Category Archive: Preservation News
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Turtle Creek at odds over future of aging school
By Brian Bowling
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, October 4, 2007The fight over East Junior High School in the Woodland Hills School District stands out from other consolidation battles because the struggle isn’t so much over where children will go to school but what will happen to the school building in Turtle Creek.
The Committee to Save Turtle Creek High School — the name the building once carried — has fought efforts to demolish and replace, or even significantly alter, the building.
Bob Mock, a member of the group, said the building defines Turtle Creek.
“This building is the most important building in our town,” Mock said. “It’s really the only park-like setting we have in our town. The whole town is built around it.”
The group achieved a milestone Aug. 30 when the National Park Service put the building on its National Register of Historic Places. Historic status doesn’t make the building demolition-proof, but limits how the district can use federal money to alter the school.
Linda Cole, a school board member, said East Junior High is deteriorating and the group’s opposition has kept the district from making the building handicapped accessible or otherwise modernizing the school. Getting the building on the national register just made matters worse, she said.
“They basically did this so we would not be able to remodel,” Cole said.
Although the district originally looked at renovation or demolition and replacement, the board voted March 14 to start the process of closing the school and moving students to West Junior High School in Swissvale. The board has scheduled a final vote on closing East Junior High for Oct. 10.
Cole said the board’s options have changed over the years because of declining enrollments. With fewer junior high students, the question isn’t how to replace an aging school but how to best educate the remaining students, she said.
Mock said annual test results show East Junior High is one of the few schools in the district that is meeting federal No Child Left Behind standards.
District spokeswoman Maria McCool said West Junior High School only failed to meet the standards with its special education students, so the two schools are practically even on academic achievement. The district’s analysis of the schools shows that West is in better physical condition, which is why the board is considering closing East.
Brian Bowling can be reached at bbowling@tribweb.com or 412-320-7910.
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Woodland Hills considers merging schools
By Karen Zapf
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, October 4, 2007A committee of Woodland Hills School District residents has recommended a single building for the district’s junior high students, currently being taught in two schools.
Committee members told the school board Wednesday night they recommend using either East or West junior high schools or constructing a new building. East Junior High is in Turtle Creek and West Junior High is in Swissvale.The committee recommended reusing East Junior High if the board decides it should not continue to function as a junior high school. “The consensus is, please don’t tear it down and turn it into a parking lot,” said George Pike, a member of the committee.
The committee’s suggested uses include a magnet school, an administration building, community or senior center or selling the building to a developer.
East Junior High is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The committee did not attach a dollar figure to its recommendations.
The group met four times in September to come up with a plan as to the future for the district’s approximately 700 junior high students. Both schools house the district’s seventh and eighth graders.
The school board is expected to vote on the committee’s recommendation during its 7:30 p.m. meeting on Wednesday.
Pete and Terri Rubash of Churchill, who have three children in the district, wanted a decision immediately.
“Get five votes and just do it,” said Pete Rubash, 48, who was a member of a committee studying the junior high situation two years ago. “You have a roomful of people at East Junior High who don’t know what’s going to go on.”
Rubash said a single junior high school makes sense. Rubash said he believes East Junior High, which is larger and has easier access than the other, is the best choice.
“It would balance the district so there is a (school) presence in the east and in the west,” Rubash said.
Karen Zapf can be reached at kzapf@tribweb.com or 412-380-8522.
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Walk To School: Busing wastes money and encourages sprawl and walking is healthier, anyway
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
By Thomas Hylton
Pittsburgh Post GazetteMass transit has commanded the headlines as Gov. Ed Rendell wrangles with two northwestern Pennsylvania congressmen, U.S. Reps. Phil English and John Peterson, over tolling Interstate-80 to raise more money for transportation, including $300 million more for urban transit.
Rural legislators say their constituents shouldn’t pay tolls to support buses and rail service in southwestern and southeastern Pennsylvania. Unmentioned in the debate is the state’s second- largest public transportation system — school busing.
Pennsylvania school buses travel more than 381 million miles annually at a cost of more than $1 billion. That’s nearly 75 percent of the cost of the state’s urban and rural transit authorities. Although the state provides about half the funding for both systems, school districts are automatically guaranteed a subsidy based on their aid ratio and miles traveled, no further questions asked.
