Category Archive: Preservation Alert
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Decision on Schenley High School postponed
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
By Joe Smydo,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe city school board’s vote on the closing of the Pittsburgh Schenley High School building will be put off until spring so officials can continue to study the feasibility of renovating the building.
A vote on the building’s fate was widely expected at the board’s Feb. 27 legislative meeting.
Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt last night said he didn’t want to give Schenley supporters false hope, but wants more time to study “every option” for saving the building.
“We believe we should spend a couple of extra months doing that,” he told board members at a workshop on high school improvement.
School board member Heather Arnet thanked Mr. Roosevelt for considering pleas to spare the historic Oakland building.
Kathy Fine, a Schenley supporter, called the announcement a “very positive move” and a nod to community members who have been brainstorming for ways to raise money and reduce renovation costs.
Mr. Roosevelt unleashed a firestorm last fall when he proposed closing the building at the end of the school year, saying the district couldn’t afford $64 million to address asbestos and other maintenance problems.
He has proposed moving Schenley’s current 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders to the Reizenstein building in Shadyside next school year and allowing them to remain together until graduation. Students who would have entered Schenley as freshmen next school year would be absorbed by other schools.
The district held a public hearing on the proposal Nov. 27 so the board could vote Feb. 27. State law requires that a hearing be held at least three months before the vote to close a school.
Mr. Roosevelt said he never committed to a Feb. 27 vote on the building’s future, though people have had that impression. He said he will ask the board to vote next month on moving students out of the Schenley building for the next school year.
Whether the building is closed or renovated, he said, students won’t be able to attend class there in 2008-09.
He said the board must vote promptly on reassigning the students so Reizenstein or another building can be readied for them.
Joe Smydo can be reached at jsmydo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.
First published on January 30, 2008 at 12:00 am -
Canonsburg landmark gets new life
By Lori Humphreys
The Almanac
Serving the South Hills of Pittsburgh
December 5, 2007If Historical and Architectural House Preservation had a mascot it would be turning cartwheels at the news that Canonsburg’s John Roberts House will be saved from demolition.
Thanks to a band of intrepid Canonsburg residents and business owners, the architecturally and historically important 17th and 18th century stone and brick Georgian style home, nominated to the National Register, will be restored and gain a new identity as an arts education center. It will be owned and managed by the recently formed not for profit corporation the Washington County Cultural Trust (WCCT).The Roberts House rescue began in December 2006, when Canonsburg resident and WCCT trustee Andrew J. Tarnik purchased the property. Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation bought the property from Tarnik and will hold it for one year while the WCCT raises money to restore the home. Landmarks will retain an easement on the home’s exterior which will preserve its architectural integrity for future generations.
President of the WCCT Board of Trustees Ellen Sims is described by fellow trustee and Secretary – Treasurer Joe Gowern as the ‘glue that holds us together’. She shared the organization’s vision for the house and property.
“The restored Roberts House, a Canonsburg and regional landmark, will be an art center bringing nationally and internationally recognized artists to Canonsburg to teach and exhibit. We organized as the Washington County Cultural Trust so that in future we can help preserve other Washington County landmarks for use by the arts,” she said.
Canonsburg artist James Sulkowski and WCCT trustee looks ahead to the day when the home will attract artists, students and visitors. He helped to develop a business plan for a Center for the Arts.
Mayor Anthony L. Colaizzo and WCCT trustee is excited about the opportunity a restored Roberts House offers.
“This is another milestone making our community attractive for our residents and visitors,” he said.
Other officers and members of the board of trustees are: Vice President Joseph P. Salandra; Canonsburg councilwoman Jean Popp; Joseph Solobay, Marge Dellorso, James P. Liekar, Esq., The Honorable Katherine Emery, Canon – McMillan School District Superintendent Nick Bayat, and Mike Melone.
There is a fortuitous symmetry between the home’s proposed future and past. Though named for John Roberts who owned it from 1808 – 1815 and had a store and post – office there, it is more closely aligned with Jefferson College. It was a residence for Jefferson College presidents, vice -presidents and faculty for over 30 years. The ties to Jefferson College extended to the early 20th century. According to local historian James T. Herron, Jr., Bettie and Natalie Snyder, the daughters of Henry Snyder, Jefferson College professor, resided here.
The home continued as a place for learning. Catherine Munnell Croker, organist at the First Presbyterian Church lived and taught piano lessons there.
The Roberts House is intertwined with Canonsburg’s development, from John Canon, the town’s first developer and namesake to today’s plans for its future. Canon first sold the land in 1796 to Rev. John McMillan, educator and pastor of Chartiers Hill Presbyterian Church. Their names continue into the present combined as the Canon – McMillan School District.
