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By Albert M. Titnnler

Preface

bout five years ago I participatedin a series of conversations that ultimate-ly led to my joining the Landmarks staffon January 1, 1990. Although I was bom,raised, and attended college in theCommonwealth, I had been happily liv-ing in Chicago for over two decades andknew little about Western Pennsylvania.What most impressed me on my initialvisits was the landscape - the hilly ter-rain, the abundant vegetation, and therivers. The contour of the land made itdifficult at first to decipher the buildings;what stood out were the wonderful nine-teenth-century residential and commer-cial buildings on the North and SouthSides.

Wanting to learn about the architectureof the region and about the PittsburghHistory & Landmarks Foundation, Ivisited Landmarks' bookstore and boughtJamie Van Trump's Líft and Architecturein Pittsburgh and_Walter C. Kidney'sLandmark Architecture : Pittsburgh andAllegheny County and A Past Still Alive:The Pittsburgh History & LandmarksF oundation C e leb rat e s Tw enty - F iv e

Years. I took them back to Chicago toread and digest while deciding whether totake the job in Pittsburgh. Jamie's booktold me a great deal about Pittsburghbuildings and Pittsburgh architects anddid so with such breadth and affectionand involvement that Pittsburgh, throughhis writings, became a vital and appealingplace. Vy'alter's Landmark Architectureelucidated architectural shapes, textures,and patterns and revealed the subtletiesand quirkiness of the designs and thedesigners working in the Pittsburgh area.A Past Still Alive demonstrated that whilePittsburgh, like many U.S. cities duringthe post-war period, had demolishedscores of splendid structures and erected

many mediocre ones in their place, thecity still contained an extraordinary (ifnot widely-known) range of fine build-ings preserved by an active and effectivepreservation movement. Of course, I tookthe job.

IntroductionIf one reads the literature about historicpreservation, it quickly becomes evidentthat the Pittsburgh History & LandmarksFoundation is, as Roberta Gratz wrote inThe Living City, "one of the nation'smost successful historic-preservationorganizations."' If one participates inLandmarks' activities and programs, andreviews historical records and publica-tions generated by the foundation, itbecomes clear how consistentLandmarks' vision, purpose, andapproach have been through threedecades, despite differing problems andchanging conditions.

A chronology of the key events andactivities of Landmarks' first twenty-fiveyears was compiled by Walter C. Kidneyand published as the final section ofAPast Still Alive.2 Walter has prepared a

similar chronicle for the past five yearswhich is soon to be printed in a separatebooklet. My purpose in this essay is toexplore the "character" ofthe organiza-tion and attempt a written "portrait" ofthe Pittsburgh History & LandmarksFoundation. Let me begin at the end, as itwere, by presenting a summary ofLandmarks' quintessential characteristics.First, let me state what Landmarks is notand does not attempt to be:

\ffhat Landmarks is not:. It is not an academic organization.'. It is not a museum.". It is not a public or governmental

enterprise.. It does not serve an economically or

racially homogeneous constituency.

Let me rephrase these statementspositively:

What Landmarks is:. Landmarks is an activist organization

committed to practical preservation,and to educational programs andpublications that may be scholarly,informational, interactive, or acombination thereof. Innovation andflexibility have characterizedLandmarks' approach andmethodology.

. Although Landmarks has worked tosave individually significant struc-tures, including sites that publiclyexhibit historical objects (and sup-ports the goals of such sites), its spe-cial focus is the preservation ofcityneighborhoods, and, in the case ofStation Square, the restoration andrevitalization of neglected, primeriverfront/downtown acreage throughadaptive reuse.

. Landmarks is a private, not-for-profitfoundation that seeks support fromthe private sector, uses availablepublic funding for particular pro-jects, and generates revenue to sup-port its activities. Landmarks assiststhe development of the local econo-my through preservation programsthat contribute to the local tax baserather than consume it.

. Landmarks was the first historicpreservation organization in theUnited States that did not displacelow- and middle-income neigh-borhood residents but helped themstay in their neighborhoods, restoretheir properties, and improve thequality oftheir lives. Its teacher-training programs and scheduled lec-tures and tours are offered through-out Allegheny County to persons inall economic and social circum-stances. Today, its staff is among themost diverse in the city ofPittsburgh, employing a proportion-ately large number of minorities, andincludes women and minorities inleadership positions.

T his thirtic th-annia e r s ary

s up p lnment ß d.e die øt e d

inmemory ofBarbara. Drew Hoffstot

( 1 91 9 -199 4 ), a foundingt r us t ee and a in e - cha,irman

of the Pittsburgh

History & Landmarks

F ound.øtion, who helped

articulnte Løndmarks'

goøls andmoued. our

o, r g aniz ation s t e a d,ily

.foruardfor three

d,,ecad.es.

What is Landmarks' purpose?Its raison d'etre ís twofold:. Preservation (of significant architec-

ture in Allegheny County). Education (articulating the aesthetic

and practical importance of savinghistoric structures and areas)

Moving from principles to practical activ-ities, let us examine Landmarks' programand focus on its priorities during the pastthree decades, drawing upon statementsfrom within the organization as well as

on the assessments of historians of thepreservation movement as they reflectupon Landmarks' work in Pittsburgh.

o

Page 2 Landm,arlts Celebrates Thirty Years

The 1300 block of Liuerpool Street ín Ma.nchester, sched,uledfor demolitíon. This scene inspired James Van Trump and Arthur Zíegler to establish

the Pittsburgh Hístory & Landrnarlts Found,atíon.

The Pittsburgh History &Landmarlts F oundation w as

orgønized, in September 1964 top r e s era e signific ønt ar chite c tur e

in Allegheny County ønd to edu-cq,te the public øbout the historicheritage of the areø.

James D. Van Trump and

Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr.,

Landmark Architecture of Allegheny CountyPennsylvania (1967), p. 1

[La,ndmarlts] began ... in 1964

on Liaerpool Street .... James D.

Van Trurnp and Arthur P.

Ziegler, Jr., discouragedby theenormity of local architecturq,llosses through urban redeuelop-ment and general ind,ffirence,were wq,Ilting along this sadlysøgging late Victori&n øaenue.

As rays from the falling sunpícked out the detailing of thegingerbread porches, the twomen, moued.by the beautyamidst the squalor, resolued to

find, øn øhernøtiue to redeuelop-ment by demolítion. The twomen talked with Barbara D.Hoffstot, Pittsburgh trustee ofthe l{ational Trust for HistoricPreseruation, Charles C aaertArensberg, q.ttorney and pastpresid,ent of a moríbund chapterof the Society of ArchitecturøIHistorians, and CøIuin J.Hømihon, head of theDepartment of Cíty Planning.PHLF was bornfrom. theirresolae, øndfrom the outset hadø deep commitment to findingnleüns to reait,q,lize

neighborhoods without remoaíngeither historic build,ings or theinhabitants.

Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr.. Revolving Funds forHistoríc Preservation (1975), p. 78 Many historic buildings in the heart of Allegheny were demol-

ishecl in the 1960s -..

... for the creation of Allegheny Center MaIl, shown here in1968.

Historic Preseraation After 1960:*From an Ameniryt to an, Enuirorlnlerùtul [Yecessity"s

Tìe birth of the Pittsburgh History &Landmarks Foundation must be seenagainst the challenges the historic preser-vation movement had to meet in post-Vy'orld War II America. Organizationshitherto devoted to preserving individualsites - at first, places associated withmajor historical figures or events andlater buildings of unusual architecturalquality - found themselves facing thewholesale destruction of the fabric ofAmerican cities. What had been a move-ment devoted to conserving the mile-stones of American cultural life now con-fronted the possibility of massive, irre-versible urban destruction. Historicpreservation changed, in the words ofAda Louise Huxtable, "from an amenityto an environmental necessity."

In the 1950s and 1960s in Pittsburgh,as in many other cities, urban "renewal"meant destroying much of the existingbuilt environment. Here too, political andcivic leaders and agencies, professors ofurbanology and professional planners,architects and builders advocated levelingmuch of the city and "starting over."Pittsburgh's "Renaissance" is seen in thepopular mythology as a totally benignand positive revitalization of the city.Indeed, aspects ofthe program, such as

controlling air and water pollution, weresalutary. Other aspects of the agenda,

however, involved wholesale propertydestruction, regardless of the impact oftraditional and successful patterns ofurban living, the displacement of thou-sands ofresidents, and the eradication ofthousands of distinctive buildings andtheir replacement with drab and banalstructures.

University of Pittsburgh historian RoyLubove recently examined city planning,urban renewal, and historic preservationin Pittsburgh. He writes:

The last chapter in the original 1964edition of Lorant's Pittsburgh: TheStory of an American City, was enti-tled "Rebirth" and was presumably byDavid Lawrence as told to John Robinand Stefant Lorant. The followingpassage does capture the essence ofRenaissance I as it concerned the pastand p re s erv ation value s :

"Pittsburgh's great effort has beento remake itself, to change as fast as

it can from the environment of theol d ni nete e nth - cen t ury technolo gyinto the sleek new forms of the

future. The city is racing time. It hasno inclínation to look back; it has nonostalgia for the past. The city wel-comes tomorrow, because yesterdaywas hard and unlovely. Pittsburghlikes buildings that glisten with

stainless steel and aluminum, and ithas little time for the níceties ofarchitectural criticism when it com-pares what it gained with what itIost. The town has no worship oflandmarks. Instead, it takes its plea-sure in the swing of the headacheball and the crash offalling brick. Itwill tear down bridges wiíhout a sec-ond thought...."