For example, the Blairsville-Saltsburg School District in Indiana County recently announced plans to close its high school in Saltsburg Borough and bus those students an hour away to an enlarged Blairsville High School at an additional cost of $200,000 annually. Thanks to the state subsidy formula, district taxpayers will only pay $62,000 more. The commonwealth will make up the rest.
Generous subsidies for school busing are just one reason the number of students walking to school has plunged from 50 percent in 1970 to less than 15 percent today. In recent decades, hundreds of walkable neighborhood schools have been closed all across Pennsylvania, often to be replaced by sprawling mega-schools on the urban fringe.
These new schools spawn car-dependent development and drain the life from older communities. Statewide, the loss of neighborhood schools has been a major factor in what the Brookings Institution calls the “hollowing out” of Pennsylvania — disinvestment in older urban areas in favor of developing suburbs.
Alarmed by this trend, the state Department of Education and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association recently sponsored a new publication called “Renovate or Replace? The case for restoring and reusing older school buildings.” The booklet features essays by Gov. Rendell’s top cabinet officers, arguing that renovating older schools can save tax dollars, reinforce established communities and still provide facilities that meet 21st-century educational standards.
For example, state Secretary of Transportation Allen D. Biehler says Pennsylvania can’t afford to grow in the sprawling way it has in the past. Already, Mr. Biehler says, his department is short $1.7 billion annually to meet its obligations. “We need to cut down on excess driving by living and working in closer proximity,” he writes. “Walkable neighborhood schools are an important part of sustaining existing resources.”
A third of our children are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, writes Dr. Calvin B. Johnson, secretary of health. “The fact is children could get most of the daily exercise they need just by walking 15 or 20 minutes to and from school,” he says. “And they would develop a healthy habit to serve them for a lifetime.”
The Mt. Lebanon School District is held up as a model. The district has not built a new school since 1963. Instead, it has renovated its two middle schools and seven elementary schools, most dating to the 1920s and 1930s, and will soon renovate its 1928 high school. The district’s architect estimates the renovated schools cost about 70 percent of the price of new construction, not including land acquisition.
In fact, a review of all school construction projects approved by the Department of Education in the last three years shows that new construction is nearly twice as expensive, per square foot, as renovations and additions, when total project costs are considered.
The No. 1 principle of green building design is to renovate and recycle existing buildings, writes Kathleen McGinty, state secretary of environmental protection. Renovations, she says, make the maximum use of existing materials and reduce demolition debris.
Thanks to its neighborhood school system, Mt. Lebanon enjoys among the lowest transportation costs of any district in the state. But its neighbor, Baldwin-Whitehall School District, has among the highest.
At one time, Baldwin-Whitehall had a substantial number of walkers attending neighborhood elementary schools like Mt. Lebanon’s. In 1984, the district consolidated its schools, going from 15 buildings to five, and began busing all its students. Today, Baldwin-Whitehall spends about the same, per pupil, as Mt. Lebanon, but dedicates nearly six times more money — $900 per pupil — to busing.
Today, Pennsylvania schools will join hundreds across the country holding special programs to celebrate national Walk to School Day. But you can’t walk to schools built in the middle of nowhere.
“Renovate or Replace” is a first step toward persuading school boards to think holistically when making school construction decisions. The role of public schools goes well beyond the education of our youth. Schools affect neighborhood stability, community character, student health, the environment and especially transportation.
If we want to revitalize our towns, protect our countryside and reduce transportation costs, retaining walkable neighborhood schools is a great place to start.
First published on October 3, 2007 at 12:00 am
Thomas Hylton, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is president of Save Our Land, Save Our Towns, a nonprofit organization that published “Renovate or Replace” with a grant from the William Penn Foundation (thomashylton@comcast.net). To download a copy, go to www.solsot.org and click on “Neighborhood Schools.”
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Neighborhood in Mt. Washington cited as one of nation’s top 10
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, October 3, 2007Entering Mt. Washington’s Chatham Village is a bit like stumbling onto a soundstage built to resemble a quiet English country village.
That was the intention of its progenitors in 1935 when the Buhl Foundation and acclaimed “garden city” movement architects Clarence Stein and Henry Wright opened the urban oasis, which was recognized Tuesday as one of the top 10 neighborhoods in the United States by the American Planning Association.