As important as the John Roberts House is historically it is also one of the most significant architectural landmarks in the region. Renowned Pittsburgh architect Charles Morse Stotz records the house in The Architectural Heritage of Early Western Pennsylvania.. His book first published in 1936 and republished in 1966 is the bible of regional homes and buildings of architectural interest built before1860. The House is also featured in the 1975 Washington County History and Landmarks Foundation publication Preserving Our Past.
In photo and drawings Stotz detailed the homes important features like the classic doorway with its half circle fan light, that has not changed materially since the 1936 photo. He also drew interior woodwork including doors, banisters, balustrades and fireplaces. According to Simms the woodwork is intact. However, the living room and dining room fireplaces are missing.
“If anyone knows where they are and would like to donate them we’d love to have them,” she said.
The WCCT is planning its campaign to raise money to repay Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation and fund the restoration. The group has received a $5,000 seed grant from Pennsylvania through the offices of State Senator Barry Stout and State Representative Tim Solobay.
The WCCT application for 501 C3 tax exempt status is pending. The goal is to have each person in the community take part in not only preserving the last symbol of Canonburg’s great educational and cultural heritage but making the Roberts House the newest symbol of the town’s vibrant educational and cultural present. Checks can be made to WCCT/Roberts House, P.O. Box 45, Canonsburg, PA 15317.
Copyright Observer Publishing Co.
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District presses to close Schenley
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, November 20, 2007Sixty-eight percent of the materials tested at Schenley High School contained asbestos, according to a report released Monday by city schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt.
AGX Inc., Wexford-based environmental consultants, collected 406 samples from the plaster, ceiling, tiles, carpet and other areas of the Oakland school and found that 277 contained asbestos.The firm collected the samples five years ago, but the Pittsburgh Public Schools released the data for the first time to quell concerns that the district was overreacting to the asbestos problem.
“This is the only building I know (in the district) where every ceiling, every wall on every floor has asbestos in it,” said Richard Fellers, the district’s chief operating officer, during a tour of the building with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The danger of the asbestos and falling plaster, coupled with the cost of renovating the school, has prompted Roosevelt to recommend for a second time that the school board close Schenley after this school year.
During the past four years, estimates for the cost of abating the asbestos and renovating the building’s mechanical systems have ranged from $42.4 million to $86.9 million. Roosevelt has touted $64.4 million as the best estimate.“You’re talking about a basic gut job where every system needs to be replaced,” Roosevelt said at a news conference yesterday.
Fellers and a team of architects and other professionals noted some of the 10,000 patches made to repair falling plaster last summer. Asbestos was used in the 91-year-old building for binding plaster, insulation and as a fire retardant.
Patches, bubbles or sites of fallen plaster sealed with bridging compound could be seen in some hallways. In some stairwells, hallways or classrooms, fallen plaster had caused holes or exposed the brick behind a radiator.
Roosevelt assured that the school is safe. He said the district monitors the plaster three times a week and the air quality once a week.
“Every decision I make is based on the question: ‘Would this be right for my child?’ ” Roosevelt said.
He has suggested that Schenley’s ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders go to the former Reizenstein school in East Liberty and graduate with a Schenley diploma.
Schenley’s asbestos problem is compounded by a lack of ventilation that causes the plaster to bubble and fall. Because of the school’s historic status, Fellers said, the district was required to choose a type of window that preserved the building’s architectural character but accelerated its deterioration through insufficient ventilation.
The proposal to close Schenley has stirred student and parent protests. Schenley advocates went to Allegheny Common Pleas Court last week in an unsuccessful attempt to block the school board from hiring an architect and construction manager for the renovation of Reizenstein.
The uncertainty over the school’s fate has caused a family feud.
Vidya Patil, the district’s acting director of facilities, is in charge of maintaining the building and keeping it safe. His daughter, Oona, 16, is a junior at Schenley and unhappy with the proposal to close it.
“I’m very concerned about the deteriorating condition in the building — particularly the asbestos,” Patil said. “The amount of monitoring and dollars it takes to keep it safe is almost unbearable.”
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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Allegheny County Designates PHLF to Spearhead Main Street’s Program
Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato announced at a press conference in Swissvale yesterday the initiation of a large-scale Allegheny County Main Streets program. Four pilot communities will be involved: Swissvale, Elizabeth, Tarentum, and Stowe. Landmarks has been designated to operate the program in conjunction with the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development.
Landmarks has selected Town Center Associates of Beaver County to serve as sub-consultant with responsibility for communications with local officials and property and business owners, development of a website and a newsletter, and conduct demographic research.