This anti - hi s to ric al, anti - naturali s t icbias .. . would find expression in suchprojects as Gateway Center, EastLiberty, Lower Hill and the LowerNorth Side (notably Allegheny Center),and ultimately the concrete spaghetti ofI-279 slashing through the East StreetValley. Boulevards and parkwaysusurped the riverfronts in the GoldenTriangle region and generally therivers, as sources of recreational orc ultural o r residential dev elopment,were ignored. The problem continuedup to the era of the Convention Centerand Three Rivers Stadium which mightas well be situated in the MohaveDesert as in a city deÍined by its rivers.

It was in this inhospitable environ-menÍ that the Píttsburgh History &Landmarks Foundation was estab-lished in 1964.6

Anniuersary Supplement . Nouember 7994 Page 3

" C ommuniqt Renew al-T hr ough-Re st or ation"' I 9 64 - 1 9 69

The øuthorities hctd ... chosen onlyone tned,ns of reneual: that ofígnoring the giuen, existing enai-ronment in øreas marked.forrenewal; they rnoued out the people

who liaed there, demolished øcres

of buildings, and then buih neu¡

ones -

but generølly not for the

former resídents. In rnany cases

rebuílding wøs slou ín coming ønd'

aøluable acreclge in the city still lies

unused ønd untaxed øt a. tíme

when land, housing, and money

øre uery scerce.B

The PittsburghHistory & Land-marks Foundationbegan working evenbefore the incorpo-ration date ofSeptember 30,1964

- a preservationstudy of the 1300block of Liverpool

Street in Manchester, funded by HelenClay Frick, had begun several monthsbefore. In 1966, the revolvingPreservation Fund was established with a

$100,000 grant from the Sarah ScaifeFoundation, and Landmarks began towork aggressively to save and restorebuildings in three historic neighborhoods:the Mexican War Streets; the Manchesterneighborhood, where Landmarks helpedresidents organize what is now theManchester Citizens Corporation andworked with the Garden Club ofAllegheny County to encourage and sup-port street beautification; and the SouthSide [Birmingham], assisting local com-munity organizations restore commercialEast Carson Street buildings and resi-dences on nearby streets. An historic-architectural site survey of AlleghenyCounty was begun in 1965 - the firstcounty-wide survey compiled in the

United States (funded primarily by agrant from the A.V/. Mellon Educationaland Charitable Trust). ln 1967,Landmarks worked with the Departmentof City Planning to prepare an historic-preservation ordinance for the city ofPittsburgh (adopted in l97l).

Although Landmarks was not able tohalt demolition of buildings such as theAllegheny Market House on the lowercentral North Side (that entire area, as

Professor Lubove notes, was a majorurban renewal casualty) or the FourthAvenue Post Office downtown (althougha number of architectural elements werepreserved), Landmarks successfully cam-paigned to save the North Side PostOffice (now the Pittsburgh Children'sMuseum), the Union Station rotunda (cab

stand), and the Neill Log House inSchenley Park, the latter with a grantfrom the Richard King MellonFoundation.

Landmarks began a vigorous publica-tions program. Jamie Van Trump's arti-cles about Pittsburgh architecture hadappeared, since the mid-1950s, in publi-cations such as the Journal ofthe Societyof Architectural Historians, Carne gieMa g azine, W e ste rn P ennsy lv aniaHistorical Magazine, and Charette, thejournal of the Pittsburgh ArchitecturalClub which he had edited since 1961. AsLandmarks' first architectural historianhe began to write for the foundation andunder its imprint. Landmarks' initial pub-Iications were a series of pamphletsissued under the title, "The Stones ofPittsburgh." The first to appear in 1965

were devoted to an architectural tour ofPittsburgh, Liverpool Street, the UnionArcade, and Evergreen Hamlet. In 1967,the results of the county-wide surveywere published as Landmarks' first book,Landmark Architecture of Alle ghenyCounty Pennsylvania.

In 1965, Landmarks began its tourprogram, and the next year started a

newsletter, the forerunner of PHLF News.Jamie's gift of 4,000 books to the foun-dation created the Landmarks library(handsomely augmented in recent yearsby generous book donations from WalterKidney). In 1968, the four-year-oldorganization began its historic landmarksplaque program, funded by an AlcoaFoundation grant, identifying architec-turally significant sites throughout thecounty; the first recipients were theAllegheny County Courthouse and Jailand the ljnion Arcade.

The followin g y ear, Landmarks beganto offer restoration and preservation tech-nical and consulting services to home-owners and community organizations. Aspart of its Mexican War Streets restora-tion effort. Landmarks began an experi-mental program, the first of its kind in thenation, in conjunction with the PittsburghHousing Authority:

A major breakthrough came for us

when we reached agreement .. . to leaseone of our housíng units to theAuthority, which will in turn lease it toa low income family. In this case theAuthority guarantees us a rent thatenables us Ío carry out restorationwhile at the same time providing hous-ing for low income people. This agree-ment provides far-reaching solutions toone of the dilemmas we face in preser'vationtoday: how tofinance therestoration of the many ftne houses thatstand in blighted areas without dis-locating the residents.e

The young organization became adept atinnovative financing, simultaneouslyexploring creative uses of governmentprograms in ways that accomplishedpreservation goals and developing theassets of the revolving Preservation Fund,generously supported by Pittsburgh's pri-vate philanthropic foundations.

Landmarks' first published report to itsmembership ín 1969 looked back overthe first five years, articulating the foun-dation's approach to historic preservationas activist rather than antiquarian, typi-fied by practical restoration projects with-in city neighborhoods in partnership withindigenous residents. The organizationreaffirmed its determination to fightagainst the prevailing urban "renewal"ideology, and a willingness to find newways to do so.

We have come to be recognized asan industrious and aggressive preser-v ation-historical organization, one thatis willing to venture into unexploreda,reas....

We have also become knownfor ourattempts to effect restoration withoutresorting to the method so tried andproven by other preservation organiza-tions in the United States, that of mov-ing the poor out and moving the richin.... Effective preservation ... oftenentails working with people in complexsocial situations. Often our time goesmore inlo community action than directarc hite ctural p re s e rv ation, b ut w e

know that the buildings are lost if thepeople who inhabit them are unawareof their importance, are indffirent toit, or are unable to pay for mainte-nance.

Often too, we are a Socratic gaffiyquestioning the means and methods of"progress," and at times we are anintransigent opponent of it. We arewilling to take the risk of unpopularityand the criticism Íhat accompaniese xp e rimentation and di s s ent.

But always we work not in order topreserve the artifacts of our past inmisguided sterility; always we do itwith an eye to the future, with anawareness that there can be no futurewithout a pail.to

By the time Landmarks celebrated itsfifth birthday, key elements in the organi-zation's program of preservation and edu-cation were in place:

. architectural site surveys, preservationstudies, and preservation advocacy;

. preservation and restoration ofhistoricneighborhoods and structures; and

. publications, landmark plaque designa-tions, tours, and other educationalendeavors.

Additional programs would be developedand new challenges faced, but the priori-ties and the modus operandi had beenestablished. Landmarks had also begun toattract national attention, receiving anAward of Merit for outstanding contribu-tions to local history from the AmericanAssociation for State and Local Historyin 1961.

Landmarks d.emon-

str&tes facdderemodeling on EastCarson Street

Jamie in the Charette do.ys

The Langenheim house on LiaerpoolStreet ín Manchester, as it wøs whenLandmarks receíued, it for preseruationand euentual restoratíon.

Cítizens of Manchester

Poge 4 Landmarks Celnbrates Thirty Years

Aboue: 1728 Brighton Place,øfter renoa a,tion. Right :Andrea and, Dolores Barron,neus residents in the BríghtonPlace neighborhood, 7993

could be replenished and redirected, andmore preservation/ restoration projectsundertaken.

The Preservation Fund also allowedLandmarks to forge agreements such asthe one it entered into with the PittsburghHousing Authority in 1969

- an exam-ple of what Roberta Gratz has calledLandmarks' ability to "creatively [com-binel private funds with available govern-ment funding"'¡ - by providing suretyfor projects considered "high risk" andhitherto disdained or avoided by gov-ernment funding agencies and privatefinancial institutions.

