Latest News
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Thank You, Interns
Three graduate students from Duquesne University’s Public History program assisted PHLF’s education staff from late August into December 2017: Lauren Eisenhart-Purvis, Katherine Millard, and Caroline Mount. They took part in PHLF’s downtown walking tours, school tours, and educational programs (including architectural design challenges and a poetry and art workshop), and completed a major archival project and developed a new walking tour of downtown’s Firstside that PHLF will debut in 2018.
“Our staff enjoyed getting to know Lauren, Katherine, and Caroline and were so glad to have their involvement in our work. Thanks to their research skills, interest in historic preservation, and knowledge about best practices in archival work, they were able to help with many tours and make more reference materials in our James D. Van Trump Library available to our members and friends,” said Louise Sturgess, Executive Director of PHLF.
Our Duquesne University interns summed up their experience with PHLF as follows:
I greatly enjoyed my internship with PHLF. I was able to do a mix of educational and archival work, which gave me a variety of skills and experiences to take with me into my future career. I rehoused photographs from the Buildings of Western PA Research Collection, and was able to work with renowned architectural historian Lu Donnelly to better preserve her collection and make it more accessible to researchers. I also assisted with several tours and educational programs, which taught me a lot about the history of Pittsburgh and its environs. It was amazing to see how learning about architecture got both students and adults concerned about and involved in their communities. Through my internship, I gained archival and educational skills, as well as practical knowledge about the city of Pittsburgh. I believe that this combination will serve me well in my future career in one of Pittsburgh’s public history institutions, and am excited to apply what I learned during my internship to my studies! –– Lauren Eisenhart-Pu
rvisDuring my time with PHLF, I not only absorbed the history of this remarkable city, but I also learned how to effectively communicate its significance to visitors and natives of all ages. I am so grateful for the opportunities I was afforded during my internship. ––Katherine Millard
I enjoyed the opportunity to not only educate learners of all ages about the history and architecture of Pittsburgh, but also to be educated on the skills and experiences essential to the field of historic preservation and education. ––Caroline Mount
We thank Lauren, Katherine, and Caroline and wish them success in their careers.
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Buildings of Western PA Research at PHLF
by Lauren Eisenhart-Purvis, November 14, 2017
When I started my internship at PHLF at the end of August 2017, the photographs in “The Buildings of Western PA Research Collection” were housed in binders, which were bending and misshapen, and the collection was housed in two locations. Therefore, I helped facilitate the transfer of Ms. Donnelly’s slides and negatives from the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art to PHLF so that the complete collection could be housed at PHLF’s James D. Van Trump Library. I then updated the finding aid and the FileMaker Pro database by adding the additional materials; re-housed all of the photographs so they would be better preserved; placed the photographs into folders and boxes; and made labels for each box so that the collection is accessible to researchers.
This is a significant collection because it contains comprehensive materials on architecture in Western Pennsylvania. It will be useful to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Pittsburgh region’s built environment. It is a resource for architectural historians, historians, preservation and community development professionals, urban planners, and any citizens who are looking to preserve and protect buildings throughout this region and prepare National Register nominations for individual structures or districts. Re-housing the photographs, and adding the slides and negatives, has made this collection more complete and useful.
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The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You Is Available from PHLF
As a relatively recent transplant to the City of Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You will help me understand and get in touch with the soul of my new home as I work to introduce this city to others. ––Caroline Mount, Public History Graduate Student, Duquesne University
As a tenant of a historical property, we will use these books to educate our staff to answer our guests’ questions. ––Brian George, Grand Concourse Restaurant, Station Square
Thanks to a generous grant from The H. Glenn Sample Jr. MD Memorial Foundation, PHLF has copies of The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You, by Samuel Hazo, to distribute to schools, libraries, historical sites, and nonprofit organizations. A distinguished poet, author, and professor, Mr. Hazo was the founder and director of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh from 1966 to 2009. This collector’s edition includes five essays by Samuel Hazo, written in 1986, 1992, 1998, 2003, and 2017, and photographs by 16-year-old Paige Crawley.Following the book’s release this fall, PHLF has distributed more than 550 books to more than 30 organizations, including the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County libraries, regional university libraries, public and parochial schools, community development professionals, the City of Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County Bar Association.
Please contact Louise Sturgess, PHLF’s Executive Director, with your request if you are interested in receiving books to use for educational purposes: louise@phlf.org; 412-471-5808, ext. 536. We are happy to honor requests while supplies last.
