I learned about the Gardener-Bailey house from this photo from Cam Miller (@CatLadyCam) on Instagram. Built in 1864, this building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Does anyone know the history of this grand old Victorian home?
Category: Featured History
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The Just Right Tailors, Gus Miller’s Newstand and The Green Weenie
I posted a photo of this postcard on Instagram earlier this year and asked for some more information about just what “The Just Right” was back in the day. I knew this building had a long history as Gus Miller’s newsstand but I didn’t know what else was in the building. I liked the horse shoe on the top and “The Just Right” seems like a great name for a band or a podcast or the title of an essay for the New Yorker (the essay would of course be about someone who moved to Pittsburgh and found the city to be the just right place to be). For some reason I thought “The Just Right” might be a name for a brothel or other “interesting establishment.” There is a building on the Boulevard of the Allies, where the restaurant Papa J’s was located, that was a brothel, so it is not out of the realm of possibility. Before I had t-shirts printed for my future rock band “The Just Right” I wanted to make sure I knew just what “The Just Right” building housed back in the day.
Thanks to Darren Toth aka @Yinztergram on Instagram and Twitter, who left a comment on my photow with a detailed and colorful history of this corner shop in Oakland.
The building upstairs served as the Oakland Board of Trade, i.e. the local businessman’s organization around the turn of the 20th Century. In 1904 a guy named Edwin Edwards opened up a tobacco shop on the corner, and next door at 3803 was a Tailor Shop, which changed hand a few times before it became known as, “The Just Right Tailoring and Cleaning Company” under an owner named Goldberg. Gus Miller took over the corner shop sometime between 1910 and 1911, and ran the shop pretty much as it was until he retired in 1967, passing the business on to his daughter, Myrtle Mae Miller, who retired in 1985, and died shortly thereafter in 1987. Myrtle was the woman behind the idea of “The Green Weenie“, a sort of precursor to, “The Terrible Towel”, popularized by sports commentator, Bob Prince. It was a green plastic hot dog shaped rattle that was used by Pirate fans in the 1960s at Forbes Field to jinx the other team. Not sure how waving wieners would fly today, but I imagine if you could find an original green weenie in good shape, you could make a few bucs on it…get it? “Bucs”? Eh, anyway, hope that clears it up a bit.
Gus Miller’s 1950s
From the Historic Society of Western Pennsylvania, here is a photo of the same building in the 1950s.
The caption notes that the Pitt Towers dorms were under construction. According to Wikipedia, the towers were completed in 1963, so this photo is probably early 1960s.
The Green Weenie
Photo credit: The Terrible Blogger. You can read a whole lot more about the Green Weenie over on The Terrible Blogger. In case you were wondering, the original 1966 Green Wennies are selling for $20-25 on ebay.
Corner of Forbes and Oakland Today
Using the Google Street view history, it looks like the awnings were removed from the building in July 2014.
This post is part of our series on historic Pittsburgh buildings for preservation month. You might be interested in reading about some of the other historic buildings that are located in Oakland:
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Catahecassa Fountain in Schenley Park
Update May 15, 2019: Please visit Very Local Pittsburgh for an updated version of this story.
While running the 5k for Race for the Cure this morning in Schenley Park, I paused to take a photo of the Neill log house in Schenley Park. The Neill log house stands out and is hard to miss, mostly because a little house on the prairie style house surrounded by chain link fence in the middle of a gold course. Two weeks ago I wrote about the John Woods House, which is considered to be the second oldest house in the city of Pittsburgh. The Neill house is considered to be the first.
Photo of Catahecassa Springs Monument from May 14, 2017. What I ended up photographing was the monument in front of the Neill house, something that I had never noticed before. Today was the 25th anniversary of the Race for the Cure and given the number of pink ribbon t-shirts in my drawer, I have certainly walked past this place at least a dozen times before. But this is the first time I noticed this stone monument.
There are only a handful of Google search results on “Catahecassa Blackhoof,” all of which note there is a historical marker at this location, but give little other information. As soon as I realized it was a marker for a spring, I knew where to look. In February, City Council voted to approve the following springs as historic landmarks in the City of Pittsburgh:
- Howe Spring (Shady Side)
- Voegtly Spring (Spring Hill)
- Catahecassa Spring (Schenley Park)
The entire nomination form for the Catahecassa Spring is available on the Preservation Pittsburgh website here. By the way, if you are looking for some extensive in-depth reading on local historic landmarks, the “Documents & Archives” section on the Preservation Pittsburgh website contains links to all of the recent nominations that they have submitted.
The Catahecassa Spring monument was built in 1906 to create a public water fountain at the existing Snyder Springs in Schenley Park. These fountains were used by visitors to the park. At some point the spigot was removed and catch basin filled in.
Postcard of Catahecassa Fountain that was included in the nomination for historic designation. To give some historic context to this fountain, I’ve put together a timeline of key date about info about Chief Catahecassa, Schenley Park and the monument:
- 1755 – Shawnee Chief Catahecassa was present at General Braddock’s Defeat during the French and Indian War. (Nomination p. 11)
- 1795 – Catahecassa represented the Shawnee at the signing of the Treaty of Greeneville
- 1826 – Mary Elizabeth Croghan is born.
- 1845 – At the age of 15 Mary Elizabeth Croghan elopes with Captain Edward Schenley who is 43 years old.
- 1889 – Mary Schenley gives 300 acers to the City of Pittsburgh which will be developed into Schenley Park.
- 1890 – First reference to Snyder springs in Pittsburgh Daily Post article dated June 12, 1890.
- 1902 – Schenley Golf Course, now know as the Bob O’Connor Golf Course opens.
- 1906 – Of the extra money left over from the Fourth of July Celebration, $900 was given to erect a public fountain in Schenley Park. (Nomination p. 10)
- 1906 – Sunday, September 23, the Pittsburgh Gazette Times Newspaper publishes article on the Catahecassa fountain that will be built at the Snyder Springs in Schenley park. (Nomination p. 58).
- 1907 – May 28, Pittsburgh Press publish photo of completed fountain at Snyder Springs. (Nomination p. 24)
- 1922 – Fountain was damaged and repaired (Nomination p. 18)
- 1985 – Schenley Park is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
- 1996 – Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is founded to restore and protect Pittsburgh’s parks.
- 2017 – Pittsburgh City Council give historic designation to Catahecassa Springs.
While Schenley Park is over 100 years old, it is interesting to see that many of the efforts to designate the park and monuments are only in the past 20-30 years.
Have you seen a Pittsburgh monument that you would like to learn more about? Leave a comment below.
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The Fineman House in Stanton Heights
This is possibly one of my favorite buildings in Pittsburgh and one of my favorite posts from 2016. Only in Pittsburgh, can you find a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentices almost hidden in plain sight in a neighborhood like Stanton Heights and listed for just $115,000. Charles Rosenblum, who often covers local architecture, wrote about the Fineman House for NextPittsburgh last year. The Fineman House was built in 1952 by Peter Berndtson and Cornelia Brierly. Peter Berndtson was an Apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright.
I just looked at the Zillow page for this house, and it looks like it sold for $152,000, $37,000 more than the listing price.