Landmarks' revolving PreservationFund has grown into a major fundingsource providing loans and technicalassistance to over thirty Pittsburgh neigh-borhood and preservation organizationsas well as consulting services to commu-nity organizations in twenty-two cities inthe United States. Preservation Fundassets have grown from $100,000 to $2million; the fund has leveraged almost$700 million including govemmentgrants and assistance from the privatesector, plus over $800 million in bankloans. A list of Preservation Fund loanswould fill a small book; projects rangefrom $1,000 to a local historical societyto support a campaign to save a threat-ened historic building to a $10 millionjoint venture program with a majorPittsburgh lending institution ro assistcommunity organizations undertakinglong-range preservation planning pro-jects. In addition to providing loans andgrants for a particular need or project, thefund has also underwritten the initialphases of such longer-term programs asHome Ownership for Working People,which helps low-income working peoplepurchase and maintain historic properties,or the Brighton Place project which hasrestored two blocks of Victorian houses,started two community-owned business-es, and will eventually oversee therestoration of some 200 houses on fiftyacres inJhe Calbride section of the NorthSide. The Preservation Fund:. supports programs that educate neigh-

borhood residents about the architec-tural and cultural value of their historicbuildings;

. acquires property, when necessary andifpossible, to stabilize an historic area,halt further deterioration, and establishrestoration models, and provides fundsto enable community groups to pur-chase derelict buildings or notorious

And,er son M a.nor, Liu erp ool S treet,Ma,nchester

The Priory, restored, as a bed-and-breakfast inn, D eut schtown

operations that impede neighborhoodsafety or growth;

. assists organizations to gain the skillsneeded to manage their own preserva-tion and development programs;

. provides risk capital in the form oflow- to zero-percent interest rate loans,often as interim financing until long-term financing can be arranged, so thatsignificant community developmentcan take place; and

. provides grants to enable neighborhoodgroups to visit other communities withsimilar problems or hire consultants toadvise and train residents in using his-toric preservation as a means of urbanand human renewal.

l{eighborhoodReaitalizationIn its sixth year of existence, Landmarkshosted its first major conference, theConference on Practical Preservation inUrban Areas, co-sponsored with theNational Advisory Council on HistoricPreservation, the National Trust forHistoric Preservation, and thePennsylvania Historical and MuseumCommission. (Since then Landmarks hassponsored a number of other conferencesand seminars on various historic preser-vation issues.) The conference providedthe impetus for a book, HistoricPreseryation in Inner City Areas: AManual of Practice, published in 197 |and in a revised edition in 1974. V/hatLandmarks had learned by trial and errorin Pittsburgh, its successes and its fail-ures, and its preservation principles andapproach were made available, for thefirst time, in a widely disseminated writ-ten form. Historic Preservalion in InnerCity Areas repeated Landmarks' com-mitment to maintaining the indigenoussocial fabric of historic neighborhoods:

"Persistent and Far-Sighted Rescue and Restoration",1970-1994

The PreseruationFundRehabilitation of a neighborhooddepend,s absolutely on a generøIuillingness to see it work and, a,

belief thøt it can worlt. But itdepend,s, no less absolutely, onmoney

- rnoney for materials,w o rlt ma,nshíp, and, p r ofe s sio n ølseraices. This is where the reuola-ing fund, cornes in; properlyapplied, ø reaoluingfund, eaen asmøll one, cq,lls into play economicønd psychological for ces that effectchønges far exceeding norrnal reølest&te inuestments.t2

The endangered Dickson log house(c. 1797) on Western Auenue in Ben Auonuas purchased, by a localhistorical asso-ciatíon with the help of a loanfrom thePreseraation Fund.

As stated before, Landmarks' revolvingPreservation Fund began in 1966 with aninitial grant of $100,000 from the SarahScaife Foundation. The revolving fundenabled Landmarks to buy the mostdilapidated building in an hisroric neigh-borhood (thus preventing its demolition,and forestalling the accelerating deterio-ration of neighboring structures), restoreit, and either sell or rent it to residents.The process was then repeated until agroup of homes was restored. Low-inter-est loans were also made to individualsand community groups for worthy preser-vation projects, such as facade restorationor other neighborhood improvement pro-jects. Sale and/or rental fees and repaidloans were returned to the "revolving"Preservation Fund; thus limited resources

Anniaersary Supplement . Nouenber 7994 Page 5

We make a commitment to try to retainthe people who live in the areas wherewe acquire property and we try todevelop residences for all income lev-els within the same neighborhood.to

It also stressed, rather uniquely for thetime, the utility and the psychologicalvalue of preservation, as well as tradi-tional aesthetic concerns:

I P reservation organizations ] shouldshow the community what architec-turally valuable districts and structuresit has; not only should such structures,such districts be clearly noted, buttheir aesthetic qualities and their use-fulness must be fully described. Thegroup nxust enthusíastically point outhow these landmarks can continue toserve the community through specíficnew uses or revived uses.tt

The first reasonfor preserving historicdistricts is a practical one. Our citiessimply cannot handle the logistics ofdislocating the vast number of peoplethat would be required were we todemolish all of our old and decayingneighborhoods and substitute newones.... Preservation, on the otherhand, recycles the structures that arethere. It does not require taking downthe exísting bricks, windows, base-ments, andfloors, hauling them away,and bringing ín new bricks, windows,Iumber, and block and building themup again.... Utilities do not have to berelocated, streets remain intact, andmost importanl, patterns of Iift essen-tially continue as beþre.... Infact,neighborhood morale is vitalized byrestoration activity within the area,whíle ntassive demolítion destroys thatmorale as well as the buildings.t6

Remarkably, Historic P re s ervatíon inInner City Areas recognized the limits ofthe preservation organization's involve-ment and influence in the historic areas itsought to preserve, aad acknowledgedthat the neighborhood, historic or not,belonged to the people who live there. Itsaw the role of the preservationist as anurturing one with a termination point:

The best program is the one that devel-ops out ofthe "givens" ofthe neigh-borhood rather than being imposedon it.'1

Once the [historic] district is well onits way to completion you and yourorganization should move on to otherprojects. The area should belong tothose who inhabit it. You must guidethe programfrom a distance, offeringadvice when it might be taken, letîingpeople find their own way whenit won't.t8

Essentially, however, we have reallyfreed - or at least started the processof freeing - this area to determinewhat it wants for itself. Within the next

few years the area shouldfirm up wellenough to determine íts own course, togo on its ownway - andwe will thengo ours.'e

Landmarks has always preferred to workwith and support neighborhood commu-nity organizations, offering services andadministering funding for neighborhoodprojects through established community-based groups. Landmarks also activelyworked with neighborhood residents toform such organizations where noneexisted; the Manchester CitizensCorporation and the Mexican War StreetsSociety are two such groups. The mostnotable achievement of this kind isundoubtedly the Pittsburgh CommunityReinvestment Group (PCRG), originallyan umbrella organization of communitygroups founded in 1988. Collectively, themember organizations are able to achievepolitical and economic goals that eludedthem as individual entities. Beginning as

a consortium of eighteen neighborhoodorganizations who joined together toencourage one lending institution toinvest in inner-city areas in compliancewith the Community Reinvestment Act,PCRG has grown to thirty-three organiza-tions who now work with every majorfinancial institution in Pittsburgh; thesebanks have committed some $2.4 billionto fund PCRG projects, and the neighbor-hood consortium is the leading CPA pro-gram in the country, and the only one ledby a preservation group. In addition toproviding various forms of financialassistance, Landmarks provided the man-power and funded the salary of PCRG'sexecutive director (Landmarks'Preservation Fund director) StanleyLowe, from 1988 through 1993, and hasfunded, and continues to fund, PCRG'sannual publication analyzing locallending institution investments in historicinner-city neighborhoods. PCRG's annualbanking awards luncheon recognizesthose lending institutions which haveworked most diligently to establish equallending pattems and implement afford-able home ownership in low- and middle-income neighborhoods; the event isperhaps the most diverse gathering ofblack and white, young and old, low-through-high income individuals, unitedfor a common purpose, in the city ofPittsburgh.

Historic Sites

Assisting a community-based constituen-cy to take over the support and mainte-nance ofhistonc neighborhoods has alsobeen the primary method of preservingand maintaining historically significantsll¿s. Landmarks helped organize theSteel Industry Heritage Task Force andfunded the Task Force's first two years.The Burtner House Society, the RachelCarson Homestead Association, the OldSt. Luke's Auxiliary, the Friends ofPhipps Conservatory, are some of thegroups established with Landmarks' helpand they (or their successors) now haveprimary responsibility for their historicsites. Although Woodville, the NevilleHouse, is supported and cared for by theNeville House AuxiliaÍy, the site, theoldest non-military National HistoricLandmark in Allegheny County, has beenowned by Landmarks since 1976.

N euilln H ouse Auxiliary u olunteer s

(from left to right) Hazel Peters, R

Campbell, and. l{ancy Bishop

The interior of OLd, St. Luke's in Scott Tousnship

Wood.aíIle,the John a.nd Presley l\euille house in CoIIier Township

A street in Lo,wrenceuille

The Burtner House in Harrßon Township

Page 6 Landmarks Celebrates Thírty Years

The Allegheny Post Offrce in the late 1960s The Old Post Office under renewal asLandmark s' he adquarter s

The Pittsburgh Children's Museum giuesnew life to the Old Post Offi.ce building.

