Category Archive: Threatened Historic Resources
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Murphy: City moving to tear down eyesores
By Tom Barnes,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Saturday, June 07, 2003Since last fall, the Murphy administration has reduced the number of vacant and condemned buildings in the city from 1,250 to about 800, but much still must be done to correct the problem of abandoned property, Mayor Tom Murphy said yesterday.
He said he hopes to either raze or rehabilitate the remaining 800 condemned structures over the next four years.
He spoke at a daylong Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation symposium on the problem the city faces from the years-long existence of empty, dilapidated properties and vacant lots.
Murphy said the city is using two main techniques to reduce the number of abandoned buildings, which can be in danger of collapsing, be used as hangouts by drug addicts or criminals and pose a visual blight on a neighborhood. He said the city is actively trying to demolish empty, dangerous structures while also working with neighborhood development groups to fix up those that are worth saving.
The city undertook an aggressive demolition program in Homewood last fall, razing 120 buildings at a cost of $700,000.
Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler urged that buildings be looked at for a second chance.
“We were concerned to learn of the city’s possible plan to demolish several thousand buildings,” he said. “We believe that in many cases, these buildings, although abandoned and often in poor condition, can still be community assets.”
To demolish some of these older buildings “is to lose architectural and economic assets,” Ziegler said.
By holding yesterday’s symposium, said Landmarks official Cathy McCollom, “We hope we can spur some discussion for a broader look at other solutions. Demolition should not be the only one.”
Yesterday’s conference was held at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland and attended by 250 community activists and housing officials. Speakers outlined some financial techniques, such as federal tax credits, that have been used here and in other cities to restore old, vacant structures.
Stanley Lowe, vice president of Landmarks and former director of the Pittsburgh Housing Authority, estimated that there were as many as 12,000 vacant buildings in the city, a far greater number than the 1,250 that the city Bureau of Building Inspections last year had officially condemned.
“For the last 15 years, we’ve always had at least 1,500 buildings on the condemned list,” Murphy said. “We would tear 200 or 300 down and another 200 or 300 would go onto the condemned list. A house or a block of houses that are vacant and abandoned in a neighborhood just drags the whole neighborhood down.”
He is trying to be aggressive in removing such hazardous urban blight. But contrary to criticism from some historic preservationists, Murphy also said he’s willing to consult with community groups and City Council members to find which structures in a neighborhood are historically important and worth saving for reuse.
(Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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South Fayette tries to balance growth with its rural roots
By Patrick Ponticell
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Wednesday, April 23, 2003South Fayette wants to be extra careful as one of the few Allegheny County municipalities retaining a largely rural character to balance the pros and cons of economic growth.
It is pushing for industrial and commercial development via a tax-exemption strategy. But it also plans to contract with a historical preservation organization to ensure that a tract of farmland owned by the township doesn’t become just another large, cookie-cutter housing subdivision.
The prime property in question is the old Boys Home near Oakdale, and Commissioner Sue Caffrey is leading the preservation charge.
Although conservation-minded (she’s a member of the South Fayette Conservation Group and the Allegheny County Farmland Preservation Board), she is not slamming the door on the idea that part of the 214-acre tract could be devoted to residential development.
“I’m very open to a variety of uses for the property, from total preservation to partial development and partial preservation,” she said. “But under no circumstances do I want to see that property developed 100 percent.”
South Fayette will work with the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation to reconcile the competing forces of conservation and economic development. The township will have ultimate say in what happens to the property, with the foundation providing expertise to help township commissioners make informed decisions.
Most of the tract is leased by the township for farming, Caffrey said. Portions have been farmed at least since 1899, when it became an orphan asylum. Within a year, it became the Boys Industrial Home of Western Pennsylvania under the Rev. John McCleland serving troubled boys with discipline or crime-related problems.
By 1905, the Boys Home site encompassed almost 400 acres. Schooled on-site, the youths farmed the land and raised chicken and livestock. A gym was built at an undetermined time and has interesting architecture worth saving, foundation president Arthur Ziegler said. Although the gym needs major repair, Caffery said the foundation hopes to find a new use for the building.
