YPA’s 2013 Top 10 List - Young Preservationists ...€¦ · YPA’s 2013 Top 10 List ... cians like Walt Harper, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane, and Art Blakey

YPA’s 2013 Top 10 List

1. Wilkinsburg Main Street and Pennsylvania Station, Wilkinsburg

2. Hazelwood Carnegie Library, Hazelwood

3. Crawford Grill Number 2, Hill District

4. First Home of the National Negro Opera Company, Homewood

5. Pittsburgh Sign, Mt. Washington

6. Race Street, Homewood

7. Aaron's Building, Connellsville

8. Westinghouse Atom Smasher, Forest Hills

9. Meason House, Lemont Furnace

10. McKees Rocks Main Street and Miles Bryan School, McKees Rocks

The mission of Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh is the active

participation of young people in the preservation of historic

resources.

“Give Life to History”

Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh | PO Box 2669 | Pittsburgh, PA 15230-2669 | youngpreservationists.org

Ms. Carol Peterson

Awarded: Young Preservationists Association’s

Michael Eversmeyer

Promise Award

Michael Eversmeyer Promise Award:

Named for longtime Pittsburgh preservationist and architect, Michael Eversmeyer, the “Promise Award” is YPA’s premiere award for recognizing leadership in the field of historic preservation. This award highlights those who make a difference in our communities and we believe Carol Peterson’s work represents great promise for ad-vancing historic preservation in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Carol Peterson Bio:

Carol Peterson is a Lawrenceville resident with a lifelong passion for old buildings and their neighborhoods. Since 1989, she has documented the history of houses and other buildings in Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania, and beyond.

Carol has a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning and a BA in English writing. She was an architectural historian in the Cultural Resources section of the engineering fi rm Michael Baker Jr. Inc. from 1996-2007, doing research in Pennsylvania and 12 other states to identify historically signifi cant properties that were potentially affected by transportation and development projects.

Carol co-authored Allegheny City: A History of Pittsburgh’s North Side with Pittsburgh Steelers chairman/for-mer ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney, published in 2013 by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Also, in March 2013 Carol was honored by Pittsburgh City Council for her historic preservation advocacy includ-ing for the Iron City Brewery, for the Allegheny City book, and for the house restoration projects that she has done in Lawrenceville.

Photo credit: Mark Knobil

1Wilkinsburg Main Street

and Pennsylvania Station,Wilkinsburg,

Allegheny County

Year Built: 1890s - 1940s

Original Top 10 Year: 2008

Wilkinsburg, at one point an attractive streetcar surburb, was a key stop along both the William Penn Highway (Penn Avenue) and the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Wilkinsburg’s commercial core was an outstanding example of the classic Western Pennsylvania small-town main street, but has lost multiple buildings along Penn Avenue over the past few years. Wilkinsburg unsuccessfully applied for PA Main Street designation (failing in part due to a lack of signifi cant structures and the inability to gain traction revitalizing its business district after massive population decline). Fast forward to today, one of the two most important architectural assets in Wilkinsburg (second only to the train station), the historic Penn Lincoln Hotel, built in 1927, is slated for demolition. YPA strongly supports a stay on further demolitions along the corridor, mothballing structures, and a commitment to preserving what gems remain in this struggling urban town.

Centrally located between the busway and Penn Avenue, lies Wilkinsburg’s most important architectural asset, the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. Built in 1916, the one-story station has an ornate interior and exterior, with marble and granite walls and plaster ceilings. The station has been out of use since 1975 and was designated as a local historic landmark in 1984. The structure has historical signifi cance, visual appeal and a central location to transit, business and homes, but its condition has deteriorated and requires serious rehabilitation. A feasibil-ity study was conducted in 2009-11, but there is no current update on its progress. There is a strong need for political leadership and community support in order to spur movement on preserving this important structure.

