacing carpet at Dickson and Rankin, repairing restrooms, installing new lockers at the high school, repairing roofs and upgrading libraries.
In other action, Lowery was re-elected board president and Marilyn Messina was re-elected vice president in the annual board reorganization meeting.
(Mike Scheinberg is a freelance writer.)
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Historic church closes its doors forever
By Megan McCloskey
TRIBUNE REVIEW
Tuesday, December 7, 2004The statue of the Virgin Mary still sits atop the hill where generations of Croatians have prayed in the grotto beneath her, but it has been almost a month since worshipers last attended Mass in their historic church.
Despite parishioners’ fight to save the building from the wrecking ball, the St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church building on Route 28 will close permanently today.The 100-year-old church needs repairs the parish cannot afford and has been closed since mid-November because of a boiler leaking carbon monoxide, said the Rev. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Robert Sladack, who has been attending the church for 70 years, said he is heartbroken. Sladack was baptized, schooled and married at the East Ohio Street church.
“I was hoping to have my funeral there,” he said.
The Rev. Gabriel Badurina, pastor of St. Nicholas parish, said he understood parishioners’ feelings of loss and pain, “but life has to move on.” The parish has two churches. The other is in Millvale.
The St. Nicholas parish is not alone in that sentiment.
Two other parishes this year have had to look at consolidating buildings, joining 17 others that have done so since 1994.
Good Samaritan Parish in Ambridge closed three of its four buildings this fall. St. John Vianney Parish, which encompasses several south Pittsburgh neighborhoods, has sent a proposal to Bishop Donald Wuerl for approval to do the same thing.
From 1988 to 1994, 48 church buildings closed during Wuerl’s reorganization and revitalization plan that was aimed at adjusting the diocese to better fit the changing demographics of Catholics in Pittsburgh, Lengwin said.
Many of the Catholic churches in Pittsburgh had been formed by European immigrants who came to the city to work the coal mines and steel mills. Croatians settled in the North Side and founded St. Nicholas, the first Croatian Catholic church in North America.
Keeping the church open is “extremely important” to keeping Croatian traditions alive in Pittsburgh, Sladack said. He is co-chairman on the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation, formed after the parish voted in 2000 to close the building.
“We are not giving up the fight,” Sladack said.
However, the diocese said closing the church is a way to preserve a Croatian heritage that is dwindling along with the numbers of parishioners. With the consolidation, Lengwin said, the 400 members of the two-church parish — which had 900 members in 1994 — can go to Mass together in Millvale. Badurina also will increase the number of Masses celebrated in the Croatian tongue to one a week, up from one a month, Lengwin said.
Both churches were recommended for closure during the diocese’s reorganization plan, but Wuerl wouldn’t let that happen because of the need for preserving Croatian culture, Lengwin said.
“These are not easy decisions to make,” he said. “Everyone’s been given time to see if there was a solution to this problem.”
Members of the foundation said they don’t think their proposals to save the church were given adequate consideration by the pastor or the diocese.
“They just wanted to close the church,” said Jack Schmitt, a board member with both the foundation and Pittsburgh Preservation.
Both groups lobbied successfully to get the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to reconsider its plans to widen Route 28, two of which included razing the church.
After the East Ohio Street building earned a historical designation by the city, the Catholic Diocese successfully lobbied to have churches excluded from any further landmark designations, said Cathy McCollom, chief programs officer for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Megan McCloskey can be reached at mmccloskey@tribweb.com.
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Station Square at 25 – Competition pushes old rail complex to focus on entertainment
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sunday, December 05, 2004These days, Station Square likes to bill itself as “Pittsburgh’s place to play.” Al Ratner won’t settle for anything less. The old railroad complex has long been a popular tourist destination. Now, Ratner, the board co-chairman of Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland developer that owns the property, wants to make it Pittsburgh’s premier entertainment spot as well.
That’s a measure of just how far it’s come in the 25 years since civic, business and political leaders sipped drinks and strolled the red brick floors at the opening of the Freight House Shops in 1979.