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Envisioning New Uses for a Vacant Lot in Homestead
I learned a lot about the history of the Homestead area. It was interesting to learn to take into account the balance between contextualization and creativity when designing. The program helped me be creative and utilize space. ––High School Apprentice
High school students from the City of Pittsburgh, Deer Lakes, Fox Chapel, Franklin Regional, Mt. Lebanon, North Allegheny, Shaler, and Upper St. Clair participated in PHLF’s Architecture Apprenticeship program, offered through the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, in the fall of 2017. After learning about the design process, visiting their design site at 307-09 East Eighth Avenue in Homestead, and touring various places for inspiration, students presented their designs to a jury of architects on December 7, 2017.
David Lewis, a founding trustee of PHLF and a distinguished urban designer, reminded the students that “the past is the living tradition that we all inherit. We take the city as we find it, in all its problems, appreciating what exists and envisioning what can be. In your project, you are re-stitching the urban fabric: you are visualizing what can be on Homestead’s historic main street.”
The photo gallery below shows the vacant lot at 307-09 East Eighth Avenue in Homestead and the design concepts presented by eight high school Apprentices on December 7, 2017. Their drawings show a:
- sewing/crafting/clothing donation center;
- train-themed restaurant;
- yoga studio and coffee shop;
- gym, smoothie bar, and office space;
- community center with exhibits, a recording studio, and rooftop garden;
- mixed-used building with a cafe, affordable housing, a stage for local talent, and a rooftop garden;
- farmer’s market, grocery store, community space, and housing;
- and museum with space for a cafe, community gatherings, and private room rentals.
The apprentices described their experiences during PHLF’s five-session crash course in architecture as: “eye-opening, inspiring, enlightening, making history modern, thought provoking, well organized, unique, exciting, helpful, educational, and fun.” Thanks to the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, PHLF has been presenting its Architecture Apprenticeship program since the early 1980s.
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Architecture Feature: Usonian Architecture in Metropolitan Pittsburgh
The idea for the Taliesin Fellowship had come to Mr. and Mrs. Wright at the depth of the Depression in 1932 when . . . architectural commissions had dribbled to zero. If there where no buildings to build, they thought, why not build “builders of buildings”? Mr. Wright was then 65 years old, an age when most people retire. But he was as youthful and fit as a man half his age and full of creative energy.— Cornelia Brierly, Tales of Taliesin, 1999
The Taliesin Fellowship
In 1932 Wright and his third wife Oglivanna created an apprentice program for young architects and would-be architects (it was not mentioned in the first edition of An Autobiography (1932) although it figures prominently in later editions). The Wrights’ plan combined innovative educational theory, Depression-era economic reality, and elements of 19th-century architectural apprenticeship. Those who sought architectural training in the 1880s had not been obliged to attend schools of architecture (although several fine ones existed) but could choose to work as apprentices under the direction of the senior staff in the office of an established architect. Wright had done this himself, working for J. Lyman Silsbee, W. W. Clay, and Adler & Sullivan, and he had established an apprentice system in his Oak Park studio in the 1890s.
The apprenticeship program he established in 1932 was called the Taliesin Fellowship, after Wright’s Wisconsin home. Apprentices paid a fee to work on Wright designs under Wright’s direction in the nearby Hillside School building, a private educational facility Wright designed for his aunts in 1901. In addition, the apprentices maintained the Taliesin buildings, worked on the Taliesin farm, shared food preparation duties, displayed their musical and theatrical talents, and participated in a communal existence revolving around the life and work of a master architect. The Taliesin Fellowship would be an integral part of Wright’s remaining 27 years which saw the design of some of the most acclaimed buildings of his career. Since his death in 1959, the Taliesin Fellowship has been one of the principal heirs of Wright’s estate.
Wrightian Design Centered in Southwestern Pennsylvania
Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s great retreat for the Kaufmann family, was designed in 1935 and completed in 1938. During the 1930s Wright also explored more modest designs for moderately-priced homes suitable for 20th-century American lifestyles—a preoccupation of his throughout his career(s). He now called such houses “Usonian” (adapted from United States of America) and the house he designed in 1937 for the Jacobs family near Madison, Wisconsin is widely considered the first. Although the appearance of Usonian houses was not uniform, each house contained standardized elements to reduce construction costs while providing the kind of domestic environment Wright considered desirable—flat roofs, a carport instead of a garage, no basement, a heating system embedded in the floors, built-in indirect lighting, built-in furniture, natural wood cladding (rather than plaster or paint). Like all Wright houses, however modest, a fireplace was essential. Brick, stone, and wood were considered desirable building materials.