The Boy’s Home was closed by the state Department of Welfare in 1972, and the property was acquired by the Wesley Institute in 1980. As far as Caffrey can verify, that organization sold the property to South Fayette in 1987 at a cost of $725,000 for 321 acres.
Between 1987 and the early 1990s, the township sold several parcels for residential housing and some land to adjoining homeowners.
“The question has always been, what are we going to do with the property?” Caffrey said. “Instead of making an impulsive decision, I thought it much better to take a more proactive approach and look at all the possible uses for the property before determining its best use.”
Caffrey sent letters last year to several regional and national preservation groups to gauge their willingness to help with site planning. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation indicated interest. The foundation will cover half of the project cost, the township the other half.
“We’re just trying to help the community get a good conceptual plan,” Ziegler said. “It’s unusual for a community to have this kind of foresight and values.” He described the tract as “beautiful Western Pennsylvania countryside.”
The first order of business is to assemble an advisory committee with representatives from the township, South Fayette School District and the foundation. Ziegler said he hoped to have the committee formed within a month.
Patrick Ponticell is a freelance writer.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Group Works to Save Only Surviving 18th Century Stone House in City of Pittsburgh
April 14, 2003
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, in conjunction with the Hazelwood Initiative, Inc., Doug Shields from City Council District 5, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, are working to preserve the Woods Home, an important historical site located in the Hazelwood section of the city.
The group is submitting an application for Save America’s Treasures to the National Parks Service which, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, administers this grant program, the purpose of which is to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage. Grants for preservation and/or conservation work on nationally significant historic structures and sites are awarded through a competitive process in amounts of up to $1 million.
Doug Shields, former administrative assistant to Councilman Bob O’Connor and acting administrator for District 5, said, “We are grateful to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation for funding a preliminary structural review of the Woods Home. It is an important community asset and we hope that the Save America’s Treasures funding will allow us to rehabilitate the structure.”
The Woods Home, built of cut stone, is one of only three surviving 18th century structures in Pittsburgh, the other two being the Fort Pitt Blockhouse at the Point and the Neill Log House in Schenley Park.
“The house is in pretty bad shape now,” said Arthur Ziegler, President of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, “but the structural analysis undertaken by Landmarks Design Associates does show that it is still possible to restore the structure, and because of its significance as a rare survivor of late 18th century architecture this makes it worth while to continue to explore funding mechanisms to rehabilitate it.”
The site is already designated as an Historic Landmark by the City of Pittsburgh and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Woods family, at one time wealthy and socially prominent, were the pioneer landowners in Hazelwood. The vast extent of the Woods holdings may be imagined when it is stated that the original area embraced all of the land between “Frankstown” at Second Avenue and Forward Avenue in Glenwood, extending from the river to Squirrel Hill. The first survey of Pittsburgh was made in 1784 by Colonel George Woods; the present Wood Street in downtown Pittsburgh honors him. George Woods, the Colonel’s son, was a prosperous lawyer who in 1792 built the estate he called “Hazel Hill.” Hazelwood, in fact, received its name from him.
While the Woods Home is important in terms of Pittsburgh’s history, the home has national significance as well. According to research conducted last year by Bob O’Connor, at the time Councilman for District 5, it was found that Stephen Foster, recognized as America’s first professional composer, spent a lot of time there in the mid-1800s. He apparently wrote or performed a number of his most famous songs at the Woods House. The Woods family piano is now housed at the Stephen Foster Memorial in Pittsburgh.
The deadline for the Save America’s Treasures grants is May 20th. The group is also exploring other funds and a sustainable use for the building.
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Pittsburgh City Council opposes saving Mellon Arena
Landmark status loses in preliminary 5-0 vote
Thursday, February 27, 2003
By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
When it comes to winning historic landmark status, Mellon Arena doesn’t have any friends on City Council.
