Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Department stores fight for survival
By Michael Yeomans
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, August 1, 2003Think Kaufmann’s would never entertain the idea of abandoning its landmark store in Downtown Pittsburgh? Or Lazarus wouldn’t consider pulling up stakes after only five years in its shiny new Fifth Avenue location?
Think again.
Department stores are taking a beating from discounters and are fighting for their lives, says retail industry analyst Lois Huff.
In this environment, anything goes.
Department stores, she said Thursday, don’t have the luxury to make moves “for reasons other than survival.”
“It’s not a growth sector. You’ll see survivors who can do well, but the days of double-digit growth are gone.”
Pittsburgh officials were still reeling yesterday, a day after St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co. said it plans to sell or close its Lord & Taylor store Downtown, which has been open less than three years. May is restructuring its Lord & Taylor division and will close 32 underperforming stores in 15 states.
Mayor Tom Murphy insists the store must remain open for two more years to fulfill the terms of an $11.75 million loan made to the company in 1999 to buy and help renovate the former Mellon Bank headquarters building at Smithfield Street and Fifth Avenue.
But according to an agreement between May and the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, the company likely can settle up with the city by simply repaying the loan. In the worst case, said city Controller Tom Flaherty, the company could operate the store for two more years, then close it and not have to pay back the loan.
May is setting aside $380 million to pay for costs associated with the Lord & Taylor restructuring. Company spokeswoman Sharon Bateman said the company won’t reveal when the Pittsburgh store will close.
Huff, of Columbus, Ohio-based Retail Forward Inc., said the trend toward department store consolidation will continue. What that might mean for Downtown Pittsburgh is hard to figure.
On the one hand, she said, the addition of a Seattle-based Nordstrom or a Bloomingdales, an upscale sister of Lazarus in the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc. family, could help make Downtown a regional shopping mecca.
On the other hand, she said, it’s highly unusual for a city of Pittsburgh’s size to support four department stores. Saks Fifth Avenue is the Downtown’s other department store.
Jake Haulk, president of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a Mt. Lebanon-based think tank, said with 140,000 people coming into town each weekday to work, “maybe Downtown is already being put to its best use.”
“If you try to put more activity in Downtown — be it more retail or more residential — you may end up hurting its best use, because you’ll make it more congested.”
Flaherty said he hopes the failure of Lord & Taylor dispels the “if you build it, they will come” approach Murphy has taken to subsidizing private development.
Huff isn’t convinced the city can’t support a high-end retailer, which is the reason Lord & Taylor cited for leaving. Pittsburgh already has a Saks, she said, which fills that niche.
As for the struggles of the taxpayer-subsidized Downtown Lazarus, she said the fact that the chain has four other stores in the region would make it less likely it would close the store, although she wouldn’t rule out the possibility.
“Nothing in that sector is inconceivable,” she said. “Department store chains want to have enough density in a market to make it efficient to operate,” she said. “Lord & Taylor didn’t have that density.”
Today, Federated Department Stores will unveil its new Lazarus-Macy’s name for its five regional stores.
Under terms of a $48 million public subsidy for the Downtown Lazarus, Federated could elect to close the store after November, a similar five-year window as in the Lord & Taylor deal. It has yet to reach the $41 million in annual sales that would trigger repayment of an $18 million city loan.
It could walk away at year’s end leaving the building as collateral.
Lazarus officials did not return a call for comment yesterday.
Kaufmann’s officials continue to assert that its flagship Downtown store is safe, the opening of a new, smaller-format Kaufmann’s a few miles away at The Waterfront complex notwithstanding.
“I can tell you unequivocally that at this time we have no plans to make any other changes at any other store, other than opening another Kaufmann’s at The Waterfront,” said Robin Reibel, spokeswoman for May’s Filene’s/Kaufmann’s division in Boston.
Construction of The Waterfront store is proceeding ahead of schedule, pointing to an opening in mid-October.