The award didn’t surprise Claudette DeClemente, 56, who has lived in Chatham Village for eight years.
“I love it,” said DeClemente, a retired state welfare caseworker. “It’s very green. They take care of everything. There’s no traffic. And you can go on an extended vacation and everything is just as it was when you come back.”
Or better than it was. Construction crews yesterday filled potholes on private asphalt drives, trimmed ivy near some of the 200-year-old oaks dotting the neighborhood and cut the small front yards of the slate-roofed townhouses.
The nonprofit cooperative that each townhouse owner must join collects a monthly fee from residents who pay mortgages on homes that range from $80,000 for a two-bedroom to more than $200,000 for a four-bedroom.The monthly fee pays for what DeClemente calls the neighborhood’s aesthetic uniformity.
Every street sign has a fresh coat of dark green paint, all front doors are the same color as the signs, as are awnings and porch furniture. Outside many homes are versions of Pittsburgh’s flag — with William Penn’s coat of arms — that are green and white instead of black and gold.
Those who don’t enjoy conformity shouldn’t move to the neighborhood, residents said.
“The only criteria that we have for people who want to become new members is that you are financially responsible,” said Tom McCue, 67, a retired mechanical engineer who has lived in a two-bedroom townhouse for nine years with his wife Patricia, since they moved from Albany, N.Y.
People with the means to pay a 20 percent down payment on their home can enjoy the neighborhood’s luxuries, including pristine tennis courts, two miles of walking trails and flower gardens.
“The only snow I have to shovel is from that door to the sidewalk,” McCue said, pointing to a narrow 10-foot-long walkway beyond his door. “The only noise we hear is the noise we make ourselves at neighborhood block parties.”
The village’s oldest resident is 92. Its youngest are the infants of some of the young couples who live there, McCue said.
Chatham Village had an advantage in winning its national acclaim from the American Planning Association. The association’s director, W. Paul Farmer, was Pittsburgh’s deputy planning director from 1980 to 1994, said Denny Johnson, an APA spokesman.
Roughly 100 nominations from people, planning departments and APA staff were whittled to the 10 top U.S. neighborhoods and 10 top U.S. streets. Chatham Village is the only one in Pennsylvania and among the smallest, with 216 residences on 25 acres.
Chatham was chosen based on characteristics such as functional design, longevity and community involvement — all of which make it “one of the jewels of our city,” Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said.
“Chatham Village is one of the best examples of how excellent planning and design has created a community that is as livable and desirable as it was when it was built 75 years ago,” Farmer said.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or 412-765-2312.
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Symposium Marks Centennial for Rodef Shalom, Western PA’s Oldest Jewish Sanctuary
September 25, 2007
Historians and architectural experts will discuss Rodef Shalom Congregation’s landmark sanctuary listed on the National Register of Historic Places and its founders during “Historical Symposium: Honoring Our Builders and Building” on Sunday, November 4, 2007 as part of the sanctuary’s centennial celebration and the Congregation’s sesquicentennial observances. Free and open to the public, the community-wide symposium starts at 1:00 PM, at Rodef Shalom, corner of Fifth and Morewood Avenues in Oakland.
Professor Jonathan Sarna, a Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and Director of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program will deliver the keynote address, “The Place of Rodef Shalom in the History of American Judaism.” Two panel discussions will follow. Elaborating on the Congregation’s historic building include: Eliza Smith Brown, author of Pittsburgh Legends and Visions: An Illustrated History, Charles Rosenblum, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University and Albert M. Tannler, Historical Collections Director of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. The second panel will discuss the Congregation’s builders and early members who made significant contributions to the development of Rodef Shalom and the Pittsburgh community.
Henry Hornbostel (1867-1961) who designed the century old sanctuary is well known for his designs of many national treasures including Pittsburgh’s Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, Pittsburgh City-County building and nearby Carnegie Mellon University originally known as Carnegie Technical Schools.
A 1907 Pittsburgh Post article wrote of Rodef Shalom: “wonder in architecture… one of the handsomest temples for Jewish worship in the country.” It further describes the building: “In design, construction and workmanship, in decorations and in every respect the fine edifice is one of the proudest creations in modern architecture and building methods, being a composite of excellence in hundreds of details.”