Landmarks will analyze the historic buildings, prepare recommendations for restoration, develop a real estate strategy for improving retail offerings, conduct market research, assist the County with major facade grant and low-interest loan programs, all designed to help revitalize these Main Street communities.
Funding is coming from Allegheny County and private foundations in Pittsburgh.
Landmarks will field a team of staff members with a variety of experience that will be useful for a comprehensive program, including market research, real estate financial analyses, design, graphics, planned giving, construction and real estate development.
Work begins immediately.
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Old school deserves historic status
JILL HENKEL
Letter to the Editor
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Turtle Creek
Thursday, March 22, 2007On March 13, 2007, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Bureau for Historic Preservation in Harrisburg held a meeting to review the nomination of the former Turtle Creek High School to the National Register of Historic Places.
In order for a property to be considered for nomination, certain criteria need to be met. The property should be at least 50 years old, should be associated with events that have made a contribution to the broad patterns of our history, or be associated with the lives of persons significant to our past, or should embody a type, period, or method of construction.
The former Turtle Creek High School, now Woodland Hills’ East Junior High School, meets these criteria. I was fortunate to be able to speak on behalf of the nomination, which is the result of countless hours of research by dedicated volunteers. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation offered its invaluable resources to help bring the nomination to fruition.
Also attending the nomination meeting were Woodland Hills school board President Cynthia Lowery and Superintendent Dr. Roslynne Wilson.
While I spoke in favor of the nomination, Mrs. Lowery asked the bureau to deny it! She spoke of a declining tax base in the Woodland Hills School District, and of not wanting to further burden the taxpayers therein by asking them to financially support two junior high schools.
Mrs. Lowery stated that she would like to close East. But if she truly has the taxpayers’ best interests at heart, she should be in favor of the nomination.
Owners of properties listed in the National Register may be eligible for a 20 percent investment tax credit for the certified rehabilitation of income-producing certified historic structures.
This [and available tax deductions and grants] would make the former high school very attractive to potential new owners.
If the school district wants to divest itself of this property, this building needs to be maintained accordingly. There are still costs associated with the day-to-day maintenance of a shuttered building. The school board speaks of an annual savings of more than $900,000 by closing East. Those costs will hardly drop to zero if that plan is carried through.
Mrs. Lowery spoke to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission of meeting opposition when plans for tearing down East and building a new multimillion-dollar school on the site were disclosed. Where was her concern for the fiscal burden on the taxpayer when that plan was formulated?
Mrs. Lowery stated to school board Vice President Marilyn Messina at the March 14 school board meeting that she attended the meeting in Harrisburg as a private citizen, which is untrue. She pointedly identified herself as the president of the Woodland Hills school board. One has to assume that she spoke as the president of the school board when she said, and I quote: “that the residents of Turtle Creek have been angry for 25 years because the merger forced them to desegregate.” She feels that that is the real motivation behind seeking the nomination to the National Register. I felt compelled to speak again in rebuttal. I stated in no uncertain terms the outrage that I felt at the suggestion that my fellow residents and I are racists carrying a 25-year grudge.
Despite Mrs. Lowery’s objections, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Bureau for Historic Preservation unanimously voted that the former Turtle Creek High School be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.
I’m sure that I speak for many concerned parents and taxpayers when I ask what Mrs. Lowery’s real motivation is.
JILL HENKEL
Turtle Creek
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Woodland Hills school closing OK’d
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, March 15, 2007Before a standing-room only crowd last night, the Woodland Hills school board voted to begin the process of closing East Junior High School in Turtle Creek.
The vote was 6-1, with board member Robert Tomasic dissenting.
Under the plan, the 280 students at East Junior would attend school with the district’s other middle school students, at a location yet to be determined, at the start of the 2008-09 school year.
A hearing on the closing will take place in May. A final vote will be taken within three months after the hearing.
“It has to be done,” said board President Cynthia Lowery of the school closing. “We cannot afford to keep partially filled buildings open. The closing would save us $900,000 yearly in our operating budget.”
Superintendent Roslynne Wilson favors closing East, saying it “makes sense educationally and financially.”
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Moving pupils first step to closing school in Woodland Hills
By M. Ferguson Tinsley,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, March 15, 2007Last night, the Woodland Hills school board was to decide whether to start the controversial process of closing East Junior High School.
In conjunction with that, they were beginning to think about remodeling West Junior in Swissvale and transferring up to 350 seventh- and eighth-graders from East to West by the 2008-2009 school year.
