Category Archive: Preservation News
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Landmarks Awards $87,245 Plus Technical Assistance and Energy Studies to 22 Historic Religious Properties
Pittsburgh, PA: George C. Dorman, chair of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s Historic Religious Properties Committee, presented 15 grants, 7 technical assistance awards, and 2 energy conservation study awards to 22 historic religious properties in Allegheny County during an Awards Presentation on February 7. New members of Landmarks also attended the event, held at the Grand Concourse Board Room at Station Square, since year-end membership contributions help underwrite the annual program.
Thirty-two historic religious properties had submitted grant applications requesting a total of $278,000, and Landmarks was able to award grants of between $1,500 and $10,000, totaling $87,245. Landmarks is the only organization in the County that offers a continuing program of technical and financial support to architecturally-significant Historic Religious Properties.
“We continue to seek funds to support this program,” said Mr. Dorman, “because the need is great and our grants leverage matching contributions from the active congregations of architecturally-significant historic religious properties that also deliver services to their neighborhoods.” As a result, stained glass windows are repaired and restored and exterior improvements such as brick re-pointing, masonry work, and roof repairs are made.
“Including the awards presented today,” said Landmarks’ president Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., “we have awarded more than $580,000 since the program’s inception in 1997 to more than 100 historic churches and synagogues. We are grateful to our many members, and to several businesses and foundations, whose year-end gifts––combined with general funds from Landmarks––make this program possible.”
GRANT AWARDS:
Bellevue United Presbyterian Church, Bellevue
Bethel Presbyterian Church, Bethel Park
Clark Memorial Baptist Church, Homestead
First Trinity Evangelical Church, Shadyside
Monumental Baptist Church, Hill District
Mt. Gilead Church, Wilkinsburg
Riverview United Presbyterian Church, Obsevatory Hill
Sacred Heart Church, Shadyside
St. Paul Cathedral, Oakland
St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Carnegie
Southminster Presbyterian Church, Mt. Lebanon
Valley Presbyterian Church, Imperial
Zion Christian Church, Carrick
GRANT PLUS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AWARDS:Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Mt. Oliver
Old St. Luke’s Church, Scott Township
Technical assistance is directed to assisting congregations in prioritizing restoration projects and establishing preventive maintenance programs.TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AWARDS
First Baptist Church of Glassport
Grace Episcopal Church, Mt. Washington
Grand View United Presbyterian Church, Mt. Washington
Lamb of God Christian Ministries, Homestead
St. John Evangelical Church, Mars
ENERGY CONSERVATION STUDY AWARDS
(thanks to the Saxer Family Foundation)Trinity Cathedral, Downtown
Valley View Presbyterian Church, Garfield
For more information, please contact Carole Malakoff, program coordinator, Historic Religious Properties Program, at 412-471-5808.Founded in 1964, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to identifying, preserving, and revitalizing historic structures, neighborhoods, and landscapes in the Pittsburgh region, and to educating people about this region’s rich architectural heritage.
### LS: HRP Press
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Fire destroys old Butler County church
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Tuesday, February 20, 2007A 125-year-old Butler County church is a total loss after a fire Sunday morning.
The blaze broke out inside McKee Chapel United Methodist Church around 8 a.m. It was discovered by a congregation member who had arrived early to warm the church before services.
He saw smoke and called 911, and seven fires companies rushed to the rural chapel in Fenelton, about eight miles east of Butler, but could not save it.
Fire marshals say a faulty furnace is to blame.
McKee Chapel had several dozen worshipers and was one of three churches pastored by the Rev. Sherry Cook.
Dean Ziegler, superintendent of the Methodist Church’s Butler district, said it is not known if the church will be rebuilt. It depends on the level of insurance compensation, the needs of the congregation and the possibility of a merger with a neighboring church.
Craigsville Methodist and Fenelton Methodist are the two closest churches and they are offering their sanctuaries as places of worship for the members of the burned-out church.
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Diocese sells Tarentum, McKeesport church properties
By Andrew Johnson
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 16, 2007Two shuttered churches in Tarentum and McKeesport have been sold to the Manhattan real estate firm, The Follieri Group LLC, according to the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The properties are the St. Clement Church owned by the Holy Martyrs Parish in Tarentum and St. Stephen Church owned by St. Pius V Parish in McKeesport. The St. Clement deal also involves school buildings and a parking lot, said diocesan spokesman Rev. Ronald Lengwin.The Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds has no record of the Tarentum transaction. But St. Stephen Church, located on Beacon Street in McKeesport, sold in January for $60,000, part of a “package deal” that includes a rectory, school building, and two parking lots, said Rev. Edward Litavec, pastor of the St. Pius V. He said St. Stephen Church closed in 2002 and merged with St. Pius V.
Litavec said money from the sale would go to care for St. Stephen Cemetery on Westinghouse Avenue in North Versailles.