The Waterfront store is one of a new breed of stores for May. It’s smaller — about 140,000 square feet — than a traditional suburban mall store, which would range from 180,000 to 200,000 square feet.
It is one of a small group of so-called new-concept, lifestyle stores that Kaufmann’s and two other May chains plan to open this year.
“The store will emphasize convenience and accessibility and a different layout than what people may be used to in a traditional outlet,” Reibel said. “There will be a central checkout opportunity, in addition to the traditional checkout, and there will be designer shopping carts that will allow people to carry through the store various items and merchandise, and even have a child in the cart as well.”
Although The Waterfront is just a few miles east of Downtown, Reibel said the company does not believe the new store will hurt the city location.
“There’s no worry about that (Downtown) store,” Reibel said. “This is an addition. But it’s a different niche, and I think people will use both.”
Michael Yeomans can be reached at myeomans@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7908.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Lord & Taylor leaving Downtown
By Michael Yeomans
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 31, 2003For the second time in a year, May Department Stores Co. dropped a bomb on Downtown Pittsburgh.
Less than three years after gutting the marble interior of a landmark Pittsburgh building, once the headquarters of Mellon Bank, to open a $30 million Lord & Taylor department store, the company said Wednesday it wants to sell or close the store and leave town.
Last summer, the St. Louis-based company combined its then-Pittsburgh-based Kaufmann’s division with its Filene’s division, consolidating the management of the two in Boston, where Filene’s is based. The move cost Downtown about 1,200 jobs.
Shocked city officials are scrambling to find out what their legal options are.
Mayor Tom Murphy, who was notified of the Lord & Taylor plans yesterday by a senior May Co. official, said the chain could be required to operate the store for at least another two years as part of a deal in which it received an $11.75 million loan from the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority.
“The city and URA incorporated a clause into the original agreement requiring Lord & Taylor to operate their Pittsburgh store for a minimum of five years, and we look forward to discussing these issues in further detail with the May Co.,” Murphy said in a statement.
May Co. said the Downtown Lord & Taylor, which opened in November 2000, was an underperforming store in its brief life.
“That store did not achieve a suitable level of performance and did not support efforts to turn it into an upscale fashion retailer,” company spokeswoman Sharon Bateman said.
Bateman said the store will operate as usual until the company sells it or closes it. She declined to speculate when that could happen.
In all, May said it intends to sell or close 32 stores in 15 states, including two in Pennsylvania — Downtown and Harrisburg. The chain also has four stores in the Philadelphia area. May will keep 54 stores open in 11 states and the District of Columbia as it repositions the chain as a more upscale boutique. May also said it will close two other stores it operates.
The company said the moves will cost it $380 million, but ultimately yield savings of $50 million a year. About 3,700 employees will be affected, and May said severance and retirement benefits will be available for those who qualify.
Jane Elfers, chief executive of Lord & Taylor, said the stores to be closed represent 38 percent of the chain’s locations, but only 19 percent of its sales.
Customers at the Downtown store were surprised by the announcement.
Lois Peters, of Uniontown, was in Pittsburgh yesterday specifically to shop at Lord & Taylor for a dress for her daughter, Mackenzie. She said she will be disappointed to see the store close.
“Some stores are just special. This is one of them,” she said. “We knew what we wanted, and it was right there.”
Carol Epps, 42, of Greentree, said she will have to switch over to Saks Fifth Avenue.
“(Lord & Taylor) has a nice selection and seemed to be more on the higher end,” she said.
Steve Baumgarten, a retail analyst for Parker/Hunter Inc. in Pittsburgh, said the city might attempt to once again lure Seattle-based Nordstrom to Pittsburgh to fill the Lord & Taylor space.
A Nordstrom spokeswoman said yesterday the company has no plans for a store in Pittsburgh. Mayor Murphy, in his initial plan to redevelop the Fifth and Forbes corridor, made landing a Nordstrom store a cornerstone of his plan.
