Category Archive: Preservation News
-
Sculpture of Steel Worker to Highlight Natrona Heritage Park
By Tom Yerace, VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Tuesday, September 7, 2010Natrona’s history is forever linked to industry, and that is the focus of a new park being planned there.
“We’ve been working with Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, and one of the focuses of Natrona Comes Together is to preserve the history of Natrona,” said Bill Godfrey, president of the grassroots neighborhood improvement group, in discussing the proposed Natrona Heritage Park.
Natrona’s first major industry was salt mining by The Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. dating to 1850. In fact, Godfrey said the park site, which is about 100 feet by 100 feet, is the site of the old Penn Salt company store.
Although Penn Salt evolved into a chemical conglomerate, it eventually became overshadowed in Natrona by the steel industry and Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp., now known as ATI-Allegheny Ludlum.
It is the steel industry that is the focus of the heritage park, according to Godfrey and Stephen Paulovich, the New Kensington native who is a renowned Louisville, Ky.-based sculptor.
Paulovich is known throughout the Alle-Kiski Valley for his sculptures at the coal miners memorial in Harmar and for the statue of New Kensington football legend Willie Thrower at Valley High School’s stadium.
According to Paulovich, the park’s dominant structure will be a sculpture of an 8-foot-high steel worker set on a base that will have the sculpture rise 18 feet above the park.
In addition, there will be smaller sculptures of buildings in Natrona, some of which still exist, he said.
Paulovich said he will donate his services, including any foundry work.
“I was trying to get something more public art-oriented,” Paulovich said. “Things that are more historical that kids can walk around and look at.
“We want to incorporate some of the buildings … some of them might (still) be there, some might not,” he added. “Those buildings were so important. And if it wasn’t for steel, they wouldn’t be there.”
Among the buildings Paulovich included in his initial drawings were the Pond Street School, St. Ladislaus Church and the Windsor Hotel.
“People in New Kensington might get mad at me, but I think Natrona is the gem, architecturally, of that area,” he said.
Paulovich and Godfrey said they plan to put the project in motion within the next week or two.
They and Natrona Comes Together are developing the project with Frank McCurdy of Harrison, who taught architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, before retiring. He also is a member of the Natrona Comes Together board, Godfrey said.
“We have absolutely no money for it yet, but we have strong passion for finding funds,” Godfrey said.
“We’re going to approach Allegheny Ludlum and the unions and get some other private financing,” he said. He said that they don’t have a firm cost estimate yet. “We’ll give a presentation to anybody that will be very clear and will leave nothing to the imagination. It will be like ‘This is what you get for your dollar.’ It will be like selling any other product.
“I think it is only fair that Allegheny Ludlum celebrates the history of the steel workers who actually built the company with their sweat and toil,” Godfrey said. “We have not approached them, but we are very excited about trying to get them to donate.
“It could be a model for how a steel mill improves the quality of life for a community.”
To underscore the community’s ties to steelmaking even further, Paulovich wants to cast the sculptures in stainless steel, Allegheny Ludlum’s core product for decades.
“I was going to do it in bronze, but it just doesn’t make sense. Bronze? In a steel town?” Paulovich said. “If the guys are making stainless down there, why can’t we use stainless/”
Also, Paulovich wants those “guys” to be involved with the project.
“We want to get some of the welders from Allegheny Ludlum to come down and help us put this together for us,” he said. “I don’t sweat like they do in 4,000 degrees; they need this. It’s just amazing what they do. They have to do it, it’s going to be their sculpture.”
“For them to drive by with their kids and hear them say, ‘Hey, Dad did that,’ that would be great,” Paulovich said.
-
Historical Group Seeks Bell From Kittanning’s Town Hall
by Renatta Signorini
Leader Times
Thursday, September 9, 2010
KITTANNING A local group is on a quest to find a bell that once stood high above Market Street in Kittanning’s former town hall.
Joie Pryde has driven plenty of back roads in search of the bell without luck.