Cornelia Brierly and Peter Berndtson
One reader of An Autobiography was Cornelia Brierly, a Pittsburgh-area resident and Carnegie Institute of Technology architecture student. Inspired by the book and dissatisfied with her course of study, Cornelia applied for admission to the Taliesin Fellowship; she arrived in 1934 and was there while Fallingwater and the major projects of the 1930s were designed and constructed.[1] In 1938, Peter Berndtson, a Massachusetts native who had studied architecture at M.I.T., joined the Fellowship. Peter had worked as a painter and set designer in New York City, later apprenticing with an architectural firm there. Peter and Cornelia were married in 1939.In 1939 Cornelia designed Southwestern Pennsylvania’s first Usonian house for her aunts, Hulda and Louise Notz, in West Mifflin outside of Pittsburgh.[2] Soon after, the Berndtson’s moved to Spokane, Washington, returning when possible to Taliesin. In 1946, Cornelia and Peter and their two daughters moved to Laughlintown, PA, near Ligonier in Westmoreland County and established their architectural practice.
They designed buildings together for over a decade and divorced in 1957. That year. Cornelia decided to return to Taliesin as an interior designer and landscape architect with Taliesin Architects and instructor at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.[3] Peter moved into Pittsburgh and established an office in East Liberty where he practiced until his death in 1972.[4]
The work of Cornelia Brierly (1913-2012) and Peter Berndtson (1909-1972) is not as well known as it should be. Both were trained by Frank Lloyd Wright, and together and separately they created some of the finest Wrightian residential architecture to be found anywhere.[5] Beginning with the Notz House of 1939 and taking into account their e
leven-year joint practice and Peter’s work between 1958 and 1972, almost 90 designs have been documented. Most are residential, and while buildings were erected as far East as Franconia, New Hampshire, with one outside of Harrisburg and three near State College, most of the constructed buildings are in Westmoreland and Allegheny Counties.Many of the more ambitious projects were never realized: 3 of the 8 houses planned at Meadow Circles in West Mifflin (1947-50) were erected; St. Michael’s in the Valley Episcopal Church, Rector, PA (1951), although a modification of Peter’s design for the Parish House was erected in 1970; and an apartment building, multi-unit, and single-family dwellings on a 72-acre section of Mt. Washington (1957).
Cornelia Brierly and Peter Berndtson were able to realize approximately 40 constructed buildings of extraordinary quality, inspired and nurtured by Frank Lloyd Wright; they are masterworks of the next generation, progeny of the architectural community the older and wiser Wright did not deny.
Albert M. Tannler
PHLF E-News, December 2017[1] Many of Cornelia’s writings during the 1930s are included in Randolph C. Henning, ed., At Taliesin: Newspaper Columns by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship 1934-1937 (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992): 58, 82, 85-87, 92, 94-95, 103, 110-12, 125-127, 129, 130, 139, 144, 151-55, 159-60, 170, 310.
[2] See Cornelia Brierly, “Notz House: A Shelter of Warmth and Rest,” Pittsburgh Tribune Review Focus 24:32 (June 13, 1999): 9.
[3] Cornelia Brierly, Tales of Taliesin: A Memoir of Fellowship (Arizona State University 1999).
[4] For Peter Berndtson’s work see Aaron Sheon. The Architecture of Peter Berndtson [An Exhibition of Contemporary Architectural Drawings, Photographs and Color Slides, The University Art Gallery, March 28th through April 18th, 1971] (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1971) and Donald Miller and Aaron Sheon, Organic Vision: The Architecture of Peter Berndtson (Pittsburgh: The Hexagon Press, 1980).
[5] See James D. Van Trump, “Peter Berndtson, Pittsburgh Architect,” Carnegie Magazine 55:9 (November 1981, 27-29); Charles Rosenblum, “Precedent and Principle: The Pennsylvania Architecture of Peter Berndtson and Cornelia Brierly,” Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly (Spring 1999): 12-15. Two houses designed jointly and one house designed by Peter Berndtson are in Tobias S. Guggenheimer, A Taliesin Legacy: The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Apprentices (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995): 27, 30, 37, 71, 98-101.
