Category Archive: Preservation News
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Preserving a Sure-To-Be Landmark
The Pittsburgh area landscape is dotted with architectural landmarks that reflect the character of the people who built this community. We’re familiar with Richardson’s Courthouse, Hornbostel’s Rodef Shalom Synagogue and Wright’s Fallingwater. Yet, nestled among century-old houses near Chatham College on Woodland Road is a structural contradiction so magnificent in design that its architect now considers it one of his defining creations.
The post modernist home was designed in 1979 for Irving andBetty Abrams by internationally renowned architect Robert Venturi. From the outset, the project faced two major challenges: how to construct the house on a lot so small and damp that many builders didn’t want to tackle the job; and how to integrate the architect’s emphasis on form with the client’s need for function.
Like Wright and the Kaufmanns, Venturi and the Abrams found a way to fit an innovative design into a unique setting. Coming to agreement on function was a different story.
“I think I broke a few of his traditions, like putting a kitchen in the living room and moving an
eloquent stairway from within view of the front door,” says Betty. “All in all, however, we eventually got the job finished to our mutual satisfaction.”In the end, Betty got the changes she wanted, but Venturi distanced himself from the project until it was rediscovered during a Pittsburgh-hosted national design show in 2003 and praised by Richard Pain in a 2004 issue of the British journal Blueprint. In a personal letter to Betty, Venturi reassessed the Abrams house: “You should know that via Richard Pain’s recent and current focus on the Abrams’ house in general and then our visit to the house last November and my reviewing Richard’s distinguished manuscript on the house and our original drawings currently, I am now considering the project one of the best that has come out of our office which I am very, very proud of.”
The Abrams house is now considered such an important Venturi work that this Pittsburgh house was selected to be featured in Dream Homes of Greater Philadelphia. But this isn’t the end of the story. Several years ago, Betty hosted a Landmarks Heritage Society members tour. There, she couldn’t help but be impressed by the appreciation her guests had for her home. That’s when Betty began to think about taking steps to preserve her personal masterpiece. Since the house is not eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places until 2029, there would be no tax benefit associated with a gift of a preservation easement. A gift to endow monitoring costs associated with the easement would also be
required.After discussions with Landmarks’ planned giving office, Betty decided that if she could not find a way to acquire a preservation easement during her lifetime, she would take steps now to bequeath the house to Landmarks to fund a charitable gift annuity for each of her children. Not only would the gift associated with the annuities endow the preservation easement Landmarks would place on the property after her death, but Betty’s daughters would have lifetime income and never be burdened with the responsibility of selling the house.
Betty’s personality is reflected in the creativity of her house. Her legacy will be reflected in the creativity of her gift.
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Mt. Lebanon Municipal Golf Course: A slice of history for 9-holes
100th anniversary to be celebrated July 7Tuesday, May 01, 2007
By Gerry Dulac,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteIt will never hold a U.S. Open, not like the more famous Western Pennsylvania course that happens to have one of the same founding fathers. Nor will it be able to list a course-record score for 18 holes — at least, not anymore.
But there is a celebration going on this summer at Mt. Lebanon Municipal Golf Course, and it shares a slice of history with another local club planning a big summer celebration — Oakmont.
Mt. Lebanon will celebrate its 100th anniversary July 7, commemorating the history and origin of a course that began as a private 18-hole layout known as Castle Shannon Golf Club and was built by an erudite Scotsman named George Ormiston, one of the original members at Oakmont. What’s more, eight of the original greens remain at the municipal course — greens that appear to have been influenced by the great Scottish designer, Donald Ross.
“A lot of people have cut a lot of balata balls and lost a lot of balls there,” said Tom Butcher, a member of the golf committee appointed by Mt. Lebanon commissioners to oversee a five-year course renovation.
Appropriately, the course’s centennial anniversary will nearly coincide with the U.S. Open, which will be staged just three weeks earlier at Oakmont.