In preliminary action, council members voted 5-0 yesterday against giving city historic designation to the 42-year-old silver-domed hockey rink in the Lower Hill District.
“Just because something is old — and the arena isn’t even that old — doesn’t mean it’s a landmark,” said Councilwoman Barbara Burns. “I don’t think this meets the city’s criteria as a historic structure. I don’t think the advocates presented a good argument for making it historic.”
Mellon Arena opened as the Civic Auditorium in 1961. The name was later changed to Civic Arena. Mellon Financial bought the naming rights four years ago.
Councilman Sala Udin has been adamant that the domed structure either be demolished or dismantled and moved to some other site. He would like new housing and stores built on its 28 acres.
He is still angry about how city officials in the late 1950s tore down a largely black neighborhood where he and hundreds of other people lived, forced the residents to move and built the arena as a home for the Civic Light Opera.
Councilman William Peduto said he personally “loves the arena. I skated there last month. It’s a semi-religious structure and I would be sad if it’s torn down.”
On the other hand, “it was built as an opera house and it failed as an opera house, and now it’s a hockey rink and the National Hockey League players recently voted it the worst place to play hockey,” Peduto noted.
Councilman Alan Hertzberg said, “I saw that Jean-Claude Van Damme movie on TV the other night — ‘Sudden Death,’ the one where the Civic Arena gets blown up. It’s a bad movie, but it was a tremendous way to bring this whole [historic designation] issue to a conclusion.”
As a way to ensure Mellon Arena’s long-term future, two historic preservation groups, Preservation Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, nominated the arena for historic status in May. That was soon after Penguins owner Mario Lemieux went public with a pitch for a new arena.
Designating the arena as a historic landmark would make it more difficult to tear it down. Historic structures can’t be razed without approval from the city’s Historic Review Commission.
But even the review commission, in a 4-3 vote, recommended against making the arena historic. The city planning commission also recommended against it.
City Council’s final vote is set for Tuesday.
Mellon Arena is likely to remain standing, at least in the short term. The Penguins have a lease to play there until mid-2007.
If a new arena is ever built for the Penguins — the proposed site is just south of Mellon Arena, between Fifth and Centre avenues — the current arena’s future could be in question. Penguins officials have said they don’t want Mellon Arena used for hockey, circuses, wrestling, tractor pulls or anything else that could compete with activities in a new arena.
Building a new arena is, however, dependent on finding up to $270 million in city, county and state funds, a difficult political hurdle.
Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Historic status for Mellon Arena rejected
By George Aspiotes
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 27, 2003Pittsburgh City Council on Wednesday unanimously voted against a measure to grant landmark status to the 42-year-old Mellon Arena, the home of the Penguins hockey organization in the Lower Hill.
In a preliminary vote, council voted 5-0 against granting the status, which was sought by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation President Arthur Ziegler; Sandra Brown, president of Preservation Pittsburgh; and architect Rob Pfaffman, a member of Preservation Pittsburgh.
Council will take a final vote Tuesday. Council members Gene Ricciardi and Twanda Carlisle were absent from the preliminary vote.
“I will be sad the day it gets torn down,” Councilman William Peduto said. “It was part of an urban renewal and it has failed.”
Peduto said the arena, formerly called Civic Arena, never became a link between the Hill District and Downtown, as planners originally hoped. Mellon Arena is the oldest arena in the National Hockey League.
The city’s Historic Review and Planning commissions already voted against designating the arena as a historic site. The Historic Review Commission voted 4-3 against historic status, while the Planning Commission rejected the measure 7-1.Last June, Pfaffman told Planning Commission members he would like to see the building used as a hotel or for apartments. The groups nominated Mellon Arena for landmark status last May.
Neither Pfaffman, Ziegler nor Brown returned telephone messages seeking comment yesterday.
Councilwoman Barbara Burns said Mellon Arena did not meet the city’s criteria for a historic landmark. Just because a structure is old, it is not necessarily a historic landmark, she said.