One of the few suruiuíngBessemer conaertor s ) 0,n

element of StatíonS quar e's Ríu e r u: alk thatr e c alls P itt s burgh's indu s -tríal past

The North Side Post Office, a grandItalian Renaissance building completed in1897 and one of the few public buildingsof the city of Allegheny to survive thedemolition on the centrat North Side, wassaved when Landmarks agreed to pur-chase and occupy the building.Landmarks' Five Year Report of 1969proposed that the "North Side Post Officebe restored as the Museum of Pittsburghand Allegheny County History" as wellas "a vital ingredient in North Side itself.It would be available for local art showsand other community exhibits.",oAlthough the building, renamed the OldPost Office Museum, served asLandmarks' headquarters from l97l to1985, and housed, as did the adjacentgarden, architectural artifacts salvagedfrom demolished buildings,2' it neverbecame the hoped-for regional museumor community center. Landmarks sub-sequently proposed a new use for thestructure as the home of the PittsburghChildren's Museum which occupied thebuilding in 1985. Landmarks gave rhebuilding and garden ro rhe PiftsburghChildren's Museum in 1989.

Other significanr sites like St. Mary'sPriory, the Eberhardt & Ober Brewery,and the Flatiron building in Sewickleyare examples of privately owned historicsites housing successful commercialoperations that were saved and restoredwith assistance from Landmarks.

Between 1916 and 1994, Landmarksdemonstrated that the willingness toexperiment and "venture into unexploredareas," proclaimed in its Five yearReport, was once again more than rhetor-ical when it restored and developed fivehistoric buildings on fifty acres ofPittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad propertyalong the Monongahela River, acrossfrom downtown Pittsburgh, as a multi-

use riverfront facility. The project wasable to go forward due to a generous andfarsighted gift of $5 million from theAllegheny Foundation. Station Squarenow contains some 130 businessesemploying 3,000 people, and pays $3million a year in real estate and parkingtaxes; an average of three million peoplevisit Station Square-each year (867o ofPittsburgh's visitors), making it theregion's premier attraction. An IndustrialRiverwalk has been begun along theriverfront; artifacts from the region'smajor industries will illustrate and docu-ment the industries that created the mod-ern city, long dominating irs economyand influencing its social character. Amaster plan for further development ofthe site was prepared over a two-year-period with the assistance of urban plan-ners Ehrenkrantz and Eckstut of NewYork, landscape architects Oehme & VanSweden of Washington, D.C., andrestoration architects Landmarks DesignAssociates Architects of Pittsburgh, andapproved by Pittsburgh's mayor and citycouncil with unanimous public support int992.

Changing AttitudesWhile Landmarks was evolving, urbanrenewal and planning agencies began toalter to some extent their "tear it down"policies. Pittsburgh's Urban Rede-velopment Authority commissionedLandmarks to do a preservation study ofManchester as early as 1970, and surveysand studies were subsequently performedfor URA, the Allegheny Conference onCommunity Development, and variouscity and county agencies. In 1916,Landmarks worked with the AlleghenyCounty Parks Department to convert the

parking lot in the Allegheny CounryCourthouse courtyard into a park, fundedin large measure by the Sarah ScaifeFoundation. In 1983, unable to preventthe demolition of three historic buildings,including the Loyal Order of MooseBuilding, to make way for new construc-tion in the Cultural District, Landmarksworked to ensure that three adjacent cityblocks of fine nineteenth-century com-mercial buildings would be preservedthrough establishment of the Penn-Liberty Historic Disrricr. Since 1987,Landmarks has chaired the AlleghenyCounty Courthouse RestorationCommittee.

Preseruation Surueys,Studies, and AdaocacyLandmarks has continued to prepare his-toric-preservation surveys and studies,and to provide technical assistance.Landmarks' most ambitious survey pro-ject was the second Allegheny CountyHistoric Sites Survey, undertaken for theCommonwealth from 1979 to 1984,which greatly expanded the Landmarks-initiated 1965 -66 survey, documenringvirtually all significant historic-architec-tural sites within the county. Surveyshave also been performed of downtownbuildings, Oakland, the borough ofTarentum, and Sewickley Heights.Landmarks surveyed the extant buildingsof architect Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr.,for the Pennsylvania Historical andMuseum Commission in 1987. That sameyear, two impoftant steel industry surveyswere also undertaken: one, for thePHMC, documented the historicalresources of the iron and steel industry infour counties; the other, for the RegionalIndustrial Development Corporation, sur-veyed the condition of the former U.S.Steel National and Duquesne Works.Landmarks also prepared NationalRegister nominations for individual struc-tures and for possible districts -Schenley Park and a Homestead historicdistrict are the largest. Between l99l and1993, Landmarks assisted LandmarksDesign Associates Architects prepare thefirst African-American Historic SitesSurvey of Allegheny Counry (to be pub-lished by the Pennsylvania Historical andMuseum Commission who sponsored thesurvey). Landmarks also provides fund-ing for surveys performed by other organ-izations, such as the East Carson StreetHistoric District nomination prepared in1993 by the South Side LocalDevelopment Company.

Anniuersary Supplement . Nouember 1994 Page 7

:

Left: The Pittsburgh & Lake ErieStationínthe 1920s. Aboue: Fiaehistoríc railroad, buildings nou

form the nucleus of StationSquare, an ad,aptíue-use projectinítío,ted by Landmarlts in 1976.

Aboae Left: The old Freight Houseunder remodeling. Aboue right:The Shops at Station Square, ofuhich some øre conuerted boxcars. Far left: Mahing ouer themain roaiting room of the P&LEStation as the Grand Concourse,1977. Left: The Grand Concourse

Page B Landmarhs Celebrates Thírty Years

kl,'- \*r'

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W;I;" t'itl

'r,' M

Miliilli ,,llr I

t1l,'t

ir

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ffi,It)'

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M

The best progranx is the

one tha,t deuelops out ofthe oogíuens" of the neígh-

borhood rclther than

being imposed on ít.17

Once the [historíc] dís-

tríct ís weLL on. its utay to

completion you and yourorgdnízation should nl"oa e

on to other projects. T}rre

area should belong to

those who inhabit it. You

must guide the program

from a distance, offiringaduice ushen ít might be

taken, Letting people findtheír oun u)ay usheru ítu)ontt.tu

E s sentially, how ea er, w e

haae really freed - or atleast started the process

of freeing - this arel, to

determíne ushat it u¡ants

for itself. Within the next

feus years the area should

frr^ up well enough to

determine íts own course)

to go on its oun üay -

and use wíll then go

oLLrs.te

The demolition of St. Peter,s in Oakland.January,1990

Conserving Soldiers' and Sailors'Memorial, revitalizing Allentown (for theHilltop Avenue ImprovementAssociation), exploring adaptive uses forthe Braddock Carnegie Library, andassessing the impact of I-19 on Glenfieldwere a few of the studies performed inthe 1970s. In the 1980s, Landmarks stud-ied the preservation needs of AlleghenyCemetery for the Allegheny CemeteryHistorical Association, analyzed the pos-sible reuse of the Sewickley BoroughBuilding, and reviewed a proposal to cre-ate a county marina, among others. In1992, Landmarks and Landmarks DesignAssociates Architects examined H.H.Richardson' s Emmanuel EpiscopalChurch and made recommendations forits restoration, and in 1994, Landmarksprepared a study funded by the AlleghenyFoundation to explore means of preserv-ing religious properties.

Frequently, however, Landmarks hasprepared studies and made recommenda-tions as a preservation advocate, in aneffort to preserve a structure or recom-mend a new and appropriate use. Some,like a proposal to save the Byers-Lyonhouses at the Community College ofAllegheny County or the proposed adap-tive use study of Fourth Avenue bankbuildings, have borne fruit; others, like aproposal to convert Union Station into ahotel (in order to find an acceptable usefor the building and avoid demolitionnecessary to build a new hotel) or to pre-vent the demolition of St. peter,s Churchin Oakland, have not. Landmarks' staffhas often testified before planning agen-cies and at public meetings.

E32U

Anniaersary Suppl.ement . Nouember 7994 Page 9

O

Jamie signs copies of Majesty of theLaw at its launching party at the

Courthouse, 7988.

EducationLandmarks has continued to publishbooks and brochures. Ljntil his retirementin 1981, Jamie Van Trump continued his"Stones of Pittsburgh" series and, inconjunction with The Carnegie, publishedAn American Palace of Culture (1970).Life and Architecture in Pittsburgh, a

selection from the some 500 articles and

essays he has written, was published byLandmarks in 1983, and his long-awaitedMajesty of the Law: The Court Houses ofAllegheny County was published in 1988,on the centennial ofthe dedication ofH.H. Richardson's Allegheny CountyCourthouse and Jail. Walter Kidney has

written of Jamie's work, "he retainedscholarly objectivity about facts buteschewed the sort of scholarly cautionthat has given the world so much worthybut dull prose,"22 while Arthur Zieglerstates:

Many cities have their historians. Iknow ofnone which has an interpreterofthe experiences ofthe past that haveaffected people, accretion by accretion,who offers them up in such a sumptu-ous style, beautiful as ctn art ín itself.Jamie reminds us that our building,sreflect lives; they express and symbol-ize those people who were involved increating and in using them.23

In 1994, Professor Margaret HendersonFloyd defined the importance of Jamie's

writings when she wrote, "Van Trump'snumerous publications have provided thefoundation for my research, as for allstudies of Pittsburgh architecture."2a

In 1975, Landmarks published a studyof the North Side, Alleghen¡ co-authoredby Walter Kidney and Arthur Ziegler.Walter, who succeeded Jamie as architec-tural historian, wrote The Three Rivers(19 82) ; Landmark A rc hit e c t u re :Pittsburg,h and Allegheny County (1985),

which grew out of the Allegheny CountyHistoric Sites Survey and remains the pre-eminent architectural history of theregion; Pittsburgh in Your Pocket: AGuide to Pittsburgh-area Architecture(1988; rev. ed., 1994); A Past Still Alive:The Pittsburgh History & LandmarksF o undation C e leb rat e s Tw e nty - F iv e

Years (1989); Allegheny Cemerery: ARomantic Landscape in Pittsburgh(1990); and a half-dozen books for otherpublishers. Walter is preparing books onthe nature of architecture, architect HenryHornbostel, and Pittsburgh's religiousbuildings, and revising LandmarkArchitecture : P ittsburgh and Alle ghenyCounty for a second edition. LouiseSturgess, executive director ofLandmarks, has worked closely withWalter on all of these publications, as

well as on all of Landmarks' educationalmaterials since 1981.