Baumgarten said May did too little to differentiate Lord & Taylor from Kaufmann’s. The area’s flagship Kaufmann’s store Downtown is next door to Lord & Taylor.
“I shop at both, and there is a lot of similar product in both stores. They cannibalized each other,” he said.
Margaret “Midge” McCauley, director of Downtown Works — a division of Kravco, the Philadelphia company picked by Murphy to put together a redevelopment plan for the city’s Fifth and Forbes and Market Square areas — tried to put the best face on the Lord & Taylor decision.
“I think we can go forward without it. You still have three department stores, which is more than most cities have,” she said. “I’m very upbeat about Pittsburgh. You’ve got all the elements in place for a successful revitalization of Downtown.”
Department stores in general are suffering at the hands of discounters such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kohl’s.
Through the month of May, May Department Stores has suffered declining same-store sales for 13 consecutive months. Department store chains are doing several things to attempt to reverse their slide.
Last month, May fired about 1,500 employees, about three or four in each of the company’s 447 stores, after cutting 1,600 jobs last year in the combination of Kaufmann’s and Filene’s.
On Friday, Federated Department Stores Inc. will unveil its new Lazarus-Macy’s name in its five regional stores, including its Downtown location. The move is an attempt by Cincinnati-based Federated to establish a national brand by using the familiar Macy’s name.
In addition to the name change, Cincinnati-based Federated has identified Pittsburgh as one of six regions where it will spend $100 million in an attempt to make its stores more convenient for shoppers.
Some of the changes include more signs, automated price scanners throughout the stores, lounges in the fitting rooms and the addition of “upscale” shopping carts.
Richard Istvan, store manager for the Jos. A. Banks Clothier Downtown, said Lord & Taylor’s departure will mean less customer traffic in the Fifth Avenue corridor.
“I’m surprised they’re going before Lazarus,” he said.
Lord & Taylor stores on closings list
Here is a list of the 34 stores that May Department Stores Co. plans to close. All are Lord & Taylor stores unless otherwise noted:
COLORADO — Three stores in Denver.
CONNECTICUT — Stores in Manchester and Meriden.
GEORGIA — Three stores in Atlanta.
FLORIDA — Two stores in Miami; one each in Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Palm Beach County and Tampa.
IOWA — One Famous-Barr store in Des Moines.
KENTUCKY — One store in Louisville.
LOUISIANA — One store in New Orleans.
MARYLAND — One store in Baltimore.
MASSACHUSETTS — One store in Springfield and one store in North Attleboro.
NEBRASKA — One Jones Store in Omaha.
NEW YORK — One store in Albany.
NORTH CAROLINA — One store in Raleigh.
OHIO — One store in Columbus.
PENNSYLVANIA — One store in Harrisburg and one store in Pittsburgh.
RHODE ISLAND — One store in Providence.
TEXAS — Two stores in Dallas/Fort Worth and three stores in Houston.
VIRGINIA — One store in Norfolk.
By The Associated PressMichael Yeomans can be reached at myeomans@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7908.
-
Project’s cost included gutting of landmark
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Thursday, July 31, 2003Amid the optimism that greeted plans for a new Lord & Taylor department store in Downtown Pittsburgh in 1998 came voices of concern about the chain’s plan to gut the interior of the once richly marbled former Mellon Bank headquarters at 514 Smithfield St.
Now, with word Wednesday that the May Department Stores Co., parent of Lord & Taylor, will sell or close the Pittsburgh store, there appears to be vindication for those who raised doubts about renovations to the grand stone building once known as the “Cathedral of Earning.”
“We are disappointed that the interior was lost, and we feel it was a high price to pay,” said Cathy McCollom, director of operations and marketing for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The foundation was among those that urged Lord & Taylor officials to proceed with caution on renovations to the historic structure that opened in 1924 with ceremonies attended by government and business dignitaries led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon.