“We are on a quest to acquire that bell, restore it” and get boroough permission to place it in Riverfront Park, Pryde said.
It’s the latest mission of the Kit-Han-Ne Questers, a group of local residents dedicated to the preservation and restoration of historic sites and artifacts. The group is hosting the 11th annual Antiquing Along the Allegheny this Saturday in an effort to raise money for reatoration of the bell if they ever find it.
This year’s Antiquing Along the Allegheny features about 60 vendors sprawled out in Kittanning Riverfront Park, selling antiques and handmade crafts including toys, furniture and glassware. Quester Carolyn Schrecengost said some vendors are local residents who don’t have their own shops.
“We have them coming from all around,” said Quester Rovena Chauvaux.
She will be one of the vendors using the event to make room at own home for more antiques. Chauvaux said she will be selling vases, toys and Christmas decorations, among other items.
The local chapter of the Questers is linked to the International Questers, an antique study group with members in the United States and Canada. The group requires that chapters spend any money raised on restoration projects.
In the past, the Kit-Han-Ne Questers have restored stained glass windows, the portraits of four judges in the courthouse and old theater seats.
The project completed with funds from last year’s antiquing event was purchasing three lights for the kitchen and dining room at the McCain House Museum in Kittanning that are now on display.
“We wanted to get the time period suitable,” Chauvaux said.
The new lights are circa 1900 and replaced fixtures that were from a more recent time period.
“Really, they stuck out like a sore thumb, especially the ones in the kitchen because they were obviously ’50s,” Pryde said.
She has gotten a variety of information on the local bell that once hung in Kittanning’s town hall, which was located in the building that now houses First National Bank, but has not had luck finding the piece of local history. Pryde said she has learned that the bell is apparently dated 1906 and could be located somewhere in the Harrison Township area.
Historical societies in that area have made mention of a “bell haven” that was once in a collectors yard, but Pryde has not been able to locate it.
“We’ve hit a dead end everywhere,” she said.
-
Fire Engine House in North Point Breeze Up for Sale
Offers due Oct. 22; tour set ThursdayMonday, September 06, 2010By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Engine No. 16 firehouse in North Point Breeze is up for sale. Proposals for use of the space are due Oct. 22 and guidelines are posted for would-be purchasers. Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette
The fire trucks and alarm bells may be long gone, but city officials believe Engine House No. 16 still has a dynamic role to play in the East End.
Officials said they’d like to sell the building and have posted guidelines for would-be purchasers. The request for proposals is on www.buyintheburgh.com, a year-old database of properties for sale by the city and Urban Redevelopment Authority.
The two-story, red-brick building is at Penn and North Lang avenues in North Point Breeze. Built in the early 1900s, it has 6,500 square feet of space and an appraised value of $90,000. Other features are two drive-in bays, 16-foot ceilings and a full basement.
The engine house’s name still adorns the front of the structure.
“It’s a gorgeous building,” said URA executive director Rob Stephany.
The building was used for police training after the fire department left.
The city stopped using the building as a fire station in the late 1980s or early 1990s, but it’s still used to provide classroom training to firefighters. Overall, the URA said, it’s in fair condition.
Mr. Stephany said the building is well suited for an architect’s studio, condominiums or a home-business combination. Claire Hosteny, URA senior real-estate development specialist, said one drawback is a lack of parking space outside.
Proposals are due to the URA by noon Oct. 22. A walk-through is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.
No public subsidies are available for renovation. The URA is helping to vet proposals, but the decision to sell rests with City Council and the mayor’s office.
In other cities, old firehouses have been converted into homes and businesses. In March, Chicago officials decided to seek redevelopment proposals for the old Engine Co. 18 firehouse, a two-bay structure built in 1873 on the city’s Near West Side. Officials said they’re interested in a commercial or mixed-use development.
Mr. Stephany said redevelopment of the North Point Breeze building can have a “catalytic impact” on a part of the city poised for progress. He said the development opportunity comes amid a master-planning process for the Homewood-North Point Breeze area.