Lengwin said The Follieri Group is interested in several other properties, and sales agreements on three have been reached, including one for the historic St. Nicholas Church on the North Side. Lengwin refused to give the price and also declined to name the other two churches.
He said a fourth church is for sale, but declined to name it.Messages left for The Follieri Group were not returned, but on its Web site, the company says that church properties it acquires “are converted to uses that would continue to serve and contribute to their respective communities in a socially responsible fashion consistent with the ideals of the Church.”
Some uses include “low and middle income housing, community centers, day-care facilities, senior citizen housing, places of worship, offices and retail spaces,” according to the company.
“We have confidence that they will live up to their promise,” Lengwin said.
Litavec said he has no idea what The Follieri Group intends to do with the empty McKeesport church.
“We were just so happy it sold,” he said. “There was always somebody breaking into the place.”
Since 2002, 15 vacant church buildings, including St. Stephen and St. Clement, have been sold, Lengwin said. All money made from selling church properties goes to the parish selling the individual church, Lengwin said.
Andrew Johnson can be reached at ajohnson@tribweb.com or 412-380-5632.
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X marks $1.1M spot for North Side theater, URA
By Bonnie Pfister
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 16, 2007A decade of legal battles over the Garden Theatre ended Thursday with a $1.1 million agreement between the owner of the North Side X-rated cinema and the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority.
The settlement, announced at the URA’s monthly board meeting just an hour after it was signed, comes almost two months after the state Supreme Court ruled that the city of Pittsburgh could seize the theater by eminent domain.The board unanimously approved the deal, and the city could be in possession of the theater along West North Avenue before the end of the month.
“This is a great day for the city of Pittsburgh,” said state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, a URA board member. “It certainly elevates the overall development potential of the area.”
The dispute began in the mid-1990s, when then-Mayor Tom Murphy initiated the seizure of 47 buildings along and near Federal Street west of Allegheny General Hospital as part of a redevelopment program called “Federal North.”
But theater owner George Androtsakis refused the URA’s $214,000 buyout offer, saying the city was trying to squelch his First Amendment right to show pornographic films.
“Mr. Androtsakis would have loved to have a theater showing other kinds of film, but he couldn’t attract an audience because of the demographics of that neighborhood,” said James Sargent, the attorney who argued on Androtsakis’ behalf before the court and negotiated yesterday’s deal.
“He loved the Garden Theatre because it was a remarkable edifice, a real testament to our evolution as a culture,” Sargent said. “But, in the final analysis, he agreed to this without bitterness. It’s a business decision.”
URA general counsel Don Kortlandt said he first reached out to Androtsakis soon after the Supreme Court’s ruling, but negotiations broke down in mid-January. Androtsakis reconsidered about a week later, and negotiations resumed in earnest 10 days ago, Kortlandt said.
While Androtsakis initially was asking for far more than double the price finally agreed upon, Kortlandt said, “We got to a number that we both could stand, high enough for them, low enough for us.”
Last month, the URA sent out requests for proposals for redevelopment of 10 parcels surrounding the theater, but URA officials said many expressed skepticism as long as the theater continued to show pornography. The requests now will be amended to include the 92-year-old movie house, which began showing adult films in 1972.
Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
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Judge rules for developer in Oakland hospital plan
by Ben Semmes
Pittsburgh Business Times
February 15, 2007A judge has ruled in favor of a local developer and health care provider who hope to build an 80-bed specialty hospital in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, the first new hospital proposed in the city in decades.
Uptown-based The Elmhurst Group, the project’s developer, and Mechanicsburg-based Select Medical Corp., the hospital’s proposed operator, had appealed a decision by the City of Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission rejecting their proposal for an eight-story hospital in the parking lot of the First Baptist Church, near the intersection of Bigelow Boulevard and Bayard Street in Oakland.
The Elmhurst Group’s plan calls for Select Medical Corp. to run the hospital — to be called Schenley Place — as a long-term, acute-care center that would receive patients from the city’s trauma and tertiary care hospitals.
The six-page decision, issued by Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph James on Wednesday, is a stinging defeat for the Historic Review Commission, which twice ruled against the proposal, citing concerns about the size and height of the building.
Bill Hunt, president of The Elmhurst Group, said he is planning to proceed with a plan for an eight-story building, which was presented to and rejected by the Historic Review Commission in the beginning of October.
“Our sense is that it was the right decision,” Hunt said. “We have every intention now to move forward. It does shows that we were right from the beginning.”
The next step, Hunt said, is to bring the project before the city’s Planning Commission.
Jeffrey Ackerman, executive vice president at Downtown-based CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh and broker for Select Medical, was not immediately available for comment.
Judge James’ ruling is not his first against the Historic Review Commission’s decision to reject the project.