At an agenda meeting on March 7, Superintendent Roslynne Wilson said the closing would consolidate staff and administration and would ensure educational consistency. Further, joining the schools would foster a healthier sense of competition, which heretofore the small population at East has not known.
She also said the district would save $986,151.
Under the plan, about 750 pupils would attend West in 2008-09, according to state enrollment projections. West, about 126,500 square feet in dimension, was built in 1978. In the past, the school has housed more than 900 pupils.
Still, the new setup would require extensive renovations, especially to the cafeteria and other classrooms, she said. “It’s going to cost at least $5 million.”
The new configuration would keep seventh-graders on lower floors and eighth-graders on the upper, Dr. Wilson said. The only time seventh-graders would go upstairs would be to visit the library, she added.
Board members William Driscoll and Robert J. Tomasic had concerns about the plan.
Dr. Driscoll said he did not want to see each classroom stuffed with up to 28 pupils.
“I would like to know how many sections we’ll need,” he emphasized. “I did divide by 25,” Dr. Wilson replied.
Mr. Tomasic said he would not vote for any move unless West is equipped with video cameras throughout.
A West pupil who attended the agenda meeting said the school is already bursting at the seams.
“Right now we are standing outside for 15 to 20 minutes … in the morning … to go through the metal detectors,” said Amanda Stumme, 13, of Wilkins. “The halls are packed. It’s really hard to get from class to class. People are bumping into each other and people are fighting because they’re mad at each other about it.”
At the end of the discussion, Bob Mock, a Turtle Creek resident who has vociferously opposed closing East, asked the board: “What are you going to do with the closed building?” Mr. Mock is an alumnus of the old Turtle Creek High School, which became East Junior High.
State law requires the district to hold a public hearing at least three months before deciding to close the school. A notice of the hearing must be advertised 15 days before the hearing is held. The vote last night was a small first step in the process.
In other business, the board:
heard David Johnston, the pupil services director, present information on the Student Assistance Program.
The SAP is administered by the state Department of Education’s Division of Student and Safe School Services to assist school staff in identifying drug use or emotional and mental health troubles affecting student performance, according to the state Web site, www.pde.state.pa.us.
Mr. Johnson said 177 high school students were referred to SAP this school year.
By March 2, unacceptable behavior sparked 60 percent of referrals; 31 percent resulted from poor academics. Drug and alcohol abuse spawned 17 referrals. Ninety percent of the referrals were staff-initiated, 1 percent parent-sought.
unanimously voted to adopt a resolution asking voters in the May primary if they favor the “district imposing an additional 0.7 percent earned income tax.”
The increase would take the tax from 0.5 percent to 1.2 percent, which would fund a minimum homestead/farmstead exclusion of $405 for those who qualify.
Board Member Randy Lott was absent.
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Turtle Creek may lose junior high
By Daveen Rae Kurutz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, March 15, 2007Two months after rejecting a consolidation plan that would have closed three schools, the Woodland Hills School Board Wednesday night took steps to close East Junior High School in Turtle Creek.
The board cited declining enrollment and a deteriorating building for the move, which is expected to save the district about $748,000.“The process will result in establishing the Woodland Hills Middle School for all seventh- and eighth-grade students in the district for the 2008-2009 school year,” according to the motion that was approved by a 6-1 vote. Robert Tomasic cast the lone dissenting vote. Dr. Randy Lott and Fred Kuhn were absent.
Public hearings will be scheduled on the proposal. A final vote could come in August.
“It’s not a done deal when you begin a process. We want to get the facts. If I don’t like it, I am not going to vote for it,” said board vice president Marilyn Messina.
If the school is closed, the nearly 290 seventh- and eighth-graders at East Junior High School would attend West Junior High School in Swissvale. Based on the district’s enrollment this year, about 750 students would attend West Junior High School.An architect will do a comparison of the costs of renovating West Junior High School and the cost of constructing a new building.
“The decision made by this board tonight in this economically challenging time will not be particularly popular or happy or easy,” said Cindy Leone, of Edgewood, who has three children enrolled in the school district.
The proposal to close only East Junior High School arose after a comprehensive school consolidation plan designed by Superintendent Roslynne Wilson was rejected by a 6-3 vote at the Jan. 10 school board meeting because of significant opposition from parents.
The original plan would have closed Shaffer Primary School in Churchill, Rankin Intermediate School in Rankin and East Junior High School by the start of the 2009-10 school year. The closings would have begun with Shaffer Primary at the end of this school year.
Parents packed the January meeting, concerned that the closings were being rushed and that too many students would be in one school.
Daveen Rae Kurutz can be reached at dkurutz@tribweb.com or 412-380-5627.