And, like Oakmont, the nine-hole golf course has been designated an historical Western Pennsylvania landmark through the Pittsburgh History & Landmark Foundation.
Mt. Lebanon Golf Course is something of an anomaly because it has lasted a century in one of the most desirable areas to live in Western Pennsylvania.
Built on 99 acres less than a mile from Castle Shannon Boulevard, it has avoided the real-estate or commercial development that has swallowed a number of public and private courses around the country.
Butcher said real-estate developers have estimated the value of the property site between $10 million and $17 million.
“It’s amazing we’ve lasted 100 years,” Butcher said.
But, it has, generating somewhere between an estimated 1 million to 1.4 million rounds of golf and employing only four head golf professionals in the course’s 100-year history.
The latest is Matt Kluck, a master PGA professional and one of the top instructors in the country.
He has been at Mt. Lebanon since 1983.
“Public golf courses have really been on the rise, particularly those that keep developing them and keep them up to snuff,” Mt. Lebanon councilman Dale Colby said. “With the cost of gasoline these days and people struggling to find time to play, it doesn’t pay in many respects to drive great distances to the golf course anymore.”
Mt. Lebanon was built by Ormiston, a former accomplished amateur player and first winner of the West Penn Amateur championship in 1899 when it was played at Schenley Park Golf Course, then known as the Pittsburgh Golf Club.
He was also president of the West Penn Golf Association from 1914 until his death in 1940.
Ormiston was born in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, in 1874 and migrated in 1888 to the Pittsburgh area, where his father owned a law firm and printing company. He was a close friend and associate of Oakmont founder Henry C. Fownes, who built the course that would go on to host 17 national championships in 1903.
Ormiston played at Oakmont and, along with Fownes, dominated amateur golf in Western Pennsylvania for much of the early 1900s. He also was on the committee for the first U.S. Open that was held at Oakmont in 1927. There is a picture in the Oakmont guesthouse of the first Oakmont golf team, and Fownes and Ormiston are seated next to each other.
It is not known how much input, if any, Ormiston had in the construction of Oakmont. But, in 1908, he was contracted to build an 18-hole golf course on a portion of farmland owned by William Smith, who bought the property located near the Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon Railroad in 1846.
Smith was the first to begin construction on the course, building three holes in the summer of 1907 before Ormiston was hired to lay out the course on paper.
Castle Shannon Golf Club opened nine holes on July 4, 1908 and expanded to 18 holes in 1910, according to documents contained in the club’s application for landmark status. Membership was $25.
“The railroad came right down here in Castle Shannon,” Kluck said, sitting inside the Mt. Lebanon clubhouse that was built in 1961. “People would get off the train and take buggies to the golf course.”
But here’s another twist:
Ormiston and Fownes spent winter months in Pinehurst, N.C., and Ormiston would often take his friend to visit another Scotsman who lived there, Donald Ross. The three would play golf together, and it is widely believed Ross, who would become one of America’s leading course architects, had an influence on the design of Oakmont’s world-famous greens because they bore similarities to the crowned surfaces at Pinehurst No. 2, a Ross masterpiece.
There has never been any documentation to suggest Ross helped Ormiston with the design of Castle Shannon’s greens. But, Kluck said, “I guess it’s possible.”
Indeed, when Craig Schreiner, a Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based architect, was retained by the municipality to oversee the course renovation, he detected more than a trace of Ross’s influence when he toured the nine-hole layout. Schreiner, a native of Akron, Ohio, who designs courses for The First Tee, specializes in restoring Ross designs.
“He said, ‘Someone was copying his philosophy,’ ” Butcher said.
Castle Shannon was reduced to nine holes in 1919 after a two-year period in which the club was inactive because of World War I and also lost members to the newly formed St. Clair Country Club.
It stayed that way till 1947, when Mt. Lebanon purchased the course and opened it to the public.
The golf professional at the time was Wally Grant, who was hired in 1937. He remained in that position until he died in January 1983.
Mt. Lebanon, which recently received landmark status, will have a July 7 celebration that will include family and sponsor tournaments, cocktail reception and entertainment.