2Carnegie Library,

Hazelwood,

Allegheny County

Year Built: 1899


The Hazelwood Branch of The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh opened to the public in 1900, and was one of the fi rst branch libraries of the free Carnegie Library system to serve Hazel-wood, Glenwood, and the Glen Hazel communities. It was built with rich wood details, a stained glass dome, and a 250-seat auditorium. The building was closed in 2004 due to declining patronage and is now vacant.

The Hazelwood Library was nominated to be a City Historic Landmark in January 2004. In March 2004, the City Planning Commission and Historic Review Commission recommended that this building be designated a City Historic Structure. The Hazelwood Initiative identifi ed the redevelopment of this property as a top priority and committed to having community input during the planning phases for the building’s reuse.

Today, focus has been shifted to attracting a private buyer who is interested in renovating the building in accord with urban redevelopments plans in Hazelwood, including nearby Second Avenue. The site lends itself to mixed-use offi ce and community space.

Photo credit: Demian Aspinwall


3Crawford Grill

Number 2,Hill District,

Allegheny County

Year Built: 1943

Original Top 10 Year:

The Crawford Grill was opened in 1943 as the companion to the first Crawford Grill, which closed after a fire in 1952. A major center for black social life in the Hill, it was owned by William A. (Gus) Greenlee, who was an owner of the Negro League’s Pittsburgh Crawfords baseball team. Notable musi-cians like Walt Harper, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane, and Art Blakey played here. The Crawford Grill went through a renaissance in the mid-1990s, but eventually closed in 2002 due to sewage and electrical problems, moving to Station Square and eventually closing for good in 2005. The building has not been occupied and is showing signs of deterioration, even with the upper floors being used a residential dwelling. The Crawford Grill is surrounded by blighted properties, many of which will be torn down, and is not a City of Pittsburgh historic landmark despite its PHMC marker. Currently for sale at $250,000, the African American Preservation Jazz Society has also shown interest in the site as a possible location for an African American Jazz Museum.

4First Home of the

National Negro

Opera Company,Homewood,

Allegheny County

Year Built: 1908


The Queen Ann style building, erected in 1908, served as a private residence until 1941, when William A. “Woogie” Har-ris and his wife Ada rented out the upper fl oors as rehearsal space for the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC), the fi rst African-American opera company in the United States. Cardwell moved the NNOC to Washington, DC in 1951 when her husband was offered a new job in the city, but the third fl oor remained a local guild and rehearsal space for the com-pany until Dawson’s death in 1962, when the NNOC disbanded.

In 1958, Woogie Harris began to rent out apartments in the house to well-known Latino and African American fi gures such as Robert Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates, singer Lena Horne, and Pittsburgh Steelers Roy Jef-ferson, John Nesby, and Marvin Woodson, who at the time were restricted from rooming in hotels or apartments in other parts of the city.

In 1994, a dedication ceremony was held to place a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission historical plaque outside the house. YPA coordinated the replacement of a state historical marker in 2007 (the original one had been ripped down). That same day, both the Mayor of Pittsburgh and City Council issued proclamations honoring the National Negro Opera Company. The house became a City Historic Landmark in spring 2008 and is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, restoration efforts of the former home of the National Negro Opera Company are spearheaded by the National Opera House organization. Jonnet Solomon-Nowlin, NOH president and the building’s owner, plans to open a steelpan academy in the space .


Photo credit: http://www.nationaloperahouse.org/

5Pittsburgh Sign,

Mt. Washington,

Allegheny County

Year Built: 1920s-1950s


The sign, which is 226 feet wide and 30 feet high, has been around for more than 75 years, with several different advertis-ers. During the 1950s Iron City used the billboard, and WTAE Channel 4 used it after that. Between 1967 and 1992, the sign was used by Alcoa, which turned the sign’s background into a gray-and-white pattern that spelled the name “Pittsburgh.” Some still refer to it as the Alcoa sign even though the alumi-num company’s name disappeared over 20 years ago.

