Tag Archives: Pennsylvania

Help Kick-start the Redevelopment of the Westinghouse Castle

Westinghouse Castle

Built in 1890, the Westinghouse Castle was designed by Frederick J. Osterling. Osterling is well known for his work around Pittsburgh. The most prominent Osterling building is probably the Union Trust Building. The Westinghouse Castle, was never actually a castle or a residence. This building served as an office building for the Westinghouse Air Brake Company.  From 2006 until 2013, the Westinghouse Castle was used as a museum and could be rented for events. John Graf, who runs the Priory Hospitality group, purchased the Westinghouse Castle last summer.  The Priory Hospitality group plans to redevelop the castle as a boutique hotel.

Kickstarter for the Westinghouse Castle

To kickoff the redevelopment of the Westinghouse Castle John Graf has launched a Kickstarter to raise the first $150,000 of the project. Watch the video and check out the Kickstarter page for the Westinghouse Castle to learn more about redevelopment plans for the hotel and the economic benefits that they hotel is projected to bring to the community.

With the Graf’s experience in remodeling and running hotels and event facilities in historic buildings, this has the potential to transform Wilmerding into a destination just outside of Pittsburgh.

A brief history of the Westinghouse Castle

  • 1890 – Westinghouse Castle was built by Frederic Osterling
  • 1914 – George Westinghouse dies
  • 1985 – Castle is donated to an organization that turns it into a conference center (via New York Times)
  • 2006 – Wilmerding Renewed buys the Westinghouse Castle from APICS Educational and Research Foundation for $750,000
  • 2013 – Tours end at Westinghouse Castle
  • 2016 – John Graf purchases the property at sheriff’s sale for $100,000

For more on the history of the Westinghouse Castle, visit The George Westinghouse Legacy Facebook page.

A 13 Mile Drive from Downtown Pittsburgh

Wilmerding is just about 20 miles east of Downtown Pittsburgh. Without traffic, that is about a 30 minute drive.

Maxo Vanka Murals

Maxo Vanka Murals & St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale

Today’s preservation month post is inspired by the Millvale Musical Festival, which is happening on Saturday, May 13. Millvale continues to gain popularity as a destination for breweries, music, community projects and some impressive community events. If you are headed to Millvale then you need to know about the Maxo Vanka murals, which might be one of the best kept secrets in Pittsburgh.

If you are headed to Millvale for the music festival, you might want to take a little break to check these unique works of art. Even if you are not headed to the music festivals, the Maxo Vanka murals are worth an hour of your Saturday. More details on visiting the murals below.

Photo credit: St. Nicholas Church website.

From Route 28, St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic church looks like an unassuming church building that is tucked away on the bluff. Inside the church, the decor is anything but ordinary, the walls of the church are covered with 25 murals by the artist Maxo Vanka. What makes these church murals unique are the political statements found in several of the scenes. The Maxo Vanka murals have been compared to the works of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and some of the murals of the Works Progress Administration artists.

Maxo Vanka Murals

Croatian Mother Raises Her Son for War, Maxo Vanka, 1937. Photo credit: Society to Preserve Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka.

All of the murals can be viewed online here.

The other unique thing about the murals is that they have their own nonprofit that works to preserve, restore and promote the murals to an audience outside of the congregation. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka was founded in 1991 and has worked to put the murals on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you are interested in learning more, start with the SPMMMV website at vankomurals.org.

Pittsburgh filmmaker Kenneth Love made a documentary about the murals in 2012, “Maxo Vanka’s Masterpiece: The Murals at St. Nicholas Church”. You can purchase a DVD of the documentary from the church.

Visiting the Maxo Vanka Murals

Docent led tours are held every Saturday at 11am, Noon and 1pm. Tours last about an hour. Note that tours may be cancelled or postponed due to parish activities. It is recommended that you register in advance for tours. Private tours are available on request.  If you are visiting Pittsburgh on a weekday, be sure to reach out for a tour or if the church is open, you should be able to stop by and see the murals in person.

More information on the VankaMurals.org website. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka is also on Facebook.

WPA Murals in San Francisco’s Coit Tower

Detail of one of the murals in Coit Tower.

Last November, I had the good fortune to visit San Francisco. San Francisco has a nonprofit, SF City Guides, that offers free walking tours of a variety of places around the city. Since it was raining we opted for the indoor tour of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. If you enjoyed seeing the murals of Maxo Vanka, I highly recommend a visit to Coit Tower to see the fresco murals from the Works Progress Administration artists. The skill of the fresco artists is impressive and these murals also contain many political messages.

