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Colonel James Anderson House

The Colonel James Anderson House & Victorian Tea Benefit

Colonel James Anderson House

Photo: Cara Halderman via Flickr creative commons

The Anderson House holds quite a bit of architectural and historical significance for Pittsburgh, the Manchester neighborhood, and any anyone who has ever borrowed a book from the library.

The building is architecturally significant, it was built in 1830 and is one of the oldest buildings in Manchester. This house is also one of the only remaining examples of Greek Revival style architecture in Pittsburgh. Another unusual feature to the Anderson House is the English basement, which is a fancy term for a garden apartment.

Architectural history aside, this building has a connection to a current community institution that can be found in neighborhoods across the country today. Colonel Anderson would lend books to a young Pittsburgh boys, including Andrew Carnegie.  It was Colonel Anderson’s book lending that inspired Andrew Carnegie to create public libraries.

From the Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, 1920.

Colonel James Anderson–I bless his name as I write–announced that he would open his library of four hundred volumes to boys, so that any young man could take out, each Saturday afternoon, a book which could be exchanged for another on the succeeding Saturday.

A Brief History of the Colonel James Anderson House

There is not a lot of detailed history about this building on the internet, based on what I could find here is a found  timeline of the building and some key dates for both Colonel James Anderson and Andrew Carnegie:

  • 1812 – James Anderson serves in the War of 1812
  • 1830 – Anderson House is Built
  • 1835 – Andrew Carnegie is born
  • 1850s – Andrew Carnegie borrows books from Colonel James Anderson on Saturdays
  • 1881 – Building Owned by Women’s Christian Association (Allegheny County Real Estate Website)
  • 1904 – Colonel James Anderson Monument is dedicated. Monument was located at the corner of Federal & East Ohio Streets  (via Pittsburgh Art Places)
  • 1905 – Large addition is added to the house (via Post-Gazette)
  • 1919 – Andrew Carnegie dies.
  • 1960s – Anderson Monument was dismantled as part of Urban Redevelopment and creation of Allegheny Center.
  • 1984 – Pittsburgh History and Landmark’s recreated the Anderson Monument and installed the origional sculptures  (via Pittsburgh Art Places)
  • 1989 – Anderson House added to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Historic Landmark’s list.
  • 1999 – Anderson House is included on the Manchester House Tour (via Post-Gazette)
  • 2003 – Family Hospice & Palliative Care used the building for personal care & hospice facility
  • 2014 – Family Hospice & Palliative Care listed the building for sale for $500,000
  • March 2016 – Manchester Historic Society acquires the Anderson House
  • August 2016 – Anderson House included on the Manchester House & Garden Tour (via Post-Gazette)

Photo Tour of the Anderson House

The following photo tour of the Colonel James Anderson House was published on the Post-Gazette website on July, 29, 2016. If the slide show does not load you can view the photos on the Post-Gazette website here.

Colonel James Anserson House Location

The Anderson House is located at 1423 Liverpool Street in the Manchester neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Mother’s Day Tea to Benefit the Colonel James Anderson House

This Sunday, the Manchester Historic Society has planned a Mother’s Day tea which will be held at a historic mansion in the Manchester neighborhood.  Proceeds from the tea will be used in the restoration of the Anderson House. The tea is open to everyone, you don’t have to be a mom or bring your mom to attend, anyone who is interested in history is welcome for tea.

Tickets are $45 per person and there will be two seatings, 11am-1pm & 2pm-4pm.