Meantime, the course has just embarked on a five-year renovation plan that, if funding is appropriated, will ultimately include a new clubhouse, indoor learning center and outdoor practice range by 2010.
A new double-row irrigation system was installed in the fall. Construction will begin shortly on multiple tees on every hole, as well as all sand bunkers and greens complexes, a project Kluck hopes will be completed by June 1. Colby said the municipality has budgeted approximately $400,000 this year for the course renovation.
A new clubhouse is essential because Mt. Lebanon does not serve food or drinks, except from a vending machine. That prevents the course from holding outings, typically a great source of revenue.
“We want the kind of improvements that will make it more profitable and more of a broad facility, not just for Mt. Lebanon residents but South Hills residents, as well,” Butcher said. “With Baldwin, Bethel Park, Peters Township, Scott, you have a tremendous demographic with all kinds of people.”
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Bridge built before the automobile age sparks talk of preservation for its history, condition, age
An antique with a futureThursday, April 19, 2007
By Carole Gilbert Brown
Pittsburgh Post Gazette WireThe single-lane, single-span Dorrington Road Bridge crossing the rushing waters of Robinson Run in Collier rates highly with bridge experts and history lovers for its design, condition and age.
But those are the factors that have placed the 119-year-old span on the endangered list.
The state Department of Transportation wants to replace the 60-foot-long bridge, which is 19 feet wide, with a concrete box-beam bridge that would be wider for two traffic lanes, would have expanded approaches for improved sight distance and would be have a stronger structure that would remove the current nine-ton weight restriction.
PennDOT wants to demolish the bridge and erect its replacement within two years.
PennDOT, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and Collier officials met last month to discuss relocating the structure, which is eligible for national historical registry designation, to an undeveloped 50-acre park near Nevillewood, where it could be situated over a gully near the old Woodville cemetery.
Several other township sites are potential relocation places, too, including on the Panhandle Trail.
“It would be most appropriate to keep the bridge in Collier, but it could go elsewhere,” said Louise Sturgess, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation executive director, who believes retention of the structure is necessary to show the evolution of bridge design science during the 1800s.
Retaining the structure locally is important to the region, too, because of Pittsburgh’s designation as “the city of bridges,” she said.
Mrs. Sturgess has enlisted the aid of Todd Wilson, a 2006 civil engineering graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a bridge enthusiast since childhood, to develop cost estimates.
Mr. Wilson, a traffic engineer for DMJM Harris who has a copy of the original drawings for the bridge, believes the structure could be a tourist attraction, even on a national level. He also sees it as an educational tool and a community landmark.
What makes the pin-connected Pratt pony truss bridge, built in 1888 by the Pittsburgh Bridge Co., unique is its basic design and vertical end posts, which are now covered by black-and-yellow road markers.
In most standard truss bridges, the end posts are inclined. The use of vertical end posts is more typical of earlier 19th-century designs which went by the wayside because they used more material and, thus, were more expensive.
Another unusual characteristic is that the bridge is made partially of cast iron instead of steel.
“It’s the oldest metal truss bridge that is unaltered and still open to traffic,” Mr. Wilson said. “The Dorrington Road Bridge represents an archaic design, even for 1888. Though Allegheny County once had several similar bridges, they have all been demolished.
“If any bridge is saveable and worth saving, it is this one,” he said.
Wherever the bridge ends up, it’s clear that funding will be needed.
Mrs. Sturgess indicated the foundation could apply for a History Channel grant, as well as coordinate fund-raising campaigns.
“I really see this as a wonderful community project,” she said, pointing out that university students as well as Chartiers Valley students could get involved.
Mr. Wilson said professors from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh had expressed interest in supplying students for the relocation project.
In last month’s meeting with PennDOT, the history foundation and Collier, Mr. Wilson ended his presentation with these words, “The Dorrington Road Bridge has served Collier Township for over five generations. Dating from a time before the automobile was invented, it is a rare surviving piece of transportation history. By relocating the bridge to a park or trail, we can preserve this structure and create a ‘bridge’ to the past for many more generations to enjoy.”