What once was a quirky mix of local shops, retailers and restaurants, including the just-closed nuisance nightclub, Chauncy’s, has become a land of dancing fountains, a tented amphitheater and a host of dining and entertainment venues as the complex tries to stay fresh against competition on the South Side and trendy developments such as the Waterfront.
The stately Grand Concourse restaurant, a converted train station, is still there, as is the Gateway Clipper, the riverboat fleet that remains a favorite for families, senior citizens and school outings. Some of the original shops, such as St. Brendan’s Crossing and Morini, still occupy space in the Freight House. Houlihan’s restaurant, another original, also remains.
But more and more, with an eye seemingly aimed toward casino gambling, Forest City is moving Station Square away from its retail roots with restaurants anchoring the ends to a full-fledged entertainment and dining complex, unnerving some longtime retailers struggling to keep their businesses afloat.
The transition is evident in brochures: Station Square currently is home to roughly 27 restaurants or entertainment spots and 22 shops or services, compared with 18 eateries or nightclubs and 48 shops or services in the first years after the complex opened.
Old mainstays such as The Limited, Limited Express, Laura Ashley and Casual Corner are gone. Nearly a third of the retail space in the Freight House was taken over by the Bradford School, a two-year career institution which opens next month and which will bring a younger crowd to Station Square,
“You look at places like Hard Rock Cafe, the Funny Bone, Crawford Grill with live entertainment, yeah, it’s definitely taking a different path,” said city Councilman Alan Hertzberg, whose district includes Station Square. “Even the fountain show that was built there is entertainment right now. It’s definitely taking on a new theme, one I think is being very well-received.”
Not by all. Some fear that Freight House retail may end up going the way of the old rail service that once ran through the complex.
“I see the eventual end of retail here in the next five years,” said Ron Collins, manager of Bradley’s Books, who estimates the store’s business is down 20 percent this year, mainly because of the shifting priorities. “Station Square has really changed the focus around here.”
More expansion to come
The emphasis on entertainment has brought some problems, the most visible of which was this week’s court-ordered permanent closing of Chauncy’s after being termed a nuisance bar. The district attorney’s office cited 80 incidents at the club since July 2003, including fights, drug dealing, assaults and a November 2003 homicide in a parking garage that police said stemmed from a dispute in Chauncy’s. Two club officers also have been accused of dealing drugs from the club.
Chauncy’s was in the Commerce Court section of Station Square not controlled by Forest City, although it expects to have at least some say in what goes into the vacant space. While the club could pack in the crowds, no one seemed to mourn its demise.
“I believe it will be a positive for Station Square,” said Gary Marasco, general manager of the complex’s Hard Rock Cafe.
“At the time the violence started, it did have a significant effect. The media attention raised a lot of eyebrows with our clientele. Families want a safe place to go out and dine. We definitely saw a drop-off in business. I think it hurt the name of Station Square as a place to go.”
You wouldn’t know it by the weekend crowds that pour into the complex, whether for concerts, pre- or post-Steelers game revelry, Light Up Night, or an evening of eating and drinking.
Much of their business is focused on the fruits of a $71 million building campaign Forest City embarked on in 2000, altering not only the face but the sashay of the historic 52-acre riverside complex.
The first phase involved construction of a $25 million, nine-story wing to the existing Sheraton Hotel, adding 104 rooms. Then came the $25 million Bessemer Court project, the centerpiece of the developer’s expansion so far.
It brought the Hard Rock Cafe, Bar Louie, the Red Star Tavern, an expanded Funny Bone comedy club, Joe’s Crab Shack and several other restaurants to the centrally located court, named after an old Bessemer converter that had been taken from a Pittsburgh-area steel mill.
The piece de resistance was construction of a 100-foot-wide fountain that shoots jets of water up to 60 feet and is synchronized to play off colored lights and music, a Vegas-style attraction far removed from the old rail yards.
This spring, Forest City plans to build a public marina on the banks of the Monongahela River that will allow boaters to dock and partake in Station Square offerings. An elevator and 140-foot pedestrian walkway, both of which have been built, will transport boaters from the marina to Bessemer Court.
Ratner envisions water taxis zipping along the rivers, taking visitors from Station Square to the North Shore, South Side and other destinations and back.