The name and logo of Bayer, the German-based plastics, chemicals and drug maker that has its U.S. headquarters in Robinson, has appeared on it since April 3, 1995. At night, one-third of the time it shows the Bayer logo and the time of day; one-third is science quiz questions; and one-third is ads for events being staged by nonprofit organizations. The sign is part of the Emerald View Park, a collection of existing parks—Grandview Park, Olympia Park and Mt. Washington Park—and green hillside land that offer incredible views of Downtown Pittsburgh, the Three Rivers and surrounding green hillsides to the southwest.

Numerous complaints about the rusty sign have persisted for years. Last year, the sign’s owner, Lamar Advertising, had said it was process of soliciting estimates for repairs but could not provide a timetable for the work. One year later, Lamar has tested a new neon product multiple times but is still soliciting estimates for repairs. Bayer is on board with the renovation product and Lamar plans to go to Pittsburgh City Council once they have a blue-print and pricing. Public offi cials and community members should continue to advocate for the sign’s renovation, in order to push this process along.

6Race Street,

Homewood,

Allegheny County



Since the 1940s, Homewood has been a major hub of black life in Pittsburgh. Homewood’s Race Street, a five-block area in central Homewood, is a prime example of middle-class black Pittsburgh, with well-kept homes from the 1920s, modest yards, and a friendly neighborhood vibe. However, Race Street, like all of Homewood, suffers from vacant properties (both vacant buildings and vacant lots) and a lack of investment. Elwin Green chairs the Save Race Street Committee and has organized the neighbors into action. He has led community events and cleanups, in collaboration with the City, URA, Rosedale Block Cluster, Operation Better Block, GTECH, and Rebuilding Pittsburgh Together. The Save Race Street Com-mittee continues to lead community-wide cleanup efforts and planning activities, and their work with local law enforcement has resulted in stepped-up police involvement and a 40% decrease in crime on Race Street over the past fi ve years.

Many of the vacant homes on Race Street can still be saved, and include valuable amenities like fireplaces, mantles and parquet floors that would be expensive features in new construction. Restoring these homes would be a worthy investment, but preservation has not received the same prioritization as has the building of new housing in Homewood. We hope that partnerships with the city continue to occur, and that the URA or another organi-zation can assist with a strategic plan to save these houses.

Photo credit: Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Photo credit: Elwin Green

7Aaron’s Building,

Connellsville,

Fayette County

Year Built: 1905


The Aaron’s Building is historically important for having once housed Connellsville’s greatest furniture retailer. The Aaron’s Furniture Store was founded in Connellsville by Myer Aaron, a Jewish immigrant merchant. In a city where a considerable amount of historic building fabric has been lost or detrimentally altered, the Aaron Building is the last great remnant of a once thriving district of furniture retailers and, to a greater extent, a physical reminder of the once bustling commercial core of Connellsville. Among the tallest buildings in the city, the Aaron Building was one of several “skyscrapers” to be built at the opening of the 20th century in Connellsville. It is among the last to remain.

The building has been abandoned since the 1970s and has suffered from neglect. Absentee ownership and unfinished construction work on the building in the mid-2000s has caused the building to deteriorate further. Its roof is in need of immediate repair and a wall facing a vacant lot on Pittsburgh Street needs to be stabilized. The Aaron Building could be a tremendous opportunity for the beginnings of a revitalized Connellsville, and would be an ideal location for a boutique hotel, a restaurant, apartments, offices, or any number of other ventures that can complement the Great Allegheny Passage Hike and Bike Trail.

On May 15, 2013, Connellsville City Council sold Aaron’s Building to Terry “Tuffy” Shallenberger Jr. of Shal-lenberger Construction for $1, on the condition that he either restores, renovates or demolishes the building within 18 months of the property transfer. The new owner is said to be in love with the building and the city has reallocated the funds set aside for demolition. We are cautiously optimistic for the future of this building!