Walter C. Kíd,ney,

Land.morlts'a r chite clur aI hist orianand t¿uthor ofLand,-mark Architecture:Pittsburgh and Alle-gheny County; A Past

Still Alive; AlleghenyCemetery; etc.

P ublished in I 9 B 5, LandmarkArchitecture: Pittsburgh andAllegheny County is now out-of-print. Houeuer, Løndmarlts'staff nou is uorhing on a'

reaísed edition.

a

Page 70 Landmarhs Celebrates Thirty Years

Aboue: Students d,isplay pro-jects and brídges created,forthe *Hands-On HistoryFestiaal" in 1989.

A aisitor to the "Hands-On HistoryFestiaal" makes cr rubbing of a histor-ical plaque.

Sarah Euoseuich, on the occasion oftherelease o.f Sarah in 1987

Other noteworthy Landmarks publica-tions are Street Cars in Literature (1980);Famous Men and Women of pittsburgh(1981), based on papers presented at aUnited States Bicentennial conferenceLandmarks sponsored; Sarah: Her Lifu,Her Restaurant, Her Recipes (1987), anaccount, partly oral history, of a pitts-burgh immigrant and South Side restaura-telur ; P itt s burgh's Landmark Arc hiÍ e cture :A Concise Bibliography (1994); and, ALegacy in Bricks and Mortar:Arc hite ctural Tre as ure s of Afri c an-American Pittsburgh, a guide to theNational Register-eligible African-American historic sites in AlleghenyCounty (in prepararion). In 1994,Landmarks published the definitive studyof architects Longfellow, Alden &Harlow in association with The Univer-sity of Chicago Press: Architecture afterRic hards on : Re g ionali sm b eþ reModernism - Longfellow, Alden, andHarlow in Boston and pittsburgh, byMargaret Henderson Floyd.

Marga,ret Henderson Floyd, on the occa-sion of the release o.;ÉArchitecture afterRichardson in 1994

As part of Landmarks' educationprogram, P ittsburgh Treasure Hunt,Landmarks' first publication for children,written in conjunction with a walkingtour, appeared in 1916. A slide/tapeprogram for elementary and secondaryschool students, "An Eye for Architec-ture," was prepared by Landmarks andthe Allegheny Intermediare Unit (AIU) in1982. Subsequently, rheAIU has offeredcredit courses for teachers: "ExploringYour Neighborhood Through History andArchitecture"; the "Hands-On History"summer institute for teachers; "ExploringYour City: Pittsburgh's Past and present,;;"Exploring Architecture"; and"Pittsburgh Heritage"

- all created andoften taught by Landmarks'staff. Morerecently, professional architects andteachers have joined Landmarks' staff inteaching the AIU inservices. This sum-mer Sue Neff created and tausht"Pittsburgh Heritage II." Thiieacherinservice was offered as a sequel ,toLandmarks' eight-day workshop that has

Afüø-.AherionHistoric Sit6 Swevof Alleghoy Couty

been offered forthe last elevenyears. Eliza SmithBrown of Land-marks DesignAssociatesArchitects createdand taught "TheAfrican-AmericanLegacy in

Pittsburgh," with the assistance of DanHolland of the Pittsburgh CommunityReinvestment Group and black-historyscholars. Landmarks' staff also partici-pates in the non-credit adult extensioncourses sponsored by the University ofPittsburgh.

In 1984, Landmarks was able to estab-lish a Revolving Fund for Education, theresult of a $200,000 granr from theClaude Worthington Benedum Founda-tion. The fund supports all aspects ofLandmarks' education programl it wasaugmented in 1989 and 1990 by majorgrants from the Richard King MellonFoundation, The Mary Hillman JenningsFoundation, and an anonymous donor.

Two traveling exhibits, "LandmarkSurvivors" and "Architecture: TheBuilding Art," were created in 1985 withfunding from the Henry C. FrickEducational Commission and ppGIndustries Foundation; the exhibits travelto schools and community organizations.A "Landmark Survivors" video was cre-ated in 1991 for school use based on theexhibit, and an "Architects-in-the-School" program was established in 1991to complement the "Architecture: TheBuilding Art" exhibit. In 1986, Land-marks hosted the first of six "Hands-OnHistory Festivals" for students and teach-ers. Two years later the "PortablePittsburgh" program was begun forschools, offered by Landmarks, docents."Downtown Dragons," an architecturalwalking tour for school children andadults, was created ]n 1994.

A library of slide-shows on a variety ofhistorical and architectural topics wascreated in 1982; regularly updated andexpanded, the slide library is available toteachers, organizations, and members.

Regularly scheduled tours continue tobe given, and Landmarks offers speciallyarranged tours for visitors, such as thethree-hour "All City" bus tour that spe_cially-trained docents lead. Groups ófvisitors from cultural and historicalorganizations from around the countrvand abroad, such as the School ofArchitecture of the State University ofNew York at Buffalo (who visit annual-ly), the Sociery for IndustrialArchaeology, the Frank Lloyd V/rightHome and Studio Foundation, Friends ofThe Gamble House, the ChicagoArchitecture Foundation, Friends of theAmerican Museum in Britain,Washington Art Associates, and theAmerican Federation of Arts plan theirvisits to Pittsburgh with assistance fromLandmarks, and members of the staffand docents guide the visitors throughthe area.

Third-grade students pose by cL crecttureat Stotion Square before departing ontheir "Downtousn Dragons" u:alhing tour.

Teachers in the "Hands,On History Summer Institute,', 7986

Anniuersary Supplement . Noae¡nber 1994 Page 17

L \n,* '\. il[tu, i r¡ h]

ilnlr ,h{h ,i,r¡,riì,iJitü ,ili I 1

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A stud,ent aiews the "Landmarh Suruiaors" exhibit.

Fox Chøpel AreøHigh School stu-dents create aoideo based on the"Land,markSuruíuors" exhibit.

AIan Tísdale,uho participatedin Land,marlts'"Architects-in-the-Schools" pro-gram, worksuíth LibraryElementaryschool studentsin 1992.

Fifth graders at WilkinsburgSchool show-off the old-fashionedcostumes used in the "PortableP itt sbur gh" pr e s ent atio n.

Students buíld, a toLaer os part ofthe "Architecture: The BuildingArt" exhibít,

r rl,'iflilftlli]il sl

Page 12 Landmarks Celebrates Thirty Years

Board of Trustees

þDr.

Dr. Albert C. Van Dusen,Chairman

Charles Covert Arensberg, Esq.,Chairman Emeritus

Esther L. Barazzone, Ph.D.Clifford A. BartonRoger D. Beck

Jeanne B. BerdikMeyer BergerMark Stephen BibroMrs. Kenneth S. Boesel

Charles H. Booth, Jr.Susan E. Brandt

J. Judson BrooksC. Dana Chalfant, Sr.

Mrs. James H. Childs, Jr.J. Kent Culle¡ Esq.Hon. Michael M. DawidaMrs. Robert Dickey IIIGeorge C. DormanArthur J. EdmundsRichard D. EdwardsSarah EvosevichHon. D. Michael FisherMrs. James A. FisherDr. Robert S. FoltzMrs. David L. GenterLloyd G. GibsonAlice GrellerEthel HaglerDr. Leon L. HaleyCharles E. HalfPhilip B. HallenFranco HarrisDr. Frances HollandThomas O. HornsteinCarl O. HughesTorrence M. Hunt, Sr.