With the help of a $5 million state grant, the developer will erect a pedestrian walkway over Carson Street to link the complex with the Port Authority light rail stop and the Monongahela Incline, tying Station Square to another popular tourist spot, Mount Washington.
“We think connecting Station Square to Mount Washington is extremely important,” Ratner said. “It’s wonderful to park at Station Square and take the incline and have dinner. We don’t have another place in the state that has that opportunity.”
Casino dreams
Growing competition is driving the improvements.
Just down Carson Street is the South Side, still a very popular nightspot, and the emerging South Side Works complex, with the Cheesecake Factory, a new movie house and other options. There’s also competition from the Waterfront in Homestead and the Strip, with its nightclubs, bars and restaurants.
“I guess I would tend to think that the local or regional flavor has shifted to the South Side,” said commercial real estate broker Kevin Langholz, of the Downtown firm Langholz-Wilson & Associates. “The culinary experience there is a little more intimate, kind of now, if you will. It will change even more with the South Side Works.”
Beth Edwards, Station Square manager, said the emphasis on entertainment also was an answer to suburban malls.
“I think there’s a lot of retail out in the suburbs. We’ve been very successful in attracting national and international restaurants. We have tourist destinations with the Gateway Clipper, the amphitheater and the Just Ducky tours,” she said.
Whatever the competition, Forest City could end up trumping it all if it wins the state license for a stand-alone slots casino in Pittsburgh.
Forest City has made no secret about wanting to add gambling to the mix. In buying Station Square from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation for $25.5 million in 1994, it did so with an eye toward docking a riverboat casino on the banks of the Mon.
Riverboat gambling never became law in Pennsylvania, but slots gambling did, in a vote by the state Legislature last summer, and Station Square is considered a prime site for the casino, in competition with the Penguins, who want to build one near Mellon Arena, and parking czar Merrill Stabile, who wants to put one on the North Shore.
Forest City has been discussing a possible partnership with Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the Las Vegas casino operator. Harrah’s sold its interest in Station Square to Forest City in 1998, but retained its option to build a casino there through 2007. The state expects to award the Pittsburgh casino license in 2006.
Ratner has been reluctant to comment on the casino issue, noting that the state hasn’t set up the application process.
But Langholz, who believes Station Square can continue to succeed without gambling, has no doubt that the impact would be great.
“Gambling would serve as a tremendous anchor, much as a department store does to a regional mall. It would further the life cycle and enhance the amenities at Station Square,” he said.
City Council President Gene Ricciardi has expressed concerns about gambling at Station Square, fearing it could jam traffic and take patrons from the South Side, his district.
Some Station Square retailers also are wary of gambling, while others are ready to embrace it.
“I’m not thinking that’s really going to help us,” said Carol Wilson, owner of Accentricity, a Freight House jewelry store. “When you look at the Boardwalk [in Atlantic City] a lot of those shops are gone. I’m not sure it’s going to be a big thing for me. I’m hoping I’m wrong.”
“I don’t think it would help this establishment. The money won’t go back into development,” said Collins, of Bradley Books. “I’m rooting for Mario [Lemieux, Penguins owner], because people will benefit from it.”
Marasco sees it as a plus for the Hard Rock.
“Obviously, from a foot traffic standpoint, it’s great for Station Square. We’re very much in favor of having gambling at Station Square,” he said. “I think it would make Station Square the crown jewel of development in Pittsburgh.”
Eileen Manning, of St. Brendan’s Crossing, one of the original Freight House shops, also is supportive. “It can only be helpful to encourage more people to visit here,” she said.
Should Station Square lose out on the casino license, Forest City would consider doing office or residential development on the property, Ratner said.
Lots of businesses and restaurants have come and gone in the 25 years Station Square has existed. The Cheese Cellar, another original, recently closed. Tequila Junction is gone. So is Bobby Rubino’s. Bolan’s Candies shut down, as did B. Dalton Booksellers. The Pittsburgh Sports Garden gave way to Rod Woodson’s All-Star Grille, and then to Philthy McNasty’s. Now a new restaurant, Margarita Mamas, occupies the space next to Hooter’s restaurant.