The Dorrington Road Bridge is featured on the Web site, www.historicbridges.org.
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New life proposed for former South Hills High School
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, April 19, 2007The former South Hills High School soon could be given new life after sitting dormant for 20 years in the heart of a Mt. Washington residential neighborhood.
“It’s been a white elephant for a long time,” said Mt. Washington resident Virginia Gates, a 1959 graduate of the school, which was built in 1916 and closed in 1986. “You can see from the sheer size of it what an impact its (revival) is going to have on the whole community.”
North Shore-based developer a.m. Rodriguez Associates Inc. has prepared a $20 million redevelopment plan to build 84 one- and two-bedroom apartments and 25 two-bedroom, market-rate rental lofts in the building.
The apartments would be marketed to senior citizens. The first floor could have more than 10,000 square feet of commercial space and a health center.
Room for off-street parking should be plentiful once the developer removes three sections of the mammoth building to bring its size to 155,000 square feet.
“In terms of why it’s important to bring this building back, it’s a huge building that at one time was a landmark and center of activity for that community,” said Tom Link, manager of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s business development center. The URA has targeted the school for redevelopment.
Gates, chairwoman of the South Hills High School committee, believes the renovation project will boost property values around the site and drive out drug dealers and vandals.
Link and Gates said many developers have tried over the past 20 years to devise ways to renovate the building, but none has come as far as Rodriguez Associates.
Victor Rodriguez said his company has applied for $12 million in tax credits from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. If those credits come through in September, an estimated 15 months of construction could begin as soon as June 2008.
“There’s a great market for this up there, especially for seniors,” he said.
Ethan Raup, executive director of the Mt. Washington Community Development Corp., credited Gates and the URA for helping to persuade the building’s owner — Pittsburgh Public Schools — to make the property more enticing to developers by removing asbestos, adding a new roof and doing other renovations.
“To me, it’s going from having an enormous dead space in the middle of a residential community to injecting it with new life,” Raup said.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
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Carnegie Museum of Art receives $348,885 for Teenie Harris project
New Pittsburgh Courier
By Courier Newsroom
Wednesday, April 18, 2007The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Carnegie Museum of Art $348,885 for ongoing work related to the museum’s Teenie Harris Archive.
The archive contains more than 80,000 black-and-white prints and negatives taken by photographer Teenie Harris between 1936 and 1975 that document daily events in the life of Pittsburgh’s African-American community. The funding will allow the museum to conserve, catalogue, digitize, and post images on the museum’s web site, and archivally store approximately 26,963 negatives as Phase II of the Teenie Harris Archive Project.
In addition, the Teenie Harris Archive has been chosen as a “We the People” project by the NEH. “We the People” is an initiative to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture through the support of projects that explore significant events and themes in U.S. history and culture that advance knowledge of the principles that define America.
“We are especially gratified that this worthy project has received critical funding through the NEH’s rigorous peer-review process; this support acknowledges the importance and value of the archive to scholars and the public,” says museum director Richard Armstrong.
“We thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for its help in preserving the works of one of the great masters of photography, not just for the people of Pittsburgh, but for anyone interested in the subjects captured by Teenie Harris,” says museum board chairman William E. Hunt.
Phase I and Phase II of the project are part of an overall plan to preserve the life’s work of Charles “Teenie” Harris, an African-American photojournalist who was a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh who worked for the Pittsburgh Courier. With support from the Heinz Family Fund, the museum was able to purchase the materials that make up the archive, now considered the largest and most complete portrait of African-American urban life in existence.
Additionally, this funding will enable the museum to continue its efforts to identify the people, places, and activities in the photographs.
CMA has an ongoing collaboration with the Courier placing ads that contain undocumented photos in the paper to solicit the community in identifying unknown individuals in Harris’ photographs.