In highlighting the firehouse development opportunity last week, officials also sought to focus renewed attention on the property website, which lists about 4,300 properties for sale. Properties may be searched by address and neighborhood. The website provides details on each property and has information on the city’s tax-abatement and green-up programs.
-
In McKeesport, Marina’s Success Boosts Other Businesses, City’s Hopes
Thursday, September 09, 2010By Candy Woodall, freelancePittsburgh Post-Gazette
The McKees Point Marina is located on Water Street in McKeesport. Michael Henninger/Post-Gazette
Summer may be winding down but Ray Dougherty already is preparing for next season at McKees Point Marina along the Youghiogheny River.
The 200 docks are full to capacity, and the waiting list is growing, a stark difference from the 60 spots that were filled when Mr. Dougherty started as manager of the marina in McKeesport four years ago.
In addition to the solar, steel building he plans to have constructed along Water Street to house boats during the off-season using a $150,000 Growing Greener grant, growth at the marina also has led to a new boat dealer opening in McKeesport and increased revenues at McKees Cafe.
He attributes the surge at the marina to reducing rates and adding entertainment.
The marina hosts free, live entertainment every weekend.
Rates were $1,080 annually for either a 30- or 20-foot dock in 2006. Now, they are $900 per year for a 30-foot dock and $580 per year for a 20-foot dock.
Mr. Dougherty said he puts the docks in the water for the boating season to begin April 15 and takes the docks out when the season ends Oct. 15. The marina also docks 18 jet skis and keeps 11 spots open for transient boaters who can anchor at the space for $20 to $25 per day.
“We keep those prices low to encourage people to come visit McKeesport,” he said.
The marina is now self-sustaining — purchased with a $1.8 million Housing and Urban Development Authority loan in 1998 — and costs about $100,000 a year to operate, he said.
By the beginning of next season, he wants to use marina revenues to build a small park for children near the marina for the families who dock there.
He attributes the surge in family boaters to a slow economy and the other offerings of McKeesport’s waterfront — not the least of which is its use as a trail head to the Great Allegheny Passage, Steel Valley Trail and Youghiogheny River Trail.
The combination of water traffic, foot traffic and boat traffic has boosted sales by 50 percent at McKees Cafe along Water Street, which Mr. Dougherty also manages.
His cafe, which makes its own homemade bread and sells $5 lunches, has a nautical theme, including a large mural of sea life on the walls. Another wall is signed by boaters, bikers and hikers who have visited the trails from seven countries and all but five states.
“We see a lot of bikers in the morning and boaters in the evening,” he said.
Boaters who buy a yearly lease at the marina also have a membership to the McKees Cafe Clubhouse, where they can host birthday parties, graduation parties or other events for free.
Mr. Dougherty said most members are from the Mon Valley or Westmoreland County, including the communities of McKeesport, North Huntingdon and Greensburg.
The boating activity is why Pittsburgh Boat Sales opened on Water Street this summer and celebrated a grand opening a few weeks ago.
“The McKees Point Marina has a central location to Pittsburgh, and we wanted to jump into the Pittsburgh market,” said Dino Ellena, service manager.
“We noticed a growth in boating. Families seem to be forgoing a $7,000 vacation in favor of buying a boat and having many summers of vacation.
“It’s another way to help the economy here instead of going somewhere else and spending money. More people are keeping the money local.”
And that’s great news, said Dennis Pittman, McKeesport city administrator.
He hopes the city’s natural resources — as a confluence of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers — will create other economic opportunities for the city.
He’s making plans to build a fishing pier, establish a rowing club, partner with Penn State Greater Allegheny to construct a fish hatchery and develop the waterfront with small businesses.
Seeking Hope VI grant money, he hopes to use those public funds to build a $100,000 fishing pier at 13th Street along the Youghiogheny River next year.
“I may be dreaming a little because we’re rich in ideas and poor in dollars,” Mr. Pittman said. “But there’s no doubt we need to take advantage of what we have.”