The bank interior featured a large open area ringed by 20 massive marble columns. Only four of those columns were left after the May renovation work, which included the installation of an escalator to carry shoppers to four floors built in what was once an impressive open interior space overlooked by a glass skylight 62 feet above the floor.
“Of course, we are very disappointed that a major retailer (will close) in the city’s Downtown area,” McCollum said. “But as preservationists, we think it was an extremely high cost that a unique interior has been lost forever.”
“Philosophically, what this means to me is validation that when you make a decision to renovate a building like that, you have to think well beyond the immediate tenant that is going to occupy it,” said Rob Pfaffmann, architect with Pfaffmann & Associates, a Pittsburgh-based architectural firm. “These buildings live well beyond their immediate (uses).
“Now we have lost a lot of the architectural fabric in that building, and it turned out that we didn’t have to lose it.”
Nonetheless, Pfaffmann said, Lord & Taylor’s departure could bring a new opportunity for the 79-year-old building, possibly another retailer or law office or financial firm, but with a new approach to the design.
“Let’s see if we can do better,” he said. “I think there still is enough left to bring in another high-end tenant that may be able to create something unique there.”
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Taxpayers may find they co-signed store’s $11.75M loan
By Michael Yeomans and David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 31, 2003Could taxpayers be left holding the bag for an $11.75 million loan when May Department Stores Co. sells or closes its Lord & Taylor store Downtown?
That is what Mayor Tom Murphy and other city officials are trying to figure out in the wake of the announcement that May intends to leave the Downtown site as part of a restructuring of its Lord & Taylor division that will result in the elimination of 32 of its 86 stores.
It also raises the specter of what could happen if Federated Department Stores Inc. should decide to close its struggling, taxpayer-subsidized Lazarus store on Fifth Avenue.
Lord & Taylor’s so-called soft loan is the result of a complicated transaction engineered by Stephen Leeper when he headed the city’s development efforts for Murphy. Leeper now is executive director of the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority.
To finance the store, the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority bought two parking garages from the Pittsburgh Public Parking Authority. The URA then leased the garages to a Chicago company that paid $28 million up front and agreed to pay $172,500 annually for 50 years.
Of the $28 million, $12.3 million went to Kaufmann’s to buy out leases it had in one of the garages. May, the parent of Kaufmann’s and Lord & Taylor, received $2.3 million for improvements it made to a garage. Lord & Taylor received an $11.75 million loan, and handed $9 million to Mellon Financial Corp. to buy the former Mellon Bank headquarters.
Lord & Taylor has to make payments on the loan only when its gross annual sales Downtown exceed $35 million. It would have to pay 2 percent of gross sales over $35 million.
It couldn’t be determined whether that has ever happened in the store’s brief life.
Asked how the Lord & Taylor decision affects the loan, URA Executive Director Mulugetta Birru said, “Under the agreement, they are expected to operate the store as Lord & Taylor at least five years. If they don’t do that, they are in default of the loan.”
The store opened in November 2000.
Whether such a default would make the entire amount due and payable is uncertain, he said.
“We are reviewing that right now with the lawyers,” Birru said. “This came as a major surprise. They didn’t even call us.
“Six to eight months ago, I did speak to them and they had informed me that although their sales levels are low, they were considering they could still make the store work profitability.”
Leeper referred questions to the mayor’s office.
Pittsburgh Controller Tom Flaherty said he believes Lord & Taylor “never paid a dime” on the loan and could get out of town without ever repaying anything.
Flaherty said he will investigate the loan’s status.
“That’s something that we’re are certainly going to look at, and I would think it’s something that City Council may want to investigate,” he said. “Before the city acts, it’s imperative that the decision-makers know what the ramifications of this are. The ramifications to me don’t look good at all. It looks bad. There is a lot of public money invested in this department store, and it’s bad news that they are planning on getting out of Dodge.”