Victorian Tea to Benefit Colonel James Anderson House Restoration
Sunday, May 14, 2017
11am or 2pm
Location: The tea will be held in a private mansion in Machester, exact address will be sent to ticket holders.
$45 per person, purchase tickets online here
Facebook Event

view from top of East Liberty Presbyterian Chuch

Get a Birds Eye View of East Liberty, Steeple Tour of East Liberty Presbyterian Church

The East Liberty Presbyterian Church tower

The East Liberty Presbyterian Church tower (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another one of Pittsburgh’s best kept secrets. I happened to be at East Liberty Presbyterian Church one Sunday morning and I always read the bulletin because each Sunday they put in fun trivia facts about the music and things that happened on this day in history. I noticed they were offering a tour of the building after the service. It was one of those gray summer Sunday’s where I didn’t have anything else planned, so I stuck around and joined a handful of folks for a tour of the building from top to bottom, well it was actually from bottom to top. The tour ended with a hike, well really a climb, up a stunning stair case to the top of the steeple, with an incredible view of East Liberty and surrounding neighborhoods.

You will have to excuse the quality of the photo in this tweet, since it is from 2012, that was several years before I had an iphone and it was likely posted from my little Blackberry pearl phone.

I have posted about past tours at East Liberty Presbyterian Church here before and received many thanks for the tip. The next steeple tour is Sunday, June 11, 2017, details here. Wear pants and closed toe shoes.

English: Ralph Adams Cram, American architect

English: Ralph Adams Cram, American architect (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

East Liberty Presbyterian Church is an architectural gem, designed by famed architect Ralph Adams Cram. The tour gives you a chance to go “behind the scenes” actually, over the ceiling, to see some the interesting structural features. You can read more about Ralph Adams Cram and his work on East Liberty Presbyterian Church in this 2008 City Paper article here.

Schenley High School & The Schenley Experiment

Next up in our series on historic buildings for Preservation Month is Schenley High School and the release of a new book about the school.

Aerial view of Schenley High School, Pittsburgh, Pa.
I have been interested in learning more about the Schenley High School building for quite sometime. I have never been in the building, but it has been a place that have been wanting to learn more about. Beyond being a beautiful building, Schenley High school served as a model for integrated schools.

I have friends who attended Schenley who incredibly fond of this building and their time spent inside. I know there was quite a debate about closing of Schenley High School, which closed for good in 2011 and was sold to PMC Property Group. As I have been learning more about historic preservation and community spaces, I am interested to learn more about how this went from a top high school to an empty building.

The Schenley High School Building has been in the news recently for a few reasons. It will soon reopen as an apartment building with rentals starting this summer.

The Schenley Experiment

The other reason you may have heard about this building is that it is the subject of a new book, The Schenley Experiment: A Social History of Pittsburgh’s First Public High School (Amazon affiliate link), by Pittsburgh attorney Jake Oresick, who attended Schenley High School. Both the City Paper and NextPittsburgh have published profiles of Jake Oresick and his new book.

If you are interested in hearing more about The Schenley Project, Jake Oresick and a panel of former Schenley High School teachers will be the subject of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lecture’s Made Local event on Monday at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Oakland. The event is free to attend with registration.

A Look Inside Schenley High School

Schenley High School, 1916, Main Entrance Hall

The trailer for the book includes several historic images of the building as well as lots of facts about Schenley High School.

I was hoping to, but unable to find some photos of the pool, which I believe was added at a later date. According to a recent NextPittsburgh article about the apartments, the pool has been replaced by a parking garage.

I am looking forward to reading Oresick’s book and learning more about this building and how it came to be that it went from a model for public education to a financial liability for the Pittsburgh school district. It is interesting to see how much Pittsburgh has changed over the past 6 years since Schenley closed.

Do you have some photos of Schenley High School to share? We would love to post them here on the blog and share with Preservation Pittsburgh. Leave a comment below or send an email to info-at-IheartPGH.com

May is Preservation Month

Check out some of the other historic buildings and preservation groups we have posted about for preservation month:

Revisiting the 2nd Oldest House in Pittsburgh

Since 1973, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has used the month of May to celebrate historic preservation opportunities across the country. In honor of Preservation Month, I wanted to share some of the historic buildings that we have covered here on IheartPGH.

Let’s start with the second oldest house in Pittsburgh – the John Woods House in Hazelwood. I first learned about the John Woods House in 2015. This house, located just down the street from the historic Carnegie Library building, was one of the stops on the Has Urban Hike through Hazelwood.