Movement for Increased Passenger Rail Service in Pittsburgh Gaining Steam

Pennsylvanian

The Pennsylvanian, moments after arriving at Pittsburgh’s Penn Station. It rolled in 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The Amtrak route’s on time performance is 91.7%.

Gloria Skillings arrived at Pittsburgh’s Penn Station from Philadelphia on a recent August evening. She opted to take the train for the scenic value and because it’s less hassle than flying.

Still, Skillings laments Pittsburgh’s Amtrak service, “It’s limited.”

She’s right. Only one train per day departs from Pittsburgh and services Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York City, and places in between. Likewise for travellers coming from NYC. They get one shot at getting to Pittsburgh on passenger rail. The Amtrak route is known as the Pennsylvanian

Stops Along the Pennsylvianina

Station stops along the Pennsylvanian. There were 12 roundtrip trains 45 years ago. Today there’s just one.

A group called Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail is pushing for increased service on the Pennsylvanian. They say there’s enough demand to support three trains a day between Pittsburgh to New York City and vice versa.

The all volunteer organization started gathering around four or five years ago. They wanted to fight to give Pittsburgers more travel options.

[Tweet “There were 12 roundtrip trains between #Pittsburgh and #NYC 45 years ago. Today there’s just one.” cc @Amtrak]

“We have a population in the city that doesn’t have cars. That lack of choice means you’re isolated here unless you have a car,” said Lucinda Beattie, a WPPR board member.

Beattie says Pittsburgh has a successful downtown and that linking to other city centers by rail is vital to its continual growth. “Its important for us to remain a competitive metropolitan area,” she said. “We have a significant student population. Students are a major audience for passenger rail.”

WPPR found that people were receptive and liked the notion of more passenger rail, but needed hard numbers to prove its viability.

The group partnered with The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership to create a study to find out if any of their ideas were realistic. The results showed that not only is it feasible, it’s relatively affordable with an estimated price tag of $10.5 Million-$12.8 Million annually. That’s compared with the $2.6 billion Pennsylvania spent on highway and bridge projects in 2014.

The study was released in spring of 2014. Since then, WPPR and the PDP started making presentations to municipalities and other interest groups. Earlier this summer, they met with the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee.

It was boost to their mission to meet with the policy makers who have the power to make their idea a reality. Both Democrats and Republicans who serve on that committee were receptive to increased rail west of Harrisburg. Though the Pennsylvanian is run by Amtrak, it’s primarily funded by the state and managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

“There are 13 passenger rail trains per day between Harrisburg and Philadelphia,” said Beattie, who also works as Vice President of Transportation at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. “The challenges are getting PennDOT engaged to request extra service from Amtrak.”

She says once the state budget impasse gets resolved, the PDP and WPPR will continue to build off the goodwill generated by the House Transportation Committee meeting. Rail supporters will encourage lawmakers to engage with Amtrak and Norfolk Southern, who own the tracks between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

“This is where advocacy comes in.” said Beattie, saying that the cost of the proposal is so much less than many transportation projects ever pay. She says additional benefits include the fact rail is more environmentally friendly, it serves sparsely populated communities where bus service is limited, and it’s more accommodating for people with disabilities and the elderly.

More than a dozen individuals and organizations officially signed on in support of increased service on the Pennsylvanian, including Greater Pittsburgh Hotel Association, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.

In a letter to PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards sent earlier this year, Mayor Peduto urged the agency to enter into discussion with Amtrak about increasing service to and from Pittsburgh.

“The addition of two more trains would help increase this city’s connectivity, much of which has been lost over the past five decades, as passenger rail, bus, and airline options have been decreased,” Peduto said in the letter.

Buzz about adding train service is growing. Toby Fauver, PennDOT deputy secretary for multi-modal transportation said recently that he hopes to see one additional train between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia within the next 10 years.

Gloria Skillings, a resident of Pittsburgh for more than 40 years, says service has been limited ever since she can remember.

“I think I could remember taking a daytime train to Chicago,” said Skillings, thinking way back to her earliest days in Pittsburgh.

Travellers do have two other daily train options: a midnight train to Chicago and an early early morning train to Washington D.C.

WPPR would love for increased service on those lines too, but since it travels through several states and the District of Columbia it’s more challenging to advocate for. Right now the group is focusing on making passenger rail across Pennsylvania thrive.

.@PennDotNews – Please expand rail service on The Pennsylvanian to #3trainsaday! #WPPR @NARPrail

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Follow Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail on Facebook here.