The sanctuary’s most distinctive feature is its dome which was constructed in the Catalan timbrel vault style, indigenous to northeastern Spain using interlocking layers of thin tiles laid in mortar to create a lightweight, strong vault without the use of wood or steel beams. The Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, which patented the Catalan vault, often collaborated with well-known architects such as Henry Hornbostel, who used Guastavino arches and stairways in a number of his buildings including the Rodef Shalom sanctuary.
Two contemporary assessments of Hornbostel’s Rodef Shalom Temple are offered by Franklin Toker and Walter C Kidney. Franklin Toker, an associate professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in 1980, was instrumental in obtaining the designation of the Temple Sanctuary on the National Register of Historic Places. Professor Toker is quoted in “Historic Landmark,” which appeared in The Pittsburgh Press of May 25, 1980: The Temple’s sanctuary is one of the…first products of the Beaux Art movement in Pittsburgh…popular in the United States between1900-1935.
In Pittsburgh’s Landmark Architecture (1997), Walter C. Kidney of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation– and the author of Henry Hornbostel: An Architect’s Master Touch (Landmarks, 2002) — described Hornbostel’s work on the Rodef Shalom Temple: “Hornbostel designed a quietly sumptuous interior of mahogany and gilt, focused on an ark in the Ionic order.” He went on to say, “Rodef Shalom has served two purposes well: as a dignified place of worship and as an ornament to an elegant neighborhood.”
For more information on the “Historical Symposium: Honoring Our Builders and Building” or tours of this community treasure, contact Chris Benton at 412-621-6566, or visit http://rodefshalom.org/who/history/.
The Symposium is underwritten in part by the Ruth & Bernard Levaur Contemporary Lecture Fund.
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From June 2007 through May 2008, Rodef Shalom Congregation, the oldest Jewish congregation in Western Pennsylvania, as well as the largest Reform congregation, celebrates two significant milestones: the 150th anniversary of its charter by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the 100th anniversary of its landmark Fifth Avenue building. In 1885 Rodef Shalom leaders hosted the Pittsburgh Platform where members of the national Reform movement defined its first major tenets, marking the Congregation’s historic role in the development of Reform Judaism.
Throughout its history Rodef Shalom has been dedicated to observing and teaching Jewish values through inspirational worship, an emphasis on lifelong learning, active advocacy for social justice, service to region-wide human needs, promotion of interfaith dialogue and understanding, and encouragement of the spiritual and educational growth of its young people. For more information, visit www.Rodefshalom.org.
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Bedford golf course builds on famed architects’ designs
By Rick Starr
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 30, 2007The Bedford Springs Resort Old Course has been rejuvenated.
The classic 18-hole golf course re-opened in July as part of a $120 million renovation of the links and the 216-room resort and spa by Bedford Resort Partners.“With four sets of tees on every hole, the course will challenge players of every skill level,” says golf pro Ron Leporati.
Golf at Bedford Springs goes back more than 100 years, so the first obstacle to restoring the layout was deciding which era to revisit:
= Spencer Oldham designed the original 18-hole course in 1895, complete with geometric bunkers.
= A.W. Tillinghast added a classic par-3 hole in 1912 that he named “Tiny Tim,” while taking the course to nine holes.
= Donald Ross expanded the course to 18 holes in 1923, adding several holes along Shober’s Run, one of the state’s Gold Medal trout streams.
The resort preserved the designs of all three famed architects, according to restoration specialist Ron Forse, of Forse Design of Hopwood.
“While we tried to maintain the visual character and the playing character of each hole from its original design, we also made a lot of changes to make it playable for today,” Forse says.
The course now features a state-of-the-art irrigation system, and Bentgrass fairways, tees and greens.
“We were restoring a significant piece of Pennsylvania history at Bedford Springs, at least as far as golf is concerned,” he says. “We’re very cognizant of the responsibility.
“It’s a balancing act to maintain as much of the design intent of the old hole, but still make it play as part of a resort course today.”
Because of modern driver technology, which ushered in the era of 300-yard drives, Forse moved several tees to bring hazards back into play.
Other changes, such as lowering the degree of slope on greens, were forced by advances in turf management and equipment.
“But we felt all along that if the course had a modern feel, it would have been a failure,” Forse says.
Forse is particularly proud of the restoration of Tillinghast’s “Tiny Tim,” now the 14th hole. Tillinghast considered the little hole one of his best because it brings a pond, creek, wetlands, mounding and tight bunkering into play.