Burns and Councilman Sala Udin said they felt the arena was nominated more as a sign of opposition to building a new arena, rather than as an attempt to preserve the building.
“I think that in some ways the nomination was a ruse by people who were opposed to the building of a new arena,” Udin said.
The Penguins are trying to secure money to build a new $270 million arena, which the club has said is crucial to its future. Under a lease, the Penguins will play at Mellon Arena through 2007.
Ken Sawyer, president of the Lemieux Group, said council’s vote really was not a concern for the Penguins. He said the vote would not have changed the club’s goal of building a new arena. The Penguins have proposed Mellon Arena be razed to make way for development of a hotel and retail shops near a new arena.
The Sports & Exhibition Authority, the city-county agency that owns the arena, opposes giving the arena historic designation status. Authority officials have said they could not afford to operate both Mellon Arena and a new facility, if one is built.
George Aspiotes can be reached at gaspiotes@tribweb.com or 412-320-7982.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. © Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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City Council shelters religious buildings from historic preservation rules – Only owners allowed to seek historic status
By Tom Barnes,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 26, 2003City Council gave approval yesterday to exempting religious buildings from a key provision of the city’s historic preservation law, but the controversy may not be over yet.
Many preservationists expect council to be sued because of its action, which critics claim violates the state Constitution and requirements to treat all groups equally under the law.
“I think there is a 110 percent chance that this will be challenged in court,” said John DeSantis, chairman of the city’s Historic Review Commission and an opponent of council’s action.
Council voted 6-2 in favor of the measure, which was sponsored by outgoing Councilman Bob O’Connor. It says that only the owner of record of a religious building — a church, synagogue, mosque, temple, rectory or convent — can nominate it for historic status.
Under the city’s current preservation law, enacted in 1979, almost any city official or any resident who has lived in Pittsburgh for a year could nominate a religious building for historic status. If the historic status was approved by council, a church or other religious building couldn’t be demolished or have exterior renovations without the approval of the Historic Review Commission.
Many leaders of different religious faiths supported O’Connor’s measure, saying the threat of having a building nominated for historic status was an expensive burden that could force them to spend dollars on buildings instead of people.
Mayor Tom Murphy hasn’t said if he’ll sign the bill. If he vetoes it, six council votes would be needed to overturn the veto.
An opinion issued yesterday by Deputy City Solicitor George Specter said the law was “evolving” in the area of historic preservation and wasn’t completely clear on exemptions for religious structures.
Specter said no other town in Pennsylvania has enacted such a religious exception.
“The courts could discern a middle ground pursuant to which the [O’Connor] bill would be held valid,” he said.
The state Constitution does say that “no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship,” he said, adding, “It is possible that [O’Connor’s bill] could be deemed to be in direct conflict” with that provision.
Council members O’Connor, Alan Hertzberg, Jim Motznik, Gene Ricciardi, Twanda Carlisle and Barbara Burns voted for the measure, with William Peduto and Sala Udin opposed. Burns, who had voted against the measure in a preliminary vote last week, said she also expects a court challenge.
“This is something that needs to be litigated,” she said.
Udin said church members had been bombarding his office with e-mail and phone calls in support of O’Connor’s bill.
“I used to think that organized labor could put on a lobbying campaign, but the campaign for this bill makes organized labor look like the Cub Scouts,” he said.
Udin questioned whether church members understood the full significance of the bill. It takes away the power of ordinary members of a congregation to nominate their buildings as historic, he said, vesting it only in church leaders.
Also yesterday, council approved $50,000 to install concrete barriers along McArdle Roadway to prevent cars from going over the edge. A woman died last month when her car veered off McArdle, went through an iron railing and plummeted some 300 feet.
But Hertzberg said he would work with the Riverlife Task Force and others to develop a more attractive type of barrier, one that doesn’t block views of the city skyline.
Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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No death knell for our old morgue
By Dan Majors,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Friday, September 06, 2002There was a time, a long time ago, when buildings were built of sterner stuff. Not having access to modern lightweight materials, builders relied on bigger, heavier, stronger components. Like giant stones and rocks.