When the Army Corps of Engineers is finished with its work on the Braddock Dam and eliminates the Elizabeth Dam, McKeesport will have a 20-mile pool of free-flowing water to use, doubling the 10-mile pool it has now.
Those changes also will cause the Youghiogheny to rise about 5 feet, according to Mr. Pittman, making boating on that river a more pleasurable experience.
Mr. Pittman also wants to see some rowing boats in the water within the next three years.
He said the city has the space and desire for a rowing club that could host high schools, colleges and junior programs.
He’s partnering with executives at Three Rivers Rowing to establish a program — possibly as a third site for the rowing club, which already operates facilities at Washington’s Landing and in Millvale.
Mr. Pittman would like to see an indoor facility with a glass front built along the water in an old pipe yard. It could include a gym, boat storage and restaurant. He’s seeking public funds, philanthropic support and partnerships with the private sector. He declined to give specific figures while costs are being analyzed and collaborations are forming.
He hopes a partnership with Penn State Greater Allegheny will lead to the creation of a fish hatchery at an old Westmoreland County water plant near 15th Street through the school’s agriculture program.
“We’ve talked to school officials there about raising the fish and stocking our local streams,” he said. “It’s a teaching and vocational opportunity.”
Mr. Pittman said he is talking to John Hohman, plant manager, to work out a ground lease. It also may be donated to Penn State Greater Allegheny or the city, he said.
“The elements are in place, but there’s still some work to be done,” he said.
The economic impact of developing a waterfront and using rivers can be huge, according to Rick Brown, executive director of Three Rivers Rowing.
It takes some work and money, but not necessarily much money, he said. Facilities range in costs, and sometimes boathouses start out with simple materials such as chain-link fencing, he said.
Eight high schools, three colleges and a junior team representing 20 local high schools compete through Three Rivers Rowing. It has 400 adult members, 100 youth members and about 3,000 total participants a year.
Mr. Brown is pleased that another local municipality wants to start a rowing program.
“I think more rowing in the area would help all of us. We’ll be an area better served,” he said.
And McKeesport would have more to offer, Mr. Pittman said.
“We want people to see us as a destination point,” he said. “We just have a lot more potential than what’s been tapped.”
-
McKees Rocks’ Miles Bryan School May Become Condos
Thursday, September 09, 2010By Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe Miles Bryan School building is beautiful in a way modern schools seldom are, with a Gothic flavor and spires and gargoyles carved into its stone.
It’s also in a beautiful spot, on six wooded acres atop a hill jutting up in the midst of McKees Rocks.
The 83-year-old former school has a spectacular view, with the Pittsburgh skyline floating above the treetops to the east and an overview of the town’s rolling hills.
And it boasts a unique bit of landscaping with its terraced levels and sweeping, 102-step grand staircase winding down the hill to Chartiers Avenue.
That’s the good. The bad is that Miles Bryan, vacant since 1997, has been targeted by vagrants and vandals and is marked by graffiti and broken glass.
It is in a struggling community where redevelopment is too often an underfunded dream. And with no one to do official maintenance, a handful of volunteers faces the task of keeping weeds and brush at bay on the grounds.
“I get poison ivy five times a summer up there,” said Taris Vrcek, director of the McKees Rocks Development Corp. and the chief maintenance volunteer.
Mr. Vrcek, however, hopes to put the Calamine lotion away for good in a few years. The CDC, which has an option on the property, is marketing it to developers, touting it as a site for 20 to 30 luxury loft condominiums.
“We see Miles Bryan as a viable and marketable property,” he said Tuesday. “We’re seeking a developer with the imagination to share our vision of what is possible.”
As part of that mission, the CDC on Friday hosted the second annual “Run Your Rox Off” 5K run/walk, which started and finished at Miles Bryan and included a community picnic and free concert.
Mr. Vrcek said the event raised roughly $2,000 for the CDC, but more importantly, it attracted between 300 and 400 to the site, including a high percentage of out-of-town runners.