Mrs. James P. KinardJ. Mac Kingsmore

James W. KnoxDr. Bernard J. I(oboskyG. Christian LantzschRobert M. LavelleGeorge Lee

Mrs. Alan G. LehmanChester LeMaistreAaron P. LevinsonEdward J. LewisGrant McCargoDeCourcy E. MclntoshPhilip F. MuckHon. Thomas MurphyMrs. George P. O'NeilRobert E PattonMrs. Evelyn B. Pearson

Mrs. Nathan W. PearsonMrs. S. Raymond RackoffEdward V. Randall, Jr.Herman Reid, Jr.Dan RooneyMrs. Farrell RubensteinRichard M. ScaifeRitchie R. ScaifeMrs. Richard SchollaertMrs. Steven.I. SmithG. Whitney SnyderMlliam P. Snyder IIIFurman South IIIM.B. Squires, Jr.Menill Stabile

Janet B. ThberHarley N. Trice II, Esq.Mrs. James M. W'altonMrs. Robert WardropMrs. Alan E. WohleberDwayne D. Woodruff. Esq.George H. YeckelEmeritusMrs. Guy BurrellEdward C. QuickJames D. Van Trump

Albert C. Van Dusen

Landmarks continues to sponsor con-ferences, seminars, and forums. In 19i9,Landmarks sponsored a conference onMinorities in Historic Preservation

- thefirst such conference hetd in the nation -funded by a grant from the PennsylvaniaHistorical and Museum Commission and,also that year, co-sponsored a conferenceon the re-use of downtown buildings withthe Allegheny Conference and theDepartment of City Planning. In 1985,Landmarks held a public forum on thefuture of the Strip District. Thar sameyear, with the National Park Service, itsponsored a conference on the preserva-tion of steel plant structures, which led tothe establishment of the Steel IndustrvHeritage Task Force. In recent years,

Landmarks has sponsored conferences onpreservation of religious properties, envi-ronmental issues in preservation, andpreservation law.

Landmarks' Distinguished LectureSeries has brought leaders in the preser-vation field to Pittsburgh since 1912, andthe annual Award of Merit program,established in 1982, recognizes contribu-tions to preservation and architecturalhistory during the year.

For the past seventeen years Land-marks has sponsored an annual AntiquesShow; in recent years funds raised by theAntiques Show have supported the con-tinuing restoration of the Neville House.

"..,-,, i,,-"tiüüildt0uitre"ä;;,,,

Landmarks' educationa,I programs encourage students and teachersto notice a,rchítectural details, to draw, and to create ,,boohs" aboutPittsburgh's history a,nd architecture.

{

Pi t tsburghfo"

K ¡ds

lîlrrï5BURG

H,

RÊCKITS o'

by Li.o Jo*h

Anníaersary Supplement . Nouember 1994 Page 73

Landmarlts' l{ ationalReputatíonNational attention long focused onLandmarks' work. In 1912, fhe NationalTrust for Historic Preservation presentedLandmarks with its Significant Achieve-ment in Historic Preservation award; thecitation lauded Landmarks' "philosophyof preservation" and praised:

ít s p e rs ist ent and far- si ghte d re s c ue

and restoration efforts in downtownPittsburgh and in demonstratíng thatarchitecturally and historically signifïcant structures are an urban resourceof great importance to many people. Bythe practical recycling of old buildingsin the Mexican War Streets district andby encouraging owners in the oldBirmingham area to do the same theFoundation has proved that historicpreservation can affect the lives ofinner city resídents in a tangible,meaningful and thoroughly beneficialway. While saving important buildingsand nei g hb o rho o ds, the F oundation'sprogram has placed the emphasis onthe family and the individual.

In 1911 , Landmarks was awarded theAmerican Institute of Architects Silvermedal:

for its successful efforts to preserve itssignificant architectural past, and tohei ghten public appreciation of thatprecious heritage. The history of theF oundation's suc ces s demonstrate s alively awareness of the economic andsocial realities as well as the architec-tural aspects of historic preservaÍion.

In I91 9, Professor Nathan Weinbergdevoted half a chapter on innovativeapproaches to preservation to Landmarksin Preservation in American Towns andCities. His analysis focused on key ele-ments of Landmarks' program:

The pre s ervation pro g ram deve lopedby PHLF has been adaptive and prag-matic; it has made virtues of the neces-sities of the Pittsburgh situation, and itis in this that it has something to offerto preservationists in other large indus-trial cities. ... The program ... empha-sized community involvement ando rg anization fo r pre s erv ation, the j udi -

cious use of a revolving fundfordemonstration buildings, the use ofpublic funds for low-interest loans andrent subsidies, and the stimulation ofhistoric, architecturøl and communityaw arene s s throu g h p ub lic ations, e xhi-bitions, and tours.2s

Added to the major elements of thePittsburgh History and LandmarksFoundation program - communitys elf- help, revolving fund, demonstra-tion projects, advisory services, andpublic financíng proposals - havebeen a number of the usual activities ofa p re s e rv ati on o rganization. The s ehave included the preserttation of theNeill Log House, the marking of his-loric landmarks and buildings, publi-catíons, exhibits, tours, (t survey ofthehìstoric architecture of Alle ghenyCounry, and acting as a preserttationplanning source. ... However, the mainthrust of the PHLF program has beenand continues to be the preservation ofthe inne r- c ity ne i ghborho od.26

Landmarks' activities received increas-ing coverage in professionaljournals. In1978, the AIA Journal carried an articletitled, "Pittsburgh's Innovative Renova-tion Record," which called Landmarks'neighborhood program "one of the fewsuccess stories in rehabilitation withoutdislocation."'?T The Architectural Record's1983 article, "Pittsburgh: VirtuosoPreservationists," noted: "The combina-

tion of drive, concem and clout hasearned PHLF the reputation of a groupthat delivers."':8

Landmarks' preservation programs inthe neighborhoods and its developmentof Station Square are evaluated and dis-cussed in Roberta Gratz'vigorous analy-sis of the preservation movement's gainsand losses from the 1950s through theearly 1990s. She discerned both the inno-vative and the flexible aspects of Land-marks'neighborhood program as well as

its participatory character. She writes:

More signfficant [than savíng individ-ual historic buildingsl was the trail-blazing effort to save historic residen-tial neighborhoods with inherent char-acter and graciousness that were oth-erwise doomed to more expensive andsocially destructiv e demolition andreplac ement by high- ris e anonymity.PHLF, under Ziegler's leadership,creatively combined prìvate funds withavailable government funding, much ofwhich had to be fashioned to meet ren-ovation needs. ... The ciQ was pres-sured to refashion the urban-renewalplan to include a renovation strategyfo r s ev e ral arc hit e c turally ric h nei gh-borhoods. ... The effort turned into thecountry's fi rst h i sto ric -pre s e rv at i onprogramfor poor people and combinedboth home-owner assistance and low-income rental.2e

One hallmark of this effort was itsestablishment of a variety of strategies. .. that could be applied in differentcombinations to any area in accor-dance with its physícal and social dif-ferences. Another hallmark was itsencouragement of and dependenceupon a genuine community-planningprocess. Neighborhood residents of allkinds gathered to identify problems,explore solutions and set priorities.Ev entually, the re eme rg e d ne i g hb o r-hood associations that worked in part-nership with the foundation and func-tioned separately to address thefullassortment of local issues. UnderPHLF's diverse techniques, new ten-ants or homeowners were drawn intovacant properties restored after pur-chase from absentee landlords. Buyingand restoring the buildings in worstcondition was the priority. Renovationof occupied renral properties was madepossible through financial assistance tothe owners, permitting the upgradingof living conditions for existing resi-dents and not just incoming residents.Loans were made available for residenthomeowners of modest means toencourage them to upgrade theír prop-erty rather than sell and move. ...30

As for Station Square:

A parallel experience [to the revival ofBoston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace byJames Rousel occuned in Pittsburgh,this involving one of the nation's mostsuc ces sful historic -prese rvation organ-izations insteqd of a developer. ThePittsburgh History and Landmark[s]Foundation ... had been building animpressive record of landmark restora-tìon and ne i g hb o rho od- rev ítalizationprojects since the mid-1960s. In themid-1970s, PHLF president ArthurZiegler sought to transþrm the land-mark I90l Pittsburgh & Lake Erierailroad station, with its lavishly orna-mented interior intact, and its sur-rounding forty acres into a mixed-usecommercial center ... A market studyby " experts" concluded that Pittsburghwas the wrong city, that the station wasin the wrong location, that PHLF wasthe wrong organization as developer ofthis wrong-headed project. ... Zieglerwas proposing an urban-renewal pro-gram unlike any the lenders had

encountered ever before, one thatwould preserve, not destroy, one thatplannedfirst to reuse the existing fivebuíldings on the site, which required nodemolition, no relocation of residentsor businesses and no further landacquisition. Furthermore, it was one ofthe largest adaptíve-reuse programs inthe country undertaken by a nonprofitorganilation. ...31

It was as if Ziegler was speaking a for-eign language when he tried to sell hisidea of developing the site in manage-able stages. "Like a cíty," Ziegler said,"we would let it grow by itself." Hisintention was to appeal to "hometown

folks first, with tourism extra," ct

s i gnifi c ant thou g ht c ons iderin g thep ro lift ration of s o - c alle d rev it alizationprojects around lhe country designed

first for the tourist and only second forthe "hometownfolks." In the end, thedevelopment got off the ground with a$5 míllion seed grant from theAllegheny Foundation, a trust of theScaife family, and a $2 million invest-ment by Detroit restaurateur CharlesA. Muer ...32

Exp e rt s p re dict ed financ ial do om fo rthe precedent-setting presenation ofBoston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace andPittsburgh's Station Square, two verydffirent historic landmarks battered byage and neglect. Downtowns weredead, the experts declared, no placeforbold and innovative restorationschemes that include a mix of commer-cial uses. Today, both landmarks aremodels of urban recycling and com-mercial successes, the envy of real-estate investors trying to turn them intomagic formulas.tl

In 1994,4nn Breen and Dick Rigby intheir study of outstanding riverfrontdevelopment proj ects, Wat e rfront s : C it ie s

Reclaim Their Edge, cite Station Squareas among "the truly pioneering urbanwaterfront projects."3'

In March of 1993, newly appointedNational Trust president Richard Moebegan field trips to preservation organiza-tions across the country; he chosePittsburgh as his first stop. He spent a daytouring various projects, talking with rep-resentatives of neighborhood organiza-tions and other community leaders.Afterward, he wrote to Landmarks'presi-dent Arthur Ziegler'.