Ultimately, the grant moves the museum closer to its goal of allowing access to the archive by its intended audiences-scholars and historians, teachers, students, media, publishers, museums and other organizations, and the general public.
“As the preeminent chronicler of African-American life in Western Pennsylvania for four decades, Teenie Harris produced an incredible archive of images, including many photographs documenting the pivotal figures and events in Pittsburgh’s Civil Rights Movement. It is critically important that his work be preserved and shared with future generations,” says Neil Barclay, president and CEO of the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture and a member of the Teenie Harris Archive Advisory Committee.
“Already the August Wilson Center has made extensive use of the Teenie Harris collection in exhibitions, publications and signage, and as the inspiration for a world premiere dance work choreographed by Ronald K. Brown for Evidence Dance Company.”
In September 2006, Carnegie Museum of Art launched an online collection database on the museum’s web site, www.cmoa.org. Today more than 27,000 Teenie Harris images are posted.
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A Start-up Grant Given to Begin Revitalization Work in Three Armstrong Communities: Freeport, Leechburg, and Apollo.
Armstrong County – April 12, 2007 – A start-up grant to fund initial work for a joint main streets project for Freeport, Leechburg, Apollo, was announced today by National City Bank as part of its community revitalization program. The grant was made to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.Senator Jim Ferlo initiated the program for the three communities.
“As the elected State Senator who represents many small town communities in Westmoreland and Armstrong counties, I have helped to lead efforts to re-invigorate their Main Streets based on principles of preservation, sustainability, and empowerment. The Vandergrift Improvement Program (VIP) is now in their second year of formal state recognition as a Main Street community and I am proud and supportive of efforts by Freeport, Leechburg, and Apollo stakeholders who envision a multiple Main Street approach in these Armstrong county municipalities. National City and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation are to be commended for their financial support and leadership in the re-building of these wonderful communities,” said State Senator Jim Ferlo.
Mitch McFeely, branch manager for National City’s Freeport branch, said “Our bank has been serving individuals and families in the Freeport, Leechburg and Apollo region for more than a century and a half. This our hometown, where our employees reside, work, raise their families and volunteer with the organizations that make this a special place to live. We are proud to support the business, municipal and community leaders who have established the F.L.A.G. program, with a seed grant of $7,500 to implement a Pennsylvania Main Street Program. The Main Street Program will strengthen our existing retail corridors and significantly improve the vibrancy and quality of life in these neighborhoods. At National City, we are fond of saying that taking care of our communities is not just the right thing to do, it is the best thing we do.”
Freeport Leechburg Apollo Group Inc. was recently incorporated as a Pennsylvania non-profit corporation on 3/19/2007. The multi-municipal organization is in the initial stages of creating a five-year multi-municipal economic revitalization plan. Developing such a plan is one of the application requirements to enroll the group in Pennsylvania’s Main Street program. If approved for the Main Street program, FLAG and its participant communities will have the ability to leverage over $295,000 in state grants through the Department of Community & Economic Development. National’s City’s $7500 seed grant will provide initial funding for the organization, enabling them to hire a consultant to conduct public “Visioning” sessions in each community.
FLAG Board officers include: President, Mary Bowlin (Freeport); Vice President, Bill Charlesworth (Apollo); Treasurer, Chuck Pascal(Leechburg); and Secretary, Jim Seagriff Jr. (Freeport).
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation actively creates and manages Main Street and Elm Street programs for the revitalization of Western Pennsylvania Communities. The Foundation initiated the Carson Street Program in 1969, which became a successful national prototype Main Street Program through four decades.
Currently PHLF is managing a relatively new Main Street Program in nearby Vandergrift, PA. “We would like to see these communities in this area work on their significant individual architectural and business resources to attract new businesses and to work together so as to leverage the area as an attractive one in which to visit and shop in variety of interested small business districts,” said Arthur Ziegler, President.