“The fundraising is definitely secondary to raising awareness,” he said.
Miles Bryan was built in 1927 on an outcropping known as O’Donovan’s Hill, part of the landholdings of telegraph-operator-turned-merchant-banker Michael C. O’Donovan. It was named for a banker and politician who was also a scion of the family that built the Frank Bryan Inc. concrete company.
The building served as the high school for McKees Rocks children until 1966, when McKees Rocks and Stowe merged to form the Sto-Rox School District, then served as Sto-Rox Middle School for another 31 years.
Facing a steep renovation bill, the school district closed it in 1997 and sold it to a developer in 2001. The CDC holds an option with that developer.
Mr. Vrcek said he spent one year there, as a seventh-grader in 1981-82, but has “more memories from there than from anywhere else.”
He remembered the separate rooms for art, wood shop and music, the gym and auditorium and especially the trees.
“It was so easy to focus there; you had trees outside your window and not much else,” he said. “You felt removed from the world up there.”
He also remembered playing on the grounds before and after school, and the long walk up the hill from Chartiers Avenue, where children got off the buses. “It immediately promoted good health, making all the kids walk up that hill,” he said.
Mr. Vrcek said the classrooms are between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet with high ceilings and large windows and would convert easily to apartments. He said that eight of them would most likely boast the skyline view.
The gymnasium, he said, could be used for either sheltered parking or as a fitness center, and the auditorium could get windows and skylights and serve as an atrium-style gathering place or even as an indoor greenhouse/garden.
Mr. Vrcek also said the CDC is interested in keeping the grounds open to the public, while balancing that interest with the privacy and safety concerns of prospective owners.
Duquesne Light has been an active donor to CDC efforts, he said, and he is looking to the utility company’s Power to Light program to get some lighting on the grounds.
Mr. Vrcek said that Duquesne Light also is planning to do cleanup work in Third Street Park, which adjoins the Miles Bryan grounds, as a Day of Caring Project on Tuesday. The park has been closed since the mid-90s, and the CDC is hoping to find funding for new equipment and safety measures to get it open again.
“Talking to young people around here, I know that kids desperately want some decent park space, some decent green space,” he said.
Mr. Vrcek said the hope is to have a developer on board for the Miles Bryan project within 12 months. He is looking at a five-year time frame to have lofts on the market.
-
‘Attractive’ Old Building Reborn Business in Carnegie
By Jeffrey Widmer
BRIDGEVILLE AREA NEWS
Thursday, September 9, 2010
The old Ryerson Steel Building on Arch Street in Carnegie is the new home of the Envirosafe Stripping Corp., owned by George M. Vorel, who purchased it for $3 million. Anticipating expansion and growth with the addition of other tenants, he said, "You can't beat being where we are. It's next to the interstate and Carnegie is a great town." Jeffrey Widmer
The old Ryerson Steel Building on Arch Street in Carnegie, vacant for almost three years, has gotten a new owner, who has moved his company into it.
Envirosafe Stripping Inc., which specializes in industrial painting and multimedia blasting of steel bridge beams, moved into the building this month. The company, which has 19 employees, occupies 60,000-square-feet of the 250,000-square-foot building, which Envirosafe owner George M. Vorel purchased for $3 million.
The company joins one other tenant, which occupies 40,000 square feet, Vorel said.
“I think it’s just a matter of time before we have this building full. This is a very attractive building and Carnegie is a great place to come to. We may have it 75 or 80 percent full six months from now or it may be full, I’m not sure,” said Vorel of Beaver County.
Envirosafe was established in 1994 on the North Side and moved to Neville Island in 2000. The company had an opportunity to move to Ambridge, but Vorel said the Ryerson building was “too good to pass up.”
Vorel said he would have had to lease the Ambridge property. “We were not looking to lease property,” he said. He said he liked Carnegie’s location.