There really is more going on in thoseneighborhoods in Pittsburgh thananywhere else in the nation. This is adirect result of the decades of work thatyou've put in to practical preservation.I came away truly inspired and ener-gized and determined to take the wordfar and wide of what you are doing inPittsburgh. This is preservation as itshould be practiced and I am commit-ted to furthering it in every way that Ican.'5

ln 1994, the National Trust for HistoricPreservation conferred its highest awardfor accomplishments in the field of his-toric preservation, the Louise duPontCrowninshield Award, on Landmarks'president Arthur Zie gler.

MembershipLandmarks is fortunate to have a loyal,involved membership. Almost one-thirdof our members have been members fortwenty years or more, and about one-sixth have joined in the last ten years.Our local members live in many areas

around the Pittsburgh region, the largestconcentrations being in Sewickley,Oakland, and Squirrel Hill. Landmarkshas members in nineteen states (includinga few in Hawaii), and one member inIreland, one in England, one in Spain,and one in Puerto Rico. A strong mem-bership enables Landmarks to continueand expand its historic preservationefforts so that present and future genera-tions will know and appreciate the historyand architectural heritage of thePittsburgh region.

VolunteersMore than 125 people volunteer eachyear to help Landmarks' staff with specialevents, seminars, and a variety of officeactivities. In addition, Landmarks' educa-tion staff regularly trains people to be"docents." Docents present Landmarks'private group tours and educational pro-grams such as "Portable Pittsburgh" and"Downtown Dragons." The effort, enthu-siasm, and volunteer service of thedocents is greatly appreciated. Onlybecause of their assistance is Landmarksable to inform more than 10,000 peopleeach year about Pittsburgh's history andarchitecture.

Volunteers Dom Magasano a,nd.

Sam Leuine

DocentsBob BennettCharlotte Cohen

Harriet Cooper

Mary ErorAnnie FutrellColleen Gavaghan

Pat GibbonsBarbara Grossman

Frances HardieBob.lacobI(athleen JonesSam Levine

Carol Lewis

Rita Martin

Judy MclntyreRay McKeeverArlene McNalleyAudrey Menke

Rachel MeyersMerilyn MorrowMyrna PrinceMarion SchorrHelen SimpsonTed Soens

Nancy StewartPeg Volkman

Dianne Voytko

Je¿nne Weber

Cam Witherspoon

.l¿ck Zierden

Office Volunteers

Dan DeStoutAnn¿ Belle DomanS¿m Levine

Dom Magasano

Page 74 Landmørlts Cel.ebro,tes Thirty Yea,rs

StaffLandmarks is fortunate to have a loyal,hard-working staff. The following peopleare employees of the Pittsburgh History& Landmarks Foundation. Years of ser-vice for each staff member are noted:

ArthurP. ZiegIer,Ir.President (30 years)

Louise Sturgess

Executive Director (13 years)

Howard B. Slaughte¡ Jr.Director ofPreservation Services (1 year)

W'alter C. KidneyArchitectural Historian (9 years)

Albert M. TannlerHistorical Collections Director (4 years)

Mary Lu DennyDirector of Membership Services(10 years)

Mary Ann EubanksEducation Coordinator (2 years)

Phipps HoffstotDirector ofFinance (3 years)

Elisa J. CavalierGeneral Counsel (I year)

Tom CroyleComptroller (3 years)

Linda MitryStaff Accountant (l year)

Shirley KemmlerSecretary (14 years)

Jean HardySecretary (8 years)

Sarah WalkerSecretary (5 years)

Judy CallowaySecretary (l year)

Station SquareJennifer Uher

The Shops at Station Square MarketingDirector (2 years)

Bill LichauerStation Square Marketing Director(4 years)

Thomas KefferSuperintendent of Property Maintenance(I3 years)

Larry JanickiMaintenance Staff (8 years)

Richard StehleMaintenance Staff (4 years)

Mike PajewskiMaintenance Staff (I year)

Melzie ButlerAssistant Audit Supervisor (5 years)

Frank StrokerParking Supervisor (10 years)

Joseph FrazierCustodial Manager (9 years)

Patrick GilliganHorticulturalist (4 years)

Gregory C. ìbchumHorticulturalist (I0 years)

Ronald C. Yochum, Jr.Facilities Management Assistant(ll years)

Melinda LubetzManager/Buybr of The Landm¿rks Store(2 years)

Darryl ButlerPart+ime Grounds/Iraffic (5 years)

Albert GoodwinPart-time Grounds/Traffic (I year)

Janice HaymonPart-time Grounds/Traffic (t year)

Keith HerriotPart-time GroundsÆraffic (1 year)

Jeff RichelPart-time Grounds/Traffi c (4 years)

Jeff ZukiewiczPart-time Grounds/Traffic (5 years)

Ted Merrick, who was a staff member from1978 to 1983 and again from 1990 to 1991,continues to serve Landmarks as an econom-ic development consultant.

Stanley Lowe, Director of Landmarks'Preservation Fund from 1983 to 1993, is on

a leave-of-absence from Landmarks, andnow is serving as the Director of the HousingAuthorit¡ City of Pittsburgh.

M*, of the successful historic preser-vation projects in Pittsburgh and inAllegheny County are admired and used,in some cases, without Landmarks'rolein their continuing existence a widely-known or recognized fact. To visit theNeville House, the area's principal linkwith the formative years of Americandemocracy and to experience 18th-cen-tury life and architecture; to admire thegenius inherent in the Allegheny CountyCourthouse as seen from the courtyardpark; to stand within the grand glassVictorian greenhouses at PhippsConservatory; to walk down LiverpoolStreet, or Resaca Place, or East CarsonStreet, or through the Penn-LibertyHistoric District; to experience the vitali-ty, enjoy the amenities, and viewPittsburgh's spectacular skyline fromStation Square - these are possiblelargely because of Landmarks' practicalpreservation activities.

Chørl¿s C. Arensberg, chaírmøn ofLand,mørlts for 30 years, and PatPearson, o trustee of Landrnarlts sinceits founding in 1964

Landmarks' achievements would nothave been possible without the firm sup-port of its Board of Trustees, who under-stand and share a philosophy of preserva-tion and who have provided steadfastpositive and practical reinforcement forLandmarks' endeavors. Also critical hasbeen the support and generosity ofPittsburgh's foundations and their long-term financial assistance. In particular,Richard Scaife and his family, throughtheir foundations, have not only beenLandmarks' most generous benefactors,but have taken the lead in funding those"high risk" innovative and path-breakingprograms that have conserved so much ofPittsburgh and drawn national attentionand acclaim.

In 1991, the theme of the annual con-vention of the National Trust for HistoricPreservation was "Past Meets Future:Saving America's Historic Environ-ments." I attended a workshop onLandmarks' preservation program led bythen Preservation Fund director StanleyLowe, who mesmerized the audience ashe showed slides of restored North Sidebuildings and described how they hadbeen saved, restored, and are now lived inagain. As a young man, raised inManchester, Stanley was angry and con-cerned about the deterioration ofhisneighborhood. Better, he thought, to tearit all down. What value could these oldbuildings have? Had not people of meansfled from such neighborhoods, filled withhistoric houses and neighborhood shop-ping streets, for the suburbs and the shop-ping malls? That was how he felt, untilone day, Stanley said: "Arthur Zieglercame into my neighborhood and robbedme of my suburban dream!"

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Harriet Henson of the Northside Tenants Reorganizøtion and Stanley Lowe, at ameeting in 1993 of the Pittsburgh Community Reinuestment Group

"Preseraatiorl as i¿ Should be Practiced"

Turning thirty is - as those who haveturned thirty know - a momentous occa-sion. If one's twenty-first birthday signalsthe acquisition of the symbols of adult-hood, thirty is seen, sometimes emphati-cally, as the end of immaturity in any ofits forms and the entrance into full adult-hood; at thirty, one knows therc is noturning back.

Landmarks formally celebrated its thir-tieth birthday anniversary on October 17at the annual Award of Merit ceremonyand 1994 Distinguished Lecture onHistoric Preservation, given by William J.Murtagh, first Keeper of the NationalRegister of Historic Places. Landmarks isalso publishing a book Clyde Hare'sPittsburgh: Four Decades of Pittsburgh,Frozen in Light, a beautifully producedvisual documentation of life in Pittsburghfrom 1950 to L994. It is characteristic ofLandmarks to commemorate an impor-tant anniversary with a significant publi-cation, and moreover with one that -also characteristic

- not only recordsplaces and events in Pittsburgh but doesso, as Board of Trustees ChairmanEmeritus Charles C. Arensberg wrote ofLandrnark Architecture (1985), in a waythat will "capture some of [its] uniqueessence."