Shaun Yurcaba, who heads the Vandergrift Program for the Vandergrift Improvement Program for PHLF said, “I am really looking forward to working with these communities to magnify our individual results through cooperative activities.” “We are very grateful to National City for this faith in the efforts that Senator Ferlo has launched.”
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Repairs on North Side library branch expected by early summer
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 10, 2007The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh expects to finish repairing damage done by a lightning bolt at the former Allegheny branch by early this summer.
“In the next few weeks, they’ll place the actual capstone upon the clock tower,” said library spokeswoman Suzanne Thinnes.Lightning struck the 117-year-old, Romanesque-style library in the North Side’s Allegheny Square on April 7, 2006. It has been closed since, and plans call for it to no longer be used as a library.
A piece of granite weighing several hundred pounds fell into the lecture hall on the second floor, and a one-ton chunk destroyed the building’s heating and cooling system and damaged waterlines.
The collapse did not injure anyone or damage the library’s collection.
The repairs will cost an estimated $2 million. Insurance will cover most of that, Thinnes said.
North Side-based Mascaro Construction is doing the work. “We chose them because they have expertise in repairing historical buildings,” she said.
The building was named a historic landmark by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation in 1970 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places four years later.
“The work that’s going on is helping its historical fabric, not hurting it,” assured foundation President Arthur P. Ziegler Jr.
Carnegie Library is planning a new building along Federal Street, and will not be using the Allegheny branch building after the repairs are done.
The New Hazlett Theater and a city senior citizen center occupy the building. Landmark Design Associates, a South Side firm, is studying possible uses for the space once used by the library.
Ziegler said one option is office space, possibly for a nonprofit group.
The library hopes to break ground on the Federal Street building this fall, Thinnes said.
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7828.
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Old church murals cast in new light in Strip District
By Angela Hayes
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteJosie Santapietro always had a habit of looking up while praying in church, but during tonight’s Easter vigil she and other parishioners may find new inspiration to worship.
During the Mass, which begins in total darkness and then gradually illuminates with light, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in the Strip District will unveil its new lighting system, a project that will bring the church’s 120-year-old ceiling murals to life.
Before, “you always looked at them but you didn’t really see them,” said Ms. Santapietro, the rectory secretary.
“I equate it to our own kind of Sistine Chapel,” said Derris Jeffcoat, the sacristan.
The project was started after a smoking chandelier prompted a visit from the city Fire Department. Fire officials at the time told the Rev. Harry Nichols, pastor of the church, to replace the electrical wiring immediately.
With a wealth of history behind the church, the decision to renovate was obvious. So far, the church has received $80,000 in donations to help fund the $300,000 project.
Although the project began as a safety necessity, Father Nichol’s saw it as an opportunity to emphasize the building’s architecture and paintings.
Lighting designers from Astorino, the Downtown architectural firm, used new lamp designs to enhance and protect the paint of the murals and to bring out the ornate detail of wooden columns in the church, down to the tiniest leaf.
“It’s showing up things in the church we’ve never seen before,” Father Nichols said.
In a church where it used to be difficult to read a book of hymns, the new light system is something the parish is celebrating.
Each of the murals represents a significant event in either the history of the Catholic Church or in Polish history.
During a test-run of the lighting project, Mr. Jeffcoat saw the difference in visibility of the murals. With the lights switched on, he saw a mural painted around 1900 of Polish king Jan Sobieski defeating the Turkish army in the battle of Vienna in 1683 and pointed out the vivid color.
“No one’s ever seen the murals like this,” he said.
During the project, lighting designers worked with Mr. Jeffcoat and Father Nichols to ensure that the approximately 106 new light fixtures were carefully hidden from view. The team also chose two custom-made chandeliers that fit the church’s present architecture, matching a pattern found in the church pews.
Unveiling the project at tonight’s Easter vigil is symbolic to Mr. Jeffcoat and the congregation because the Mass is actually a ceremony to honor light.
“We couldn’t think of a better time to inaugurate the lighting,” he said.
“To have Christ light up our church and to have our church physically light up — it gives me goosebumps.”