In July, the Historic Review Commission voted 5-2 rejecting the initial proposal for a 10-story, 140,000-square-foot building after a public hearing where some residents from the bordering historic neighborhood Schenley Farms complained about the size of the proposed building.
In response to an appeal by Elmhurst, Judge James overturned the decision and ordered a rehearing, based on a lack of documented public testimony, according to Wednesday’s ruling.At the rehearing in October, the Historic Review Commission again rejected the plan, splitting the votes 3-3, this time for an eight-story structure with a 10-foot set-back from nearby Ruskin Hall, with one member abstaining.
Opposing members said at the time they would be amenable to a six-story structure, which would match the roof-line of the First Baptist Church, and a larger set-back.
According to Wednesday’s ruling, the Historic Review Commission’s second decision was overturned because, Judge James wrote, “the height and set-back of structures is specifically governed by the Zoning Code of Pittsburgh” not the Historic Review Commission.
Edward Kabala, a vocal opponent of the project and resident of Schenley Farms, was not immediately available for comment.
Cleda Klingensmith, a representative of the Historic Review Commission, did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
bsemmes@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3829
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Battle over houses heats up – Group says council went against the law when it repealed subdivision OK
By Jan Ackerman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, February 08, 2007Emotions are running high between historic preservationists and a nonprofit organization that wants to build seven houses on a vacant parcel behind Munhall’s historic library.
Officials of the Mon Valley Initiative are convinced that Munhall council violated state zoning law when it voted to repeal its approval of a subdivision they want to build in the Library Estates neighborhood.
John Bixler, executive director of Mon Valley Initiative, said the organization had gotten legal advice and believed borough council erred when it rescinded approval of the subdivision Jan. 26.
“The rescission was illegal. We have the right to build,” Mr. Bixler said.
Munhall Councilman Michael Terrick doesn’t think that is the case. He said council approved the subdivision, with the understanding that Mon Valley Initiative would comply with historic district standards that were part of a separate ordinance.
“They are hanging their hat on a technicality,” he said.
Munhall’s solicitor, Louis Silverhart, is researching the issue and will have a legal opinion for council, probably this month.
Mr. Bixler cited a letter from George Janocsko, an Allegheny County solicitor, which was read to Munhall council before its vote.
Mr. Janocsko’s letter said Pennsylvania’s municipal planning code prevents local governments from changing local zoning, subdivision and land use ordinances once a subdivision has been approved.
Mr. Janocsko said any attempt by council to amend the borough’s historic district ordinance to include the MVI property would contradict the “plain and clear prohibitions of the municipal planning code.”
As a result, he said, the adoption of the ordinance would provide Mon Valley Initiative with strong legal grounds to sue the borough for a denial of permits and other authorizations.
At a rancorous Jan 26 meeting, council took two actions, voting to expand an existing historic district to include the two-acre tract where Mon Valley Initiative wants to build the houses and to repeal the subdivision approval it had given to MVI.
Several days before the meeting, MVI officials applied for the building permits for the four-bedroom, 21/2-bath houses, which will sell for about $130,000. Mr. Bixler said his organization had every legal right to do so, given that the subdivision had been approved.
That action angered some members of Munhall council, who accused the principals of Mon Valley Initiative of trying to circumvent the desires of council to impose historic requirements on the new development.
The controversy centers on a vacant tract in lower Munhall, behind the historic Carnegie Library of Homestead in a neighborhood called Library Estates which used to be home to mill superintendents.
The neighborhood is mixed. In recent years, some people have bought some of the old mansions around the library, fixed them up and installed globe outdoor lighting. The neighborhood now has its annual Christmas house tour.
Mr. Bixler said the new houses that MVI plans to build would be more expensive than most of the existing houses and would not harm the historic quality of the neighborhood.
Neighbors disagree, saying the new vinyl homes are not appropriate for the area.
Opinions aside, it looks as if the real issues might have to be resolved by the courts.
(Jan Ackerman can be reached at jackerman@post-gazette.com or 412-851-1512. )
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Fallingwater, courthouse make Architects’ cut
By Joe Napsha
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 8, 2007Fallingwater, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Fayette County, and the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown, were rated as two of America’s 150 favorite pieces of architecture, in a list announced Wednesday.
“There is no question these are the two most uniquely architecturally significant structures (in the region). People come from throughout the world to see them,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.Ziegler, whose organization is involved in preserving historic and architecturally significant properties in the region, said he was not surprised that Fallingwater and the Allegheny County Courthouse made the list.
The Empire State Building in New York City, followed by the White House in Washington, were at the top of the American Institute of Architects’ list of 150 favorite pieces of American architecture. The list was developed in conjunction with the association’s 150th anniversary.
Fallingwater, which Wright designed in the 1936 for Edgar J. Kaufmann, owner of the former Kaufmann’s department store in Pittsburgh, might be one of Wright’s most innovative works, Ziegler said.
