Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation announces Historic Building and Landscape Designations

Pittsburgh, PA –

The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s Historic Landmarks Plaque Committee recently awarded historic designation to some 38 buildings, 3 districts, and 2 designed landscapes.

Residential architecture ranged from an 1832 log house in Gibsonia, Victorian houses in Leetsdale and Oakdale, Colonial Revival houses in Shadyside and Munhall, an Arts & Crafts enclave in Fox Chapel, to two 1936 houses in Ross Township’s Swan Acres, which Architectural Forum called “the nation’s first modern American subdivision.”

The oldest of three designated churches is the sole surviving documented building in Pittsburgh by the region’s first woman architect, Elise Mercur.

There are two golf courses, a municipal building, two industrial sites now converted to housing, an African-American landmark, several distinguished structures adapted to new uses, and an urban oasis—Mellon Square—that is an outstanding example of mid-20th-century design, urban planning, and local philanthropy.

• The specific sites designated as “Historic Landmarks” are (in chronological order):

• Chalfant Log house, 2716 West Hardies Rd., Gibsonia, Hampton Twp., 1832

• “Elm Ridge,” James Gardiner Coffin / John Walker house, 1 Breck Dr., Leetsdale, Isaac Hobbs, architect; David Kerr, builder, 1869. Plan published in Hobbs Architecture, 1873

• W. J. Stewart / Howard Stewart house, 124 Hastings Ave., Oakdale, 1873

• St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (now Christian Tabernacle Kodesh Church of Immanuel), 2601 Centre Ave., Hill, Elise Mercur, architect, 1896

• Colonial Place Historic District, Shadyside, George S. Orth, architect; E. H. Bachman, landscape artist, 1898

• Carnegie Steel Manager’s house, 518 E. 11th St., Munhall, 1900

• Armstrong Cork Company Buildings (now The Cork Factory Apartment Lofts), 2349 Railroad St., Strip, Frederick J. Osterling, architect, 1901, 1902; addition 1913

• Elmhurst Road Historic District, Fox Chapel, Wilbur M. May et al, 1904-20

• St. James Episcopal Church (now The Church of The Holy Cross), 7507 Kelly St., Homewood, Carpenter & Crocker, architects, 1905-06

• Mt. Lebanon Golf Course, 1000 Pine Ave., Mt. Lebanon, George A. Ormiston, landscape architect/designer, 1907-08, formerly Castle Shannon Golf Club

• First National Bank of Pitcairn (now commercial/rental), 500 2nd St., Kiehnel & Elliott, architects, c. 1910

• Central Turnverein (now Gardner Steel Conference Center, University of Pittsburgh), 130 Thackeray St., Oakland, Kiehnel & Elliott, architects, 1911-12

• Five H. J. Heinz Company buildings (now Heinz Lofts), Progress St., Troy Hill, 1913-27, H. J. Heinz Company, R. M. Trimble, and Alfred Kahn, architects

• Fox Chapel Golf Club, 426 Fox Chapel Rd., Alden & Harlow, architects, 1924-25; Brandon Smith, architect, 1931; course designed by Seth Raynor, 1925

• Pythian Temple (now New Granada Theatre), 2007 Centre Ave., Hill, Louis A. S. Bellinger, architect, 1927-28; remodeling 1937-38, Alfred M. Marks, architect

• Keystone Athletic Club (now Lawrence Hall, Point Park University), 200 Wood St., Downtown Pittsburgh, Benno Janssen for Janssen & Cocken, architects, 1928

• Mt. Lebanon Municipal Building, 710 Washington Rd., William H. King, Jr., architect, 1928-30

• Southminster Presbyterian Church (formerly Mt. Lebanon Presbyterian Church), 799 Washington Rd., Mt. Lebanon, Thomas Pringle, architect, 1927-28

Edgeworth Club, 511 East Dr., Brandon Smith, architect 1930-31; additions

Swan Acres Historic District, Ross Twp., Quentin S. Beck for Beck, Pople & Beck, 1936

Mellon Square, Downtown Pittsburgh, James A. Mitchell for Mitchell & Ritchey, architects; Simonds & Simonds, landscape architects, 1954-55