“There aren’t many par-3s from 1912 left in Pennsylvania,” Forse says.
“Tiny Tim” was almost lost when the property was virtually abandoned in 1986 – just two years after the Department of the Interior designated its hotel and spa as a National Historic Landmark.
Forse had to rebuild two of Ross’ closing holes — using a 1952 photograph — because they had been converted into a driving range.
Forse says he’s constantly impressed with the strategic aspects of holes designed by Oldham, Tillinghast and Ross.
“Playing their designs never gets old, because they built alternate routes to the target,” he says. “They didn’t want golfers to take shots for granted.”
Bedford Springs Resort Old Course
Par: 72
Yardage: 6,795 blue tees, 6,431 white, 5,807 gold, 5,050 red
Greens fees: Resort guest, $105-125; public and tournament, $115-$135; twilight rate (after 3 p.m.), $70-90
Overnight golf packages: Starting at $355 per person, $470 per couple
Tee times: Required
Details: 814-623-8100 or www.bedfordspringsresort.com
Rick Starr can be reached at rstarr@tribweb.com or 724-226-4691.
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Bedford Springs Resort returns to its roots
By William Loeffler
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 30, 2007Even the U.S. presidents who stayed here didn’t have it this good.
During its 200-year history, the Bedford Springs Resort has played host to Presidents James K. Polk, William Taft and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Not to mention author Nathaniel Hawthorne, manufacturer Henry Ford and nine Supreme Court justices.They were drawn by the resort’s rustic serenity and the reputed medicinal benefits of its seven natural mineral springs. These waters were also known to the Indian tribes in the region’s frontier days, when Bedford was a British stronghold in the French and Indian War, and later, a headache for the fledgling U.S. government during the Whiskey Rebellion.
Today, the Bedford Springs resort rises, reborn, an elegant Greek revival redoubt nestled in the Allegheny Mountains, in Bedford County.
The resort, parts of which date to 1806, reopened July 12 after a $120 million restoration. An easy two-hour drive from Pittsburgh, Bedford Springs pays tribute to its past while providing modern spa service, fine dining and a range of outdoor activities on its 2,200 acres, including 25 miles of trails, a golf course and a gold-medal trout stream.
Exit the turnpike and drive four miles through the antique shops and apothecaries of Bedford. Outside of town, the mountains press against the road. Round a curve, past beds of blooming black-eyed Susans, swoop down a small hill, and — wham — the panorama spreads out before you. Strung across the landscape is a columned palace with manicured lawns and a circular drive blooming with formal gardens. It’s easy to see why the place served as the summer white house for U.S. President and Pennsylvania native James Buchanan.
Bedford Springs wears its historical pedigree proudly. Above the front desk hangs a vintage 39-star American flag. Visitors will discover a soothing warren of fireplaces, graceful curving banisters and long hallways carpeted in restful sage green. But modern amenities haven’t been forgotten. Each of the 216 rooms and suites features a 32-inch flat-screen TV, Egyptian bed linens and i-Pod. Wi-fi access is available throughout the resort.
The resort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984 before closing two years later. It defied eight attempts to get it up and running again, says Todd Gillespie, director of sales and marketing.
The property was purchased and developed by Bedford Resort Partners, who include the Ferchill Group of Cleveland, Chevron TCI, and the Bedford Springs Company. The resort was restored to its 1905 incarnation.
“It had to be built back to the way that it looked in 1905,” Gillespie says. “There were very specific criteria we had to meet.”
Restoration efforts included removing sediment from the Shobers Run Creek, where guests can fly fish. The golf course was restored to its original design. Workers also removed, cleaned and replaced the original glass window panels of the hotel. Several bear the etchings of brides who were married there.
“When people would get married here, it was traditional to etch their names in the glass to prove that their diamonds were real,” says Cheryl Funk, marketing manager.
One inscription, in a window near the clubby, masculine library, reads “B.T. Warren, August 23, 1892.”
Bedford Springs is planning to revive that tradition for future weddings, Funk says, but will provide an etching pen to forestall embarrassment to a bride who gets stuck with cubic zirconium.
Today, “taking the waters” means surrendering to the luxurious ministrations of the staff at the brand-new Springs Eternal Spa.