“There really is no other house like it, yet,” Ziegler said, calling it “an extraordinary design in an extra ordinary site.”
The house at Mill Run, which Wright placed over a waterfall on Bear Run, is so popular that it attracts 130,000 visitors annually, said Clinton Piper, museums program assistant at Fallingwater.
“It’s something that continues to speak to people at all levels of education. People can come here without any prior knowledge of this and can find something inspiring. I think that’s part of its enduring appeal,” Piper said.
The Allegheny County Courthouse on Grant Street, which was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and finished in 1886, “is a timeless piece of architecture and represents a real quantum leap in terms of American style,” said Thomas Briney, immediate past president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
“Richardson had a singular kind of style and that’s what set it apart,” said Briney, an architect with Perkins Eastman, Downtown.
Richardson considered the courthouse “the culmination of his career,” Ziegler said.
To the late James Van Trump, the landmarks foundation’s co-founder, the courthouse was “the architectural lion of Pittsburgh,” Ziegler said.
Two buildings in Western Pennsylvania were ranked in the top 35 of the American Institute of Architects’ 150 favorite pieces of American architecture.
1. Empire State Building, New York City
2. The White House, Washington
3. Washington National Cathedral, Washington
4. Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Washington
5. Golden State Bridge, San Francisco
6. U.S. Capitol, Washington
7. Lincoln Memorial, Washington
8. Biltmore Estate (Vanderbilt residence), Asheville, N.C.
9. Chrysler Building, New York City
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington
29. Fallingwater (Kaufmann family residence), Mill Run, Fayette County
35. Allegheny County Courthouse, Pittsburgh
Joe Napsha can be reached at jnapsha@tribweb.com or (412)-320-7993.
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Hill District coalition seeks say in development
By Lou Ransom
New Pittsburgh CourierPlans to meet with officials and demand inclusion and input
A coalition of Hill District organizations are protesting recent talks between city, county and state officials and the Pittsburgh Penguins over funding for a new arena, complaining that the Hill District should be a part of the discussions.
HILL PROTEST—Marimba Milliones, chair of the Hill Community Development Corp,, wants Hill residents to have a say in arena negotiations. She was flanked by other coalition members, including, from left; Rev. Glen Grayson, Rev. Johnnie Monroe and Rep. Jake Wheatley.
“It is unconscionable and entirely unacceptable for City representatives and other elected officials to continue a process of engagement with the Pittsburgh Penguins or any other entity that seeks to develop within and in the front yard of the Greater Hill District community without taking into account the concerns of the citizens who live, work and play here 24 hours a day,” said spokesperson Marimba Milliones, chair of the Hill Community Development Corp, reading from a prepared statement.
“At this point in our history and upon the cusp of change, it is important to come to the table to address the wrongs of our collective past, engage the needs of our present and move forward into a brighter future for the Greater Hill District Community and the City of Pittsburgh, as a whole.”
The group is particularly troubled that the discussions have included talk of granting exclusive development rights to the Penguins, part of the sweeteners designed to keep the franchise in Pittsburgh.
Reverend Johnnie Monroe, pastor of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church, called on Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, County Executive Dan Onorato and Gov. Ed Rendell to remember the historic significance of the arena site, which was cleared of Hill District residents 50 years ago to make way for the arena.
“We don’t want that to happen again,” he said.
State Rep. Jake Wheatley said that the new coalition group, which has dubbed itself the Hill Development League, should be a part of any negotiations. He said that at the very least, the Hill’s elected officials, including him and City Council representative Tonya Payne should have been consulted. “No one has contacted me, and no one has included Tonya. That doesn’t make any sense, when the arena property is within our representative areas.”
Wheatley said the group hopes to meet with elected officials this week to demand inclusion and input.
Milliones noted that development rights to the arena area were supposed to go to the winning slots casino bidder, in this case, Don Barden’s PITG Gaming. The Hill Development League has been in contact with Barden, and Barden has already floated ideas for what that development should look like, and has invited Hill District resident input.
Carl Redwood, a member of the coalition and chair of the Hill Consensus Group, said the Penguins should have no say on that 27-acre piece of land, bordered by Crawford St., which has been zoned as part of Downtown, though it is still referred to as “Lower Hill.”
“The Penguins have been located in the Hill District since 1967,” said Redwood. “They have never viewed themselves as a Hill District neighbor.” Redwood criticized the city for renaming a street near the arena for Mario Lemieux. “They should have named it after Frankie Pace, not Lemieux. They used to open the arena to allow for community skating, they don’t do that anymore. They don’t do anything for the community.”
It is expected that a deal on the arena could come very soon. Deadlines are passing in Kansas City, where a new arena is awaiting an anchor tenant. Gov. Rendell has threatened to go to the National Hockey League board to force the Penguins to stay in town.