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“The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You” Is Available from PHLF
Our library prides itself on having a strong collection containing Pittsburgh history and Pittsburgh authors. This is an excellent addition to our collection. Thank you! ––South Park Township Library
I am going to use this book as a reflective tool in order to engage my 12th-grade students in conversation on the history and changes in Pittsburgh. ––The Neighborhood Academy
Thanks to a generous grant from The H. Glenn Sample Jr. MD Memorial Foundation, PHLF has a quantity of The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You, by Samuel Hazo, to distribute to schools, libraries, and nonprofit organizations. A distinguished poet, author, and professor, Mr. Hazo was the founder and director of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh from 1966 to 2009. This collector’s edition includes five essays by Samuel Hazo, written in 1986, 1992, 1998, 2003, and 2017, and photographs by 16-year-old Paige Crawley.
Following the book’s release this fall, PHLF has distributed more than 450 books to more than 25 organizations, including the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County libraries, regional university libraries, public and parochial schools, community development professionals, the City of Pittsburgh, and City of Asylum.
Please contact Louise Sturgess, PHLF’s Executive Director, with your request if you are interested in receiving books to use for educational purposes: louise@phlf.org; 412-471-5808, ext. 536. We are happy to honor requests while supplies last.
PHLF has received many notes of thanks from the various organizations that have received The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You, by Samuel Hazo, including the following:
Thank you for the generous gift. People are interested in learning about their community. Everyone will learn something new from reading The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You. ––Green Tree Public Library
I will offer this book to our students to read, especially when they are studying the history of Pittsburgh. ––Urban Pathways Charter School
Great author! Has a relationship with our school. Thank you! ––Chatham University
Sam has visited our campus many times and we are always interested in his work. We also have a local history collection and a Public History class taught on campus. Thank you very much. ––Waynesburg University Library
With the college being so close to Pittsburgh, it’s nice to have books like this for our students to read. Sometimes students conducting undergraduate research like to have local history source material for their projects. The photographs are a special touch, reminding our students that creativity at any age should be encouraged and lauded. ––Westmoreland County Community College
This gift will be added to our book collection within our library to be enjoyed by our nearly 500 residents who call Asbury Heights home. ––Asbury Heights
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Greene County Heritage Workshop
More than 40 owners and caretakers of historic buildings in Greene, Washington, and Fayette counties gathered in Waynesburg on November 4 for the first “Greene County Heritage Workshop: How to Care for Your Historic Building(s),” sponsored by PHLF and 16 local co-sponsors. A full-day’s program of preservation topics, resources, and inspiration was presented by state, regional, and local officials, along with PHLF staff and local experts.
At the end of the day, one participant wrote: “Names of sources, details and examples were excellent. I feel overwhelmed but I now have a road to follow.” Another wrote: “It was a very enlightening day.”
The program began with Bill Callahan, Western PA Community Preservation Coordinator of the State Historic Preservation Office (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission), stating that “It is an economic imperative for communities like Waynesburg to use historic preservation as a 21st-century development strategy. Heritage tourism is a major industry. By saving historic places, a community provides meaningful, authentic experiences for citizens and for visitors––and maintains a sustainable, healthy built environment. Preservation is a design ethic for creating sustainable, livable communities in the 21st century.”
Johnna Pro, Regional Director of Community Affairs for the PA Department of Community and Economic Development, explained that the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) has matching fund programs for community revitalization. They are very competitive, but if you have a good solid project, she wants to hear about it. DCED encourages communities to find corporate sponsors to partner with them since corporations receive tax credits through the Neighborhood Partnership Program. She also recommended the community development program of the Federal Department of Agriculture.
Architectural historian Lu Donnelly shared images and information on the many architectural treasures in Greene County. She showed examples of the buildings that contribute to Greene County’s significant architectural heritage, including farms and outbuildings, covered bridges, historic religious properties, residential buildings, a rare, surviving coal patch town, main streets, civic and commercial buildings, rural churches, and academic buildings ranging from one-room school houses to universities.
Clare and Duncan Horner spoke about their c. 1880 farm of 70 acres in Greene County. Since their goal is to keep the land together and maintain the historic buildings, they donated a conservation easement to PHLF, thus protecting the farm and buildings in perpetuity. The Horners talked about the process of donating an easement and the benefits that have come from their on-going relationship with PHLF.