First is a plush Terricloth robe and sandals, followed by a shower with ginger black walnut body scrub, one of the spa’s extensive line of personal care products, most made using local botanicals. Sink into a hot tub fed by an eighth spring, which was discovered during the renovations. Then dip into the cold plunge pool. Repeat, then repair to the aroma therapy steam. Don the robe, then wait in the lounge, with its view of the flower gardens, and sip Orchid Oolong tea and munch fruit and nuts. Then it’s time for a massage.
Rates range from $249-$299 per night, based on views, day of week and seasonality. Spa suites start at $309.
The restaurants on the premises include the Crystal Dining room, with the original crystal chandeliers, gilt framed mirrors, wood floors and four hues of blue.
Enjoy an Angus beef filet and a glass of Rodney Strong Cabernet and contemplate the period photos of the resort’s guests from the previous century, taking their ease in boaters and bustles. After dinner, gather at the fire pit on the grounds or sit in one of the vintage rocking chairs on the balcony.
Athletes can run, kayak, hike or rent bikes made by Cannondale, which operates a factory in nearby Bedford and has offices in Europe and Asia. Cannondale has provided cycles to competitors in the Tour de France.
Guest Marsha Miller, concluding her stay the resort, summed up its appeal: “What I really enjoyed about it was that it’s got all this history and tradition, but it’s modern.”
Resort highlights
• The Crystal Dining Room has an exhibition kitchen and rotisserie and a 1,500-bottle wine cellar. It includes the Daniel Webster room, named for one of the resort’s celebrated guests, which is reserved for private dining.
• The Frontier Tavern is in the Stone Inn, which was a stagecoach stopover for travelers. Guests can enjoy trout club sandwiches, billiards, micrwobrewed beer or a cigar from the well-stocked humidor. Artifacts on display include an old wood stove, crockery and a bear trap. After dark, step outside and pass the time by the fire pit, just as guests did 100 years ago.
• The 1796 Room, which features fine dining in an upscale 18th-century ambience, puts a 21st-century twist on American colonial cuisine. Dishes include venison, bison, rabbit, quail, wild boar, game pie and mountain trout.
• The Springs Eternal Spa is a 30,000-square-foot addition to the resort and features wet and dry treatment rooms, a private spa garden, mineral springs, couple’s treatment, aromatheraphy, facials and massage. It also features a boutique shop with a line of personal-care products, many made using local botanicals and minerals.
• Activities include trout fishing in Shobers Run Creek, 25 miles of hiking and biking trails and an indoor fitness facility. The spring-fed indoor pool area has been restored to its original 1905 state, right down to the orchestra pit on the second story, where string quartets used to serenade bathers. The outdoor pool complex includes private cabanas. Resort Rascals, a children’s activity center, will open soon.
• The restored 18-hole golf course, one of the first to be built in America, has old-growth trees. Refreshments will be available at the Half Way House, which will be near the 10th green.
• Banquet catering is available for the 20,000-square-foot conference facility.
Did you know? During World War II, the U.S. Department of State used the Bedford Springs Hotel as a U.S. Naval communications training center until 1945, remodeling hotel facilities, including the convention hall, to accommodate more than 7,000 Navy personnel. In 1943, the posh retreat also housed 200 Japanese diplomats and their families detained after the fall of Germany. Guests of the United States, they later were exchanged for captured American POWs in Asia.
If you go
Where: Bedford Springs Resort, 2138 Business Route 220, Bedford
Details: 814-623-8100William Loeffler can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or 412-320-7986.
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Southminster church windows being restored
By Erin Gibson Allen
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Thursday, September 27, 2007Enter Southminster Presbyterian Church, in Mt. Lebanon, and you’ll see two stained glass windows on either side of the main door that welcome visitors “… into the house of the Lord.”
In the spacious sanctuary you will see a large stained glass window, known as the Chancel Window, depicting images of Jesus Christ.
Sit down to pray and you’ll notice more large windows to the left and right in the transepts, referred to as the Parable Window and the Miracle Window. These contain Biblical images rendered predominantly in cobalt blue. Smaller windows line the outer edges of the pews.
On your way out, you’ll see the Great Commission Window, which, among depictions of the disciples, tells the visitor to “… make disciples of all nations, and lo I am with you always.”