8Westinghouse Atom

Smasher,Forest Hills,

Allegheny County

Year Built: 1937


The “Atom Smasher” was the nation’s fi rst industrial Van de Graaff generator, built by Westinghouse Electric & Manufactur-ing Company in 1937, in an effort to conduct research into nuclear physics and remained in use until 1958. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers added the atom smasher to its list of Electrical Engineering Milestones in 1985. In 2000, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation deemed it histori-cally signifi cant — a designation that includes no legal protec-tions. Sold in early 2013 to investor/developer Gary Silversmith, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the Carnegie Science Center and the Sen. John Heinz History Center all passed on taking stewardship because of the structure’s size and unknown cost of moving it. Silversmith has stated that he is still interested in fi nding someone who wants to preserve the generator and can offer at least what it’s worth as scrap.

A Historic Resource Survey nomination form was submitted for the Westinghouse Atom Smasher to the Penn-sylvania Bureau of Historic Preservation. Unfortunately, since the property was already sold before National Register status was sought such a ruling will not possess any legal force, but it can focus further public attention on the endangered status of the Atom Smasher. Donors are needed to fund the removal of the Atom Smasher from its current site to a safe location and restoration to ensure its permanent survival.

Photo credit: joshuajscully.wordpress.com

Photo credit: explorepahistory.com/Corbis-Bettmann

9Meason House,

Lemont Furnace,

Fayette County

Year Built: 1802


Built in 1802, the Meason House is nearly as old as Pittsburgh. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Meason House was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990. It is a unique expression of the English Palladian villa in America, built by Isaac Meason, a pioneer in the region’s iron industry. Built of ashlar sandstone, the seven-part home consists of a 2.5-story main section fl anked by two hyphens, end pavilions, and dependencies. Also on the property are a contributing frame bank barn, two stone dependencies, the remains of a shed, a low cut stone wall with entrance pylons, and a stone wellhead.

The house is threatened with encroaching development and a potential sale of the house that would require its dismantling and removal from the site. There has been substantial attention focused on the preservation of this house from many aspects of the community. A long-term solution could include the house’s fair market sale to a preservation-friendly foundation, homeowner, or educational laboratory for craft programs at Penn State or Indiana University of Pennsylvania, however, all past efforts to come to an agreement with the homeowners have failed.

10McKees Rocks Main

Street and Miles

Bryan School,McKees Rocks,

Allegheny County



The McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation is driving change in McKees Rocks, which includes transforming the economy, design, and function of lower Chartiers Avenue.

With the opening of Hollowood Music and the Father Ryan Arts Center, more projects are in the works. This includes the restoration of the Roxian Theater into a mid-sized performance space, 597 and 602 Chartiers Ave., the Miles Bryan School, and the Shoppes at Chartiers Crossing. Listing the Main Street de-velopment on YPA’s Top Ten List would provide a much-needed boost to fundraising and fi nancing efforts and help legitimize the years of work that McKees Rocks has put in to bring their proud town back to life.

Photo credit: Ellen Kitzerow


About UsYPA educates, trains, and inspires a new generation to appreciate their history and improve their neighbor-hoods. YPA provides events, tours, research, training, technical assistance, and special projects that encourage the next generation to take a leadership role in preserving their communities. Incorporated in 2002 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, YPA was the fi rst organization of its kind in the United States.

More than 5,500 people have participated in our education programs, events, tours, research, and partnerships. Our efforts have helped secure a historic fi lm exchange in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood; we have published the region’s fi rst study on the Economic Impact of Historic Preservation; and we have conducted tours of historic properties for hundreds of people, including teachers, students, and young professionals.

YPA is currently guided by a 7-member voting Board of Directors. YPA operates in the nine-county southwestern Pennsylvania region that includes the following counties: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Washington, and Westmoreland.

Board MembersGerrod Winston, Chair Rashan Walker

Ellen Kitzerow, Vice Chair Lou Kroeck

Courtney Patterson, Secretary Derek Eversmann

Katy Sawyer, Treasurer

Sponsors

Phyllis Kitzerow & Gene Strassburger

Edwin J. Strassburger

Colin White

Documents

YPA’s 2013 Top 10 List - Young Preservationists ...€¦ · YPA’s 2013 Top 10 List ... cians like Walt Harper, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, John Coltrane, and Art Blakey