To build its Downtown store that opened in 1998, Lazarus received a $13 million loan from the city-sponsored Pittsburgh Development Fund. It has yet to reach the $41.7 million in annual sales that would require it to begin repaying the loan. In total, Lazarus received a $48 million public subsidy on the $78 million cost to build the store and a 500-car garage underneath it.
Lazarus officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Michael Yeomans and David M. Brown can be reached at myeomans@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7908.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Groups welcome Route 28 options
By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 17, 2003PennDOT won’t decide until early 2004 whether to rebuild Route 28 through the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church or around the Pittsburgh-designated historic building.
Those who want to spare the church are happy now that PennDOT is considering two new ways of improving a 2-mile stretch of Route 28 from Millvale to Pittsburgh that would spare the building, in addition to two other plans that would require tearing down or moving the church.
“This is what we have been striving for,” said Robert Sladack, who co-chairs the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation that has been fighting to preserve the church, the first Croatian Catholic church in the United States. “Now, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
PennDOT hosted an open house Wednesday evening at the Three Rivers Rowing Association Boat House, on Washington’s Landing, putting two new concepts on display that would preserve the church. PennDOT now will select one of four proposals and intends to begin construction in 2008.
More than 100 people turned out for the open house.
“It’s difficult,” said Tom Fox, the assistant district engineer at PennDOT’s Allegheny County-based District 11 office. “I plan to sit down and look at what everybody said here tonight.”
The fate of the church situated just feet from the southern end of Route 28, also called the Allegheny Valley Expressway, has been the subject of a heated dispute. Early designs put the new road through the church property, which upset church members and preservationists.
The dispute prompted PennDOT to develop two concepts that spare the church by using elevated lanes.
Of equal concern are the 60,000 motorists who drive Route 28 daily. The project, which is estimated to cost between $140 million and $200 million, would eliminate the traffic signal intersections at the 31st Street and 40th Street bridges that are choke points.
By the time work begins in 2008, PennDOT intends to have finished building a direct connection between Route 28 and Interstate 279, Fox said. He wants construction on the link to begin in about three years.
Those fighting to save the church feel they’re now on the same page as PennDOT.
“We commend PennDOT for their creative solution to Route 28 improvements, their willingness to have open, public discussion and their sensitivity in saving our local heritage,” said a statement from Preservation Pittsburgh.
Aside from the church, there are some residential concerns, especially for people who live in Troy Hill atop the hillside adjacent to Route 28.
“My concern is if my house is going to be impacted by this,” Rita Steinmetz said. “My other concern is the stability of the hillside and the possible noise effects.”
The owner of the Millvale Industrial Park, which sits along Route 28, is unhappy that the two new PennDOT options would spare his 6-acre property, which is home to 12 businesses. Andrew Lang wants PennDOT to buy his property when the stretch of Route 28 is rebuilt.
“I want them to take the building,” Lang said.
Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
PennDOT offers four options for Route 28
By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, July 15, 2003State transportation officials on Monday unveiled two proposals for widening Route 28 that would spare the historic St. Nicholas Church on the North Side.
Two other proposals still under consideration, however, put the 100-year-old building in the path of a wrecking ball. Pittsburgh City Council in 2001 approved a historic designation for the church, which belongs to the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. The historical designation doesn’t rule out demolition of the building, but it complicates the process.
Engineers from the state Department of Transportation yesterday outlined four remaining alternatives for the project during a briefing for public officials on a study of estimated costs and the feasibility of the proposals.
“This at least … gives some viable alternatives for public consideration,” said Edward Pugh, an aide to state Sen. Jack Wagner, a Beechview Democrat. Pugh was among about two dozen municipal representatives and legislative aides who attended the session at the state Department of Environmental Protection offices on Washington’s Landing in Pittsburgh.
To present the four alternatives to the public, PennDOT will hold an open house Wednesday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Three Rivers Rowing Association boathouse, 300 Waterfront Drive, also on Washington’s Landing.