I believe the Fort Pitt Blockhouse is the oldest residential structure in the City of Pittsburgh, it was built in 1764, and became a residence in 1785. The John Woods house was built in 1792, which would make it the 2nd oldest house in the city.  The John Woods house was added given historic designation in the City of Pittsburgh in 1977.

The property is still listed on the URA website and it does not looks like anything has changed with the status of the property in the past 2 years.

If you are interested in learning more about the John Woods House, these websites provide lots of information about the history of the building and John Woods:

How would you redevelop the John Woods House?

What should the future of the John Woods house look like? The property is in Hazelwood, close to the new ALMONO development site and just a block off the main road. My first thought is that this would make a unique stopping point for cyclists who are riding the GAP trail into Pittsburgh. Maybe it could be a coffee shop with rooms that cyclists could rent if they wanted to spend the night? Maybe it could be a restaurant? There is some precedent for historic lodging in Western Pennsylvania. The Century Inn, located in Washington County, has been a stop for travelers since it first opened in 1788 and it still a bed and breakfast today. What would you like to see in the John Woods House in the future?

Are there other historic buildings that you would like to see featured for Preservation Month? Leave a comment below or post a tweet. #ThisPlaceMatters is the official hashtag from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Clue: The Musical at Palisades Playhouse

Last week, I had the pleasure of being one of the attendees for opening night of the community theater production of Clue: The Musical at the Palisades Playhouse in Greenfield. If you are looking for something to do this weekend, I would like to suggest that you make time to go see one of the final performances.  This performance is definitely kid friendly and a good way to entertain the family on a holiday weekend.

One of the things I learned when I would give a weekly event listing on WDVE is that there are often no event happening on holiday weekends.  The lack of events for holidays is problematic, because if your family is like my family, we can only exist in peace when we are doing something together. I was just thinking about the easter when I was little and my grandparents came to visit, in an effort to keep everyone entertained we went to visit a chicken farm somewhere in Westmoreland County, I think (I assure you my father will read this post and fact check the location).

I will admit that I am quite biased in my support of this particular production, 1/4 of the cast are good friends of mine from high school, but my friends aside, here are 5 reasons I think you should check out Clue: The Musical this weekend.

Five Reasons to see Clue: The Musical at Palisades Playhouse

  1. Clue: The Musical. I loved and still love Clue: The Movie. I remember first watching this at my friend Mandy’s sleepover birthday party and as seven year-olds, we thought the scene where the signing telegram woman collapses was the funniest thing ever.  I had no idea there was a musical version of what I consider to be a cinematic classic. Clue: The Musical is still a mystery and still the same clever plot line but with some snappy songs for a stage production. Sadly the singing telegram is not included in the musical version.
  2. A musical & a mystery you try to solve. I’ll get back to the snappy songs in a second. I thought that I was going to see a series of musical performances, what I did not expect and really loved about the production is that is also a mystery. Your program comes with a score card and you can keep track of the clues that are presented by the characters as the show unfolds.
  3. The cast & crew. I have tremendous respect for anyone who gets on stage and performs. The entire cast is performing for fun, rehearsing after their full-time jobs.
  4. The set. I thought that the Palisades Playhouse did an incredible job creating a backdrop for the performance. Minimal, but well constructed and supported the overall plot of the musical performance.
  5. The theater building. I was particularly excited to see this production and check out how the Palisades Playhouse was re-purposing the former Greenfield Presbyterian Church building. Last month, Partners for Sacred Spaces, a national nonprofit with the mission of helping churches and communities reuse religious structures spoke here in Pittsburgh. One of the many examples of church reuse that they shared was for community theater spaces. It was great to see how Palisades Playhouse is using the sanctuary as a theater and hear more about how the other areas of the building are being used as community spaces. You can read more about Palisades Playhouse and their future plans from this Post-Gazette article.

Clue: The Musical at Palisades Playhouse

Tickets are available at the door or online here.

  • Friday April 14 at 7pm
  • Saturday, April 15 at 1pm