While enjoying a complementary box lunch, participants watched “Through the Place,” a feature-length documentary highlighting the history, achievements, and impact of PHLF since its founding in 1964. The regional preservation story was set within the context of the preservation movement nationwide and includes comments from nationally recognized architects, preservationists, authors, and historians.
Practical tips were the focus of the afternoon sessions. Architect Ken Kulak and Bryan Cumberledge, Waynesburg Borough Code Enforcement Officer, emphasized that building codes are about life-safety issues. They discussed how architects and local officials can work together with property owners from the outset of a project to effectively navigate building rehabilitation projects. Historic construction expert Fred Smith showed samples and evaluated options for the repair or replacement of historic windows and doors.
Participants agreed that the workshop format was effective and would serve as a model as PHLF develops additional workshops in 2018. PHLF funded the workshop thanks to donations to its 50th Anniversary Fund. More than 65 members and foundations contributed to PHLF’s 50th Anniversary Fund between 2014 and 2017. One of the goals of that fundraising effort was to help PHLF provide technical assistance to main streets and historic neighborhoods throughout the Pittsburgh region, with a particular emphasis on outlying counties where no local preservation organizations exist to assist concerned citizens.
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Architecture Feature: Louis Arnett Stuart Bellinger (1891-1946)
Louis A. S. Bellinger was born in Sumter, South Carolina, on September 29, 1891. He was educated in mathematics and engineering at Howard University (B.S. in Architecture, 1914), then taught mathematics at Fessenden Academy, Ocala, Florida (1914-15), and at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina (1916-18); he took a leave-of-absence to serve in World War I in 1917. In 1919 he and his wife Ethel Connel Bellinger arrived in Pittsburgh, where he is listed as an architect in the city directory. His first major commission was designing Central Park, home field of the African-American Pittsburgh Keystones baseball team in 1920, at the request of team owner, Alexander M. Williams. In 1922 he opened an office at 525 Fifth Avenue and advertised in the Classified Business Directory. Some Bellinger commissions were listed in the Western Pennsylvania construction magazine, The Builders’ Bulletin, beginning in 1922. He joined the office of the City Architect in 1923—the first African American to be hired—and as an assistant architect he designed a police station and remodeled service buildings in the city parks. In 1926 he received a major commission for the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Book Concern in Philadelphia. A year later he won the commission to design the Pythian Temple in Pittsburgh for the African American Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, Jurisdiction of Pennsylvania. The lodge/commercial building at 2007-2013 Centre Avenue was completed in 1928 and was one of the largest and most prominent secular buildings in the predominately African American Hill District, known as Pittsburgh’s Harlem.[1]Between 1927 and 1929 Bellinger posted current projects in the Pittsburgh Architectural Club/Pittsburgh Chapter A.I.A. journal, The Charette. (Unlike his white colleagues, however, his contributions were not acknowledged by the editor.) While the Pythian Temple was under construction, Bellinger was one of three black architects invited to participate in the first major exhibition of the work of African American artists in the United States, sponsored by the Harmon Foundation and held in New York City, January 5-15, 1928. In 1932 Bellinger designed Greenlee Field on Bedford Avenue in the Hill District for the Pittsburgh Crawfords baseball team. Greenlee Field, called the “finest independent ball park in the country, and one of the few black-controlled ones,” [2] opened on April 29, 1932. Later that year Bellinger became the first black candidate for Congress from the 32nd Congressional district; he lost the election. (An African American did not win a Congressional seat from Pennsylvania until 1958). In 1933 Bellinger was invited to contribute to the Harmon Foundation’s second African American art exhibition. Bellinger became the first African American hired as a City of Pittsburgh Building Inspector; he held this position from 1937-1939 and from 1941-1942. He practiced architecture briefly in 1940 and resumed his architectural career in 1943.
On February 3, 1946, Louis Bellinger died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 54 years old. He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. The New Granada Theater, formerly the Pythian Temple, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 27, 2010.
[1] In 1935 the Pythians defaulted on their mortgage payments, and although ownership of the Pythian Temple would not be resolved until 1948, the lodge lost control of the building in 1936. It was remodeled by Pittsburgh architect Alfred Marks as the New Granada Theater and opened May 20, 1937.
[2] Rob Ruck, Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 156.