“You can’t beat being where we are. It’s next to the interstate and Carnegie is a great town,” he said.
The building itself, with its size and quality, is very appealing, Vorel said.
Carnegie Mayor Jack Kobistek said it took almost 2 1/2 months to work out the deal.
“But we are very happy, because the possibility of more businesses moving in means more jobs,” Kobistek said.
-
The Pittsburgh Public Market Celebrates its Grand Opening this Friday
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Pop City Media
If you haven’t been to the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip District, which opened softly on September 3rd, be sure to check it out this Friday, September 10th for the official grand opening. The 10,000 square foot space, which hosts over 40 vendors, is the first public market in Pittsburgh in 45 years.
The market features a diversity of small booth vendors, ranging from big name local operations wanting to fill a specific niche market to energetic startup operations hoping to make a name for themselves by virtue of the $25 per day rents. East End Brewery, for example, will be selling growlers to go. Be sure to pick up Indian seasonings or a meal-to-go from Spice by Tamarind, cure your sweet tooth at the Pittsburgh Candy Company, and grab some of the unique cured meats offered by the Crested Duck Charcuterie. There’s more to the market than food though, with booths like the crafty Babouche, and boutique skin care product vendor Tracy’s Treats.
The Pittsburgh Public Market is the brainchild of Neighbors in the Strip, which established a separate non-profit entity called the Strip District Market Counsel to run the operation. Plans for the market have been in development since 2003, and after extensive fundraising to the tune of $1.3 million and renovation work by architect Robert Indovina, the long awaited market is finally ready to become Pittsburgh’s next major tourist attraction, small business incubator, and community resource.
The market is located in the Produce Terminal Building near 17th and Smallman Streets. The grand opening ceremony will begin at 9 am this Friday. The first 100 visitors will receive a free tote bag, and a variety of entertainers and surprises will fill the building throughout the weekend. We can’t wait!
Sign up to receive Pop City each week.
Source: Becky Rodgers, Executive Director of Neighbors in the Strip
Writer: John FarleyPhotograph copyright John Farley
-
Denis Theatre Foundation Completes Sales Agreement of Historic Mt. Lebanon Movie House
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Pop City Media
Denis Theatre Interior
On August 31, a sales agreement was reached between the Denis Theatre Foundation, and the previous owners, D. and Neeta Raja for $668,750. The sales agreement is good cause for celebration, as the fate of the beloved historic Mt. Lebanon theater has hung in the balance since it closed in 2004.
Last October, the Denis Theatre Foundation entered into a purchase agreement with the Raja’s. Since then, their fundraising efforts brought in $100,000 from the Pittsburgh Foundation, many smaller funds, and a $155,000 matching grant from an anonymous donor. Anxiety built as the June 30 deadline approached to match the grant, but due to two extensions, the match was finally made, totaling the funds raised to $663,000.
Since executive director Anne Kemerer stepped down last month for personal family reasons, board member Jennifer Smokelin has been the acting executive director. The Foundation is currently seeking a permanent director. Smokelin is proud of the sales agreement, but acknowledges much work needs to be done.
“We have a capital campaign of $2.5 million to update and renovate the heating, air conditioning, the roof, and open one of the screens, the Encore Theater. Purchasing the theater is certainly a huge milestone, don’t get me wrong, but it is a portion of what it is that we need to do,” says Smokelin.
The Encore will be the first of three screens, and the Denis Theater Foundation expects it to be open by 2012, but they have a number of exciting plans for the theater’s future.
“We want to keep an homage to the original use of the theater, but also it’s going to be a community cultural center. So, it will show foreign language and documentary type film, but it will also have lecture venues, we envision poetry readings, and meeting rooms for cultural events, so it’s much more than the single screen movie theater that it was when it opened in 1938,” says Smokelin.
Sign up to receive Pop City each week.
Source: Jennifer Smokelin, acting executive director of the Denis Theatre Foundation
Writer: John FarleyImage courtesy The Historical Society of Mt. Lebanon