But while Downtown retail has faltered and many businesses have gone under, Station Square has managed to adapt.
“I think Station Square is still an attractive tourist spot, given the amenities of the river’s edge and with the Liberty Belle and the boats. It’s still a major attraction for people coming into Pittsburgh for the first or second time,” Langholz said.
(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.)
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Historic status eyed for area
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, November 15, 2004An effort to get a historic district designation for the city’s Oakland Square section has cleared its first major hurdle: Enough homeowners have signed on to the idea to put the matter before the city’s Historic Review Commission.
Architect Nathan Hart, who has been spearheading the process, said his pitch to residents and landlords mostly has steered clear of purely aesthetic reasons for historic designation and focused more on the economic benefits of an approval.The city has 11 other historic districts, including East Carson Street, Manchester, the Mexican War Streets and Schenley Farms.
The proposed district would cover Oakland Square, Parkview Avenue and part of Dawson Street. The neighborhood, which is perched several hundred feet above Panther Hollow, was conceived in the 1890s by developer Eugene O’Neill to mimic the streets of Victorian England.
“I try to get people to look ahead to the day when the demand for off-campus student housing has diminished,” said Hart, who also is president of the Oakland Community Council.
The University of Pittsburgh has announced plans to build more housing near the Peterson Events Center to accommodate 1,000 students.
“Creation of the historic district is as much about preserving the future of the neighborhood as it is about preserving the past,” said Hart, who believes landlords will be better able to survive declining demand for student housing if they can appeal to a different type of tenant.
“The idea is to rent to working people rather than college students,” Hart said. “They appreciate the beauty of a finely restored Victorian home, which translates into higher rents.
“Landlords also stand to save the considerable cost of cleaning and repairing apartments that is associated with renting to students.”
Lee Gross, who has bought and restored dozens of Victorian-era buildings on the South Side and in Lawrenceville, agrees that people are willing to pay for a piece of Pittsburgh’s past.
“I’ve found there is a nice market for restored historic buildings, both for rental and purchase,” said Gross, owner of A1-Realty. “People are definitely attracted to the Old World charm of these buildings.”
The original 67 houses in Oakland Square were built of brick or stone in the late-Victorian or Queen Anne style and feature stylish wood porches, false gables, dormers, round-head windows, mansard roofs, fireplaces and decorative wood details inside and out, according to Walter Kidney of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Hart, who has bought, restored and sold or rented several historic homes in the neighborhood, said the only concern raised by people who declined to sign the petition was a potential loss of control over their properties.
Maria Burgwin, who is on the staff of the Historic Review Commission, said historic designation need not burden property owners. The review of work is limited only to the exterior of homes that can be seen from the street and on new alterations.
Cathy McCollom, executive director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, said historic district status also can open the door to federal and state tax incentives to do historic preservation work.
The proposed district also might qualify for assistance through the state’s proposed “Elm Street” program, which addresses the lack of financial assistance in residential areas, she said.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com.
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Merging Preservation and Planned Giving
Preservation Easement Program
Land Trust Alliance, Exchange Article – Volume 23, No. 1, Winter 2004The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (“Landmarks”) in Pennsylvania merged preservation and planned giving in one innovative transaction that began in 2001 with the creation of a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) that named Landmarks as its sole, irrevocable beneficiary.
Lucille Tooke, a longtime Landmarks member, owned the historic property that was given to the CRUT. Hidden Valley Farm in Pine Township, Pennsylvania, was built in 1835 by Lewis Ross and his wife, Temperance. Now most of the land surrounding the farm has been developed. Tooke told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the thought of her farm one day becoming part of the suburbs “made me shudder.”
Tooke and her husband, Jack, had bought the 64 acre farm in 1954. After her three daughters moved away and her husband died, it became increasingly difficult for Tooke to care for the farm, so she approached Landmarks to see if they knew of anyone interested in buying and preserving the property. Landmarks helped Tooke work out a plan wherein she gave the farm to a CRUT, received a charitable deduction for a portion of the property’s value, and now receives a percentage of the trust’s value each year until 2021.