It is also singularly appropriate that thisanniversary coincides with an announce-ment (the timing of which reflects bothyears ofplanning and serendipity) ofextraordinary, and probably unprecedent-ed, importance in historic preservation.The five-year-old Landmarks Foundationdeclared: "We have come to be recog-nized as an industrious and aggressivepreservation organization, one that iswilling to venture into unexplored areas";the thirty-year-old foundation announcesthe sale of Station Square - initiallyconsidered by experts to be the wrongproject in the wrong place in the wrongcity undertaken by the wrong organiza-tion3ó - and through this sale creates itsown endowment - aî endowment thatcomes into being as a result of an unpar-alleled persistent and farsighted approachto historic preservation. Many of theactivities cited in this essay - a fractionof the whole, chosen to demonstrateLandmarks' approach and illustrate itsdiverse areas of involvement - will con-tinue. New needs will be addressed. Bothongoing and new projects will now pro-ceed on the basis of a sounder financialfoundation.

Left to rþht: Peter Brínk, a.nd, RichardMoe of the Nøtional Trustfor HistoricP resera a.tion ; Arthur Zicgler ; AnthonyWood of the J.M. Kaplan Fund; a.nd

Stanley Louse on Liuerpool Street inManchester,7993

Anniuersary Supplement . Nouember f994 Page 15

The Renaissance just beginning ín 1950 (a,boue), and the wuy the city loolrs nou"t (beLor,)

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Pøge 76 Landmarks Celebrates Thirty Years

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The 1300 block ofLiuerpool Street,as it loohs today

Iandmarks Celebrates Thirty Years, byAlbert M. Tannler, is published as ananniversary supplement to P¡1¿F News, themembership newsletter of the PittsburghHistory & Landma¡ks Foundation.Landmarks is a non-profit historic preserva-tion organization serving Allegheny County,committed to neighborhood restoration andhistoric-property preservation; public advo-cacy; education and membership programs;and the management of Station Square, ariverfront property opposite downtownPittsburgh. The offices and library ofLandmarks are located at: One StationSquare, Suite 450; Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1170. Phone: (412) 471-5808;Fax: (412)471-t633.Louise Sturgess. ....EditorGreg Pytlik....... .....Designer

Today if one visits Manchester, onenotices a few signs of 1960s urban"renewal" - one or two fortress-likelow-income high-rise housing projectswere erected and the block of commercialshops and stores on Pennsylvania Avenuewas demolished (much to the regret ofthe current residents) and replaced byanonymous suburban tract housing. Theglory of the neighborhood, however, isblock-after-block of restored nineteenth-century houses - some of the finest inthe city. The contrast between the historicsurvivors and the 1960s buildings is illu-minating - and disquieting when onerealizes that most of the North Side wasslated to look like these parvenu. That theolder structures were saved, that a neigh-borhood was revived and not extin-guished, that the residents came to under-stand the importance of what they hadand learned to proudly nurture it, and thatthis conservation of existing resourceswould be repeated in older neighbor-hcods throughout the city of Pittsburgh,was the result of a tenacious process ofpreservation and education begun by thePittsburgh History & LandmarksFoundation.

Activist, innovative, practical, fiscallyprudent and resourceful, persistent, andegalitârian: these qualities chatacterizeLandmarks' commitment to and preserva-tion of the past

- "not in order to pre-

serve the artifacts of our past in misguid-ed sterility [but] with an eye to rhe future,with an aw¿treness that there can be nofuture without a past'2t

- a commitmentto ensure the existence of, in RobertaGratz'evocative phrase, "the living city."

Walking the streets of an historic dis-trict becomes a signfficant experience.... The past way of life beckons to uswith its harmony of scale, its variety ofstyle, its closely built urban streets, itsrich antiquity. People do not necessari-ly long to live in the past; they needrather a mixture of past and present, areminder of the way things were and anescape from the less a,ttractive aspectsofourpresent cityscapes, ... to enjoythe foil and counterfoil of past and pre-sent _iuxtaposed.3s

Footnotes

rGratz, Roberta Brandes. The Living City: How America's cities are Being Revitalized by Thinking small in aBig Way, Rev. Ed., Washington: Preservation Press, 1994, p. 286.:A Past Still Alive, p. 121-135.sAcademic: "learned, but lacking in practical application of knowledge; conforming to rules o¡ traditions,"[The Lexicon Webster Dicrionary].nMuseum: "a building o¡ area used for exhibiting interesting objects," ÍIbid.l.5Ada Louise Huxtable quoted in William J. Mutagh, Keeping Time: The History andTheory of preservationin America(Ìs4a:n Street Press, 1988), p. 7.6lubove, Roy. "City Beautiful, City Banal: Design Advocacy and Historic Preservation in Pittsburgh,"Pittsburgh History (Spring), 1992.?Ziegler, Arthur P.,lr. Five Year Report to Our Members and to the Community: Pittsburgh History &landmarks Foundntion 1964-1969 (November, 1969), p. 1.\lbid. p. vä. [In Pittsburgh in 1994 many of the areas demolished thi¡ty years ago are srill empty, "unused anduntaxed at a lime when land, housing, and money are very scarce."]'lbid., p.2-3.tolbid., p. x.

'r"A Citation for Significant Achievement in Historic Preservation in the United States presented by theNational Trust for Historic Preservation to the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Founàation,,'Mrãy, 1972.lrZiegler, Arthur P., Jr., and Leopold Adler, II, and walter c , Kidney, Revolving Funds for HistoricPreservation: A Manual of Praoice. Pittsburgh: Ober Park, 1975, p. 8.

'tGrarz, The Living City. p.14.'aZiegler, Art¡u. P., Jr. Historic Preservation in Inner City Areas: A Manual of Practice. Pittsburgh: Ober Pa¡kAssociates, 1971 (Rev. Ed., 1974), p. 5.tsldem.

t6lbid., pp. l0-ll.t7lbid., p.61.'$lbid., p.29.t'Ibid., p.76.?oFìve Year Report to Our Membels, p. 18.

'?rThe artifacts are still there and can be viewed during regular museum hours. Some fixtures, art glass, andfurniture are installed in The Shops at Station Square. Building fragments donated by Landmarks are in thepermanent collection of rhe Heinz Architectural center, The camegie Museum of Art."Van Trump, James D. Life and Architecture ín Pittsburgh, p. xv.'.3lbid., p. xix.?oFloyd, Margaret Henderson. Arc hitecture after Richardson: Regionalism beþre Modemism - Longfellow,Alden, and Harlow in Boston and Pittsburgh. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, in associati,on withthe Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, 1994, p. xvi.'5Weinberg,Nathan.PreservationinAmericanTownsandCi¡l¿s.Boulder,WestviewPress, 1979,pp.109-110.'16lbid., p. 118.:TRichter, Nora, "Pittsburgh's Innovative Renovation Record," AIA Joarnal (November), 197g.'?s"Pittsburgh: Virtuoso Preservarionisfs," Architectural Record (October), 1983. Although accompanied byexcellent color photolraphs, the unsigned, jauntily written text is sometimes less than aicurate, suggesting forexample that Landmarks has "changed di¡ection" and now concentrates on education and technicaiãssistãnce;in fact, both have always been key parts of the foundation's work.leGratz,The Living City, p.74-75.lolbid., p.76.3' Ibid., p. 286-287 .

32ldem.

13lbid., p.24.raBreen, Ann, and Dick Rigby. Waterfronts: Cities Reclaim Their Edge. New York: McGraw Hill, 1994, p.29.tsRichard Moe to Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., March 9, 1993.16Gratz, The Living City, p.287 .3TZiegler, Arthur P., h. Five Year Report, p. x.¡sZiegler, Arthur P., Jr. Historic Preservatìon in Inner City Areas, p. 16.

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JLA RKSupport the Pittsburgh History& Landmarks For¡ndation inits work to:

o Preserve architectural landmarks,historic neighborhoods, and industriasites and artifacts in Allegheny Count

o Create tours, lectures, publications, areducational programs featuring the hitory, architecture, and culture ofPitts-burgh and Allegheny County;

Membership Benefits

¡ Free subscription to PHLF NenJ, ourmembership newsletter published fivetimes each year.

. Free subscription to All Aboard!, theStation Square newsletter publishedfour times ayeat.

r Many rewarding volunteer opportuni-ties.

. A l0% discount at The LandmarksStore in The Shops at Station Square.

. Free initial consultation on landmarkdesignation and preservation advice foyour historic property.

o Free access to our historical andarchitectural reference library in TheLandmarks Building at Station Square

o Discounts on, or free use of, all educa-tional resources.

o Reduced rates on tours, and invitation:to lectures, seminars and special events

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Please enroll me as a member of thePittsburgh History & LandmarksFoundation. I have enclosed a tax-deductible contribution in the amountof ( check appropriate category ) :

n Individual $20 or moretr Family $25 or moren School and Non-Profit S25I Senior Citizen $10fl Corporate Supporter $50 or moren Corporate Member $250 or moren Life Benefactor $5,000 (one-time gift)

'A copy ofthe official registration & fìnancialinfomation of the Pittsburgh History & LandmarksFoundation may be obtained from the PennsylvaniaDepartment of State by calling toll free, withinPennsylvania l-800-732-0999. Registration does norimply endorsement." (as required by PA Act 202)

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