The road project, expected to cost between $140 million and $200 million, is expected to unclog traffic along a 2-mile corridor and make Route 28 safer by separating southbound and northbound traffic and widening the existing lanes. Federal highway funds are expected to cover about 80 percent of the cost.
An alternative still being considered that would spare St. Nicholas Church — site of the first Croatian Roman Catholic parish in the Western Hemisphere — is a modified version of a plan developed by George R. White, chairman of the transportation committee of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
“You live again to fight another day,” White said when told PennDOT had advanced a version of his plan.
The plan — which involves elevating the highway above railroad tracks that run adjacent to Route 28 — would be the more expensive of the alternatives, according to PennDOT’s estimates. It would cost about $200 million. The next closest alternative would cost about $160 million.
“I don’t know what the politicians will decide, but the cost is close enough … that it merits public debate,” White said.
Other alternatives include:
Construction that cuts into the hillside with terraces in the Troy Hill area of the North Side, cutting a swath through properties along Route 28, including the church, the Millvale Industrial Park and Feilbach Street in Millvale.
Construction that would cut less into the hillside but would cause railroad tracks to be moved, as well as demolition of the church and industrial park.
Construction of an “urban artery” that would be more narrow than the other alternatives because it would have only 2-foot gutters, instead of 10-foot shoulders. This plan would avoid the church.
All options include four 12-foot lanes, with auxiliary lanes for traffic moving to and from the 31st Street and 40th Street bridges, said Thomas C. Fox, an assistant district engineer with PennDOT. A key element of the project is to keep northbound and southbound traffic from being stopped by traffic signals which make it possible for other vehicles to use the bridges.
Construction is not expected to start before 2008. The project is slated to be completed in 2011.
David M. Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5614.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Neville tombstones now on family grounds
By Meredith Polley
For the Tribune-Review
Thursday, July 3, 2003Though it took almost 200 years, three tombstones nearly as old as the American republic have found a final resting place at Woodville Plantation.
The original gravestones of Revolutionary War Gen. John Neville, his wife, Winifred, and their son-in-law, Isaac Craig, have been returned to the family estate in Collier.
A small lean-to on the grounds is nearly complete, and will protect the three stones from further exposure to the elements.
The stone slabs are cracked, worn and faded. Only a few phrases of the original epitaphs are legible, and Isaac’s rock is in two pieces.
“In the old days, people were always buried on their own plantation,” said Nancy Bishop, president of the Neville House Associates, volunteers who run programs at the historic home. “Having the stones here makes us feel like we’re a real plantation.”
The associates plan to dedicate the new structure and the tombstones on Aug. 7 and 10. The event will coincide with a 200-year celebration of Neville’s death, on July 29, 1803.Dressed in colonial attire, the associates plan to re-create the general’s funeral. Visitors may pay their respects at a closed-coffin viewing, and perhaps even hear the original eulogy.
The arrival of the Neville family tombstones — moved three times in the last two centuries — will fit right in with the bicentennial event.
“We’ll have something concrete, from that time,” said Dorothy Plank of Scott, one of the associates.
Neville was a close friend of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, and was a member of the Federal Convention that ratified the Constitution. He also was a tax collector, and his mansion known as Bower Hill was burned during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794.
Woodville Plantation, also known as the Neville House, was his original residence in the area and it now is a National Historic Landmark.
When Neville died in 1803, he was buried in an Episcopal church graveyard in downtown Pittsburgh, alongside his wife, who had died a few years earlier. His daughter, Amelia, and her husband, Isaac, followed.
Later, a surveying error allowed Presbyterians to lay claim to graveyard land near the Episcopal church. The Neville graves and many others were moved in 1902 to Allegheny Cemetery.
Over the years, the stones deteriorated and about 25 to 30 years ago a visiting descendant, Theodore Diller, decided they were in such poor condition that replacements would be needed.
New monuments were placed at the graves of John and Winifred Neville and Isaac Craig at the cemetery in Lawrenceville. Amelia’s original marker was in better shape, and remained at her grave.