When the trust put the farm up for sale, Landmarks was able to match the highest bid and buy the farm, creating the cash needed to generate Tooke’s income payments. Landmarks added deed restrictions that require future owners to get prior approval from the organization before altering the house’s exterior. They also stipulated that the land cannot be subdivided or used for non-agricultural commercial purposes. They then sold it with the security of knowing it will be protected in perpetuity.
The arrangement provided Tooke with needed retirement income and when her payments end in 2021, Landmarks receives the trust balance as a gift to its endowment program.
Jack Miller, director of planned giving at Landmarks, said that during the process, Landmarks had to figure out how to keep all of its roles straight, being both beneficiary and buyer. “In the end we accomplished what both we and Mrs. Tooke wanted: to preserve this beautiful farm in the midst of rapid development.”
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University Club art to be auctioned
By Melissa Meinzer
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, October 25, 2004A venerable Oakland institution is on the way out – and so are all the treasures.
The University Club, the 114-year-old social club for university graduates, will cease operations on Nov. 15. Members decided to dissolve the club last week, due to low membership and money woes. So what’s to become of the club — displaced members, the impressive art collection, the beautiful eight-story building on University Drive?The city is pulling together around its fallen comrade, with many hands pitching in to help.
“We would welcome them to join our long, rich history of family and culture,” said Keith Zimmer, general manager of the Concordia Club, nearby on O’Hara Street. “They’re our neighbors. We’re sad to see them go.” The Concordia Club has been open for nearly 130 years.
The Concordia would accommodate parties or events that had already been booked at the University Club, if those dates were available at the Concordia, Zimmer said.
Jeanne Davis, general manager of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Club, Downtown on William Penn Place, echoed Zimmer’s sentiments.
“We have extended an invitation to them to join if they’re interested,” Davis said. “We hope they will.”
The collection in the University Club – 60 paintings and 170 lots — will be auctioned off by Constantine & Mayer, Inc., of Oakmont on Nov. 20, in the Adams Room. The collection includes furniture, paintings and other art.
“It’s a world-class collection,” said Jeff Constantine of Constantine & Mayer, containing important Italian, English, and American works, many with ties to Pittsburgh.
He said that the club and the auction house agreed it was important to hold the auction in the city, despite national and international interest in the collection.
“We’re hoping that 80 percent stays in Pittsburgh,” Constantine said. “We know that a number of members are interested, as are some affluent Pittsburgh collectors.”
The fate of the building itself is unknown. Completed in 1923, it was designed by Henry Hornbostel, who also designed Soldiers & Sailors National Military Museum & Memorial and much of the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.
“We understand the difficulty these clubs have these days,” said Arthur Zeigler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “We just hope that a new use can be found for the building.”
He said that the interior could easily be made functional for modern use, and that its strategic location made it an asset to the Oakland community. The Foundation would assist anyone looking to update and use the facility, he said.
“Architecturally, it is a handsome building,” he said. “We’d like to see it reused, not demolished. I’m optimistic.”
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A piece of this
Want to own a piece of history? Stop by the auction of the University Club’s art, artifacts and furniture on Nov. 20. The sale begins at 11 a.m. with previews Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the morning of the sale.
Call the auction house, Constantine & Mayer, at (412) 828-7015 for more details. Open up your piggy bank!Some of the paintings up for auction:
“Arch and the Sea, Venice 1927.” Beppi Ciardi. Italian. Estimated at $15,000 $20,000.
“Mignon, 1921.” Malcolm Stephens Parcell. Pittsburgh. Estimated at $10,000-$15,000.
“The Bath.” Claude Gaston De Latouche. French. Estimated at $20,000-$30,000.
“Spring Landscape.” Christian J. Walter. Pittsburgh. Estimated $8000-$10,000.
“Laurel Ridge.” William J. Hyett. Pittsburgh. Estimated $3000-$5000.
“Abraham Lincoln.” John Gutzon Mothe Borglum. American. Estimated $15,000-$20,000.
– Estimates courtesy Constantine & Mayer, IncMelissa Meinzer can be reached at mmeinzer@tribweb.com.