These coordinated images done in stained glass were the vision of Dr. Calvin Reid, the fourth pastor of the church. The church was built in 1928 and the windows started going in after WWII, but were not finished until 1963.
Now those windows are getting a meticulous face lift.
Various church families and groups funded the initial cost of the windows, designed by Pittsburgh Stained Glass Studios, D’Ascenzo Studios, and Willet Studios.
An evaluation in 2005 revealed that the windows now suffer from planar deflection, which means that the lead material between the glass pieces has weakened over time, causing the windows to curve and bulge.
The Miracle Window, facing south, was in the worst condition and is being completely refurbished in the first phase of repair.
“The real miracle is that the window didn’t crash onto Castle Shannon Boulevard,” said Carla Campbell, a church trustee working on the window project.
The Miracle Window is the largest part of the renovation effort, costing about $80,000. Small “vent” windows, which open to the outside, are also being repaired, costing about $1,500 each.
Juxtaposed to the sanctuary is a chapel, with more stained glass windows, several of which are also being repaired.
Stained Glass Resources in the West End is repairing the windows under the supervision of Kirk Weaver, a vice president of the company and Southminster member.
Mr. Weaver, who has been working with stained glass his entire life — his father and grandfather were in the business — explains that techniques used today are much the same as they have always been. Work is still done by hand by craftsmen using the same tools and techniques that the original artist would have used.
Restoring stained glass windows is tedious and time consuming. Mr. Weaver estimates that this project will take about 2,000 manhours.
The most difficult part of the job is removing the windows. “You don’t really know how strong the panels are until you get them down,” he said. Workers must be precise and careful so as not to damage any of pieces as they are removed.
After the window is disassembled, one section at a time, a full-sized rubbing of the window is made, using brown paper layered with carbon paper. This allows the craftsmen to reassemble the window, exactly as it was, using new lead, and after cleaning each hand-blown piece of glass.
Working on church windows adds pressure to the job, Mr. Weaver said. “The church has served as a good steward of these works of art, and now it is my turn. It is an awesome responsibility.”
The Great Commission Window contains small images of local interest worth searching for. Hidden in this window is a Bessemer furnace, used to produce carbon steel in the area’s historic steel days.
The church hopes to have the windows back, good as new, in time for Christmas. After being refurbished, the Miracle Window “should outlast any of the members,” Mr. Weaver said.
A majority of the funding for the window repair will be covered by member donations. In June, the church received designation as a historic landmark with the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. The Foundation provided the church with a $5,000 matching grant to help fund the window restoration.
The church envisions repairing the remaining windows in two additional phases as their condition deteriorates and as funds allow.
Southminster is an active church, with approximately 1,500 members and numerous outreach programs. The church offers a preschool, daycare, and operates the South Hills Food Pantry. As a member of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, Southminster provides meals and overnight accommodations to homeless families one week at a time, on a rotating basis. Many local groups use the church for meeting space.
A visitor in the sanctuary also may notice woodcarvings recalling the disciplines of daily life (labor and education, for example) lining the chancel. These carvings were done in 1989 by sculptor Hugh Watkins, a church member and Mt. Lebanon native.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the church, however, is better heard than seen. Inside the sandstone tower atop the church are eight bells. Six of these bells came from a church in Preston, England, whose tower became too weak to hold the heavy bells, which range in weight from 500 to 1,000 pounds. A foundation in England works to find churches that can use abandoned bells. Four of the bells were built in 1814, two others in 1934, and two in 2000. The bells were dedicated at Southminster in October of 2002.
It takes 8 people, pulling on ropes, to ring the bells, explained Richard Pinkerton, the minister of music. Mr. Pinkerton believes that church’s tower is one of only 45 in North America to have active full-circle ringing bells like these. Most church bells are either not active or are run mechanically, he said.
The tower is known as the “Peace Tower” because the word peace is engraved in two different languages (for a total of 16 languages) on opposite sides of each bell.
Both the windows and the bells serve as evidence that sometimes doing things by hand, in the same tradition as they have been for hundreds of years, creates the most inspiring results.
The bells can be heard on Thursday evenings, Sunday mornings, and special occasions.
For more, call the church, at 412-343-8900.
First published on September 27, 2007 at 6:45 am
Erin Gibson Allen is a freelance writer.