Diller gave the three old markers to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Albert Tannler of the foundation said the stones were kept in a garden at the foundation’s old headquarters at the Post Office Museum on the North Side.
Julianna Haag of Mt. Lebanon, one of the associates, said her husband saw the tombstones in the late ’70s, covered in weeds and dirt at the North Side building that now is the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum.
As the Neville House Associates prepared to mark the 200th anniversary of the general’s death, the Haags recalled the stones and contacted the foundation about them. The group ended up acquiring the stones, and moving them to the plantation grounds last fall.
Neville’s house remains a glimpse into Colonial America.
Woodville was one of three plantations built by Neville and his son, Presley, and it remained in the family’s possession from its completion in 1785 until 1973, when its last occupant, Mary Wrenshall Fauset, died.
At one point, the house was in danger of being demolished, but a group of women in surrounding areas campained to save it. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation later purchased the property.
The Neville House Associates organized in 1976, to restore the home to its original state and offer tours. The home now is open from 1 to 4 p.m. each Thursday and Sunday, and for special events.
The elegant yellow and white house has antique furniture, original woodwork, family portraits and window etchings by Colonial visitors, and is considered an accurate representation of early American plantation life.
“If you wanted to go to Williamsburg, but couldn’t go that far,” Haag said, “we’re the next best thing.”
-
Speaker urges avoiding sprawl follies
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Saturday, June 7, 2003Some years ago, the state of Maryland provided about $12 million for a new road to help facilitate development of the Country Club Mall, a regional shopping complex built on a parcel of undeveloped land outside of the community of Cumberland.
About two years later, many of the smaller stores in downtown Cumberland had been closed, and ever since, public officials have been putting in money to revitalize the city’s business district.
Such is the folly of some of the economic development policies being practiced today throughout the United States, said Parris Glendening, a former governor of Maryland, and now a leading national advocate of the concept for development commonly known as “Smart Growth.”
“If you go throughout just about every state in the union and map development, you will find exactly the same type of patterns,” said Glendening, who was a keynote speaker in Oakland Friday at a symposium whose main focus was finding ways to deal with the growing problem of having thousands of abandoned buildings in Pittsburgh and other older communities.
The topic was important enough to draw about 300 community leaders, public policy activists, development experts and others to the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall at the invitation of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which was host and one of the cosponsors of the day-long event.
One of the foundation’s primary concerns is to prevent the unnecessary demolition of vacant buildings that may still be viable assets to the community, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the preservationist organization. The issue includes determining which structures are valuable and which are not.
“This is a problem that is not just a possible loss of buildings and infrastructure, but a problem that neighbors do not want abandoned buildings to stay abandoned,” Ziegler said. Another key question, he said, is to find out how to save some buildings and also have the time necessary to restore them. “We’re often talking about architectural assets, economic assets, cultural assets and neighborhood assets.”
The problem is fairly typical in cities across the country, said Glendening, who is now president of the Smart Growth America/Smart Growth Leadership Institute. In Maryland, for example, he said there are about 40,000 empty dwelling units within the borders of the city of Baltimore alone.
“People are moving further and further from our cities, to the older suburbs, to the newer suburbs, and abandoning each area as they move further out,” he said. “It is important to understand why cities like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and others all across this country are having this problem.”
Government entities are spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year for new roads, new water and sewer lines and new schools to accommodate urban sprawl, Glendening said. But at the same time, they find themselves having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with social problems in the urban communities developers and businesses have left behind.
One answer is to follow development and tax polices that will help prevent abandonment of even more buildings in the first place, Glendening said. That is why his organization is working with local and state governments across the nation to identify policies that work to redirect economic energy to existing communities and prevent sprawl.
“What we have found is that many of the current administrative and zoning structures and actually the tax structure can actually discourage investment in existing communities and encourages people to go out and pave over one more farm or plough down one more forest,” he said.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Pittsburgh Tribune-Review