That’s how they built the pyramids. And the Great Wall of China. And, of course, the Allegheny County Morgue.
Our morgue is a Romanesque structure built Downtown a hundred years ago on what was then called Diamond Street, later renamed Forbes Avenue. Even then, it was an awesome edifice.
But after a couple of decades, long about 1929 or so, some local elected officials decided that the morgue had been built in the perfect location … for the new County Office Building.
So Kress-Oravetz House Moving Co. was hired to pick up the 6,000-ton morgue and move it 300 feet, to the other side of Fourth Avenue, where it sits today.
You have to understand that, back then, it was often easier to move a building than it was to tear it down and rebuild it. Not only because of how well they were built, but because there weren’t as many obstructions such as overhead power lines.
Nowadays, if you want to put up a building somewhere, you just level whatever stands in your way and quickly throw up a new one. Remember the B&O Railroad Terminal? Jenkins Arcade? Three Rivers Stadium?
Currently on Allegheny County’s drawing board are plans for a $40.1 million, eight-story office building, the county’s first new such structure since the County Office Building was finished in 1927. It’ll be built Downtown, where the old jail annex stands.
The top two floors will be new digs for the coroner’s forensic laboratories.
But that doesn’t mean that the current morgue will be left to rot. The county is planning to spend $4.3 million refurbishing it.
The City Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a recommendation that the old morgue be designated a city historic building.
City development reporter Tom Barnes tells us that the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation nominated the morgue for historic status in February. The city’s Historic Review Commission recommended approval in May, and the planning commission followed suit shortly afterward.
The official designation could be on the mayor’s desk for his signature before the end of the month.
It’ll be nice to see the old morgue get a new life.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Historic Review Commission to vote on mortuary status
By Ellen James
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, September 3, 2002On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission will consider whether Allegheny County’s century-old mortuary should be designated an historic structure.
Pittsburgh architect Frederick J. Osterling, a disciple of the jail and courthouse’s architect, designed the mortuary to match the two other buildings and to create a fortress-like enclave of government centered Downtown, according to a county report about the construction of the three buildings.And it is that urban design that prompted the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to nominate the building, built between 1901 and 1903, as a city-designated historic structure.
“Our position was that the mortuary exemplified urban design techniques and overall quality of design or detail,” said Cathy McCollom, director of operations and marketing for the foundation. “Osterling picked up on exterior details from the jail and worked them into the mortuary.”
McCollom said the review commission will vote Wednesday on whether to recommend the mortuary as an historic structure.
If the structure, a solidly built Romanesque building with two gargoyles guarding its entrance, is approved, it would then have to be approved by the Planning Commission and City Council. Final approval would come from Mayor Tom Murphy.
The building originally faced Forbes Avenue along Diamond Street. In 1929, county officials needed a new building for deeds, wills and lawsuits, but the mortuary sat in the spot that would be most convenient for the new building, which is now the County Office Building.
Instead of demolishing the morgue, officials decided to move the 8,000-ton granite building 297 feet to its present location along Fourth Avenue.
It took three months to move the building, but that didn’t stop the regular day-to-day business of the morgue. As Levi Bird Duff, a consultant in the move, said in an interview shortly before his death, “People were killing and dying every day. The coroner’s functions couldn’t be stopped.”
Routine business such as autopsies and inquests continued; and water, gas, plumbing, telephone and electrical service were uninterrupted.
In a feat of engineering prowess, the mortuary was raised 20 feet off its foundation and placed on 22 tracks of hundreds of rails and slowly pulled to its present location by a team of horses. The building then had to be lowered another 7 feet to fit into its present foundation.
The building survived the move with minimum damage.
“It really was a marvel of engineering,” said Tom Donatelli, director of public works for the county.
If the building is approved as an historic structure, the county couldn’t make any changes to the exterior without city approval. There has been no objection from county officials regarding the proposed status.
Ellen James can be reached at epjames02@yahoo.com.