Why Stop With the Inside?

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

Keep in mind that Victorian architecture was long in the crosshairs of the modernist movement. The modernists hated what they considered the excesses of the Victorian era. Frivolous ornament and such. "Form follows function", was their motto. At the end of WW2, the cores of the older cities were full of Victorian structures, ranging from 50, to 100 years old, and with the Depression, and the war causing much maintenance to have been put off, many of these buildings were in bad shape. Keep in mind that few of the people in power, would have been around to see these buildings when they were new and beautiful. Thus, the public perception of Victorian architecture was very very negative. This is the mindset that allowed for some of America's best urban neighborhoods to be swept off of the map, as well as for many of the buildings that survived to suffer ugly "modernizations". As with many things from the past, we don't become nostalgic about them, until they begin to disappear. The 1957 Chevy that's a classic now, would have been an embarrassment to have parked in front of your house in 1967.

A better example might be a 1975 Ford Torino, which is starting to look cool now that no one has seen one in twenty years.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The only way that landlords in Pittsburgh will make the outside of a building look nice is if they're compelled due to a historic district. Which is why in large part the biggest organized opponent to the expansion of the Mexican War Streets historic district was a slumlord who owned many properties in the area.

I have seen some places where the landlord puts on a new front porch. There are few places on North Negley where they have fixed up the outside.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

My grandparents remuddled many a houses in their day, albeit not in Pittsburgh, but in Western PA. I asked my father about this not long ago, why they woudld so such a thing, and it was a pretty simple answer.

In the 1950s and 60s no one looked at a house from 1915 as a historic structure, but rather as their old house. Growing up in these houses, they didnt have carpeting, large windows, and all the "upgrades" we do now. As these became more affordable to the masses, my grandparents were more than happy to cover thier hardwood floors with carpet, put in bigger windows, and drop the ceilings. Now 50+ years later these houses are historic, and some people have money to try to return them to what they once were. At the time however, people wanted to modernize them because they were drafty, outdated, and oftentimes a symbol of being working class. Imagine having the one frame house on your block in South Side with new siding, and fancy new wall to wall carpet. You were the talk of the block. The little old lady who couldn't afford to "upgrade" was considered poor not a forward thinking preservationist.

And then there is also the problem of "savages" (I love that word ,lol) like Youngstown and Warren are plagued with, who swarm in and destroy everything in their path and run off all of the original inhabitants. There's not going to be much worth preserving after the interiors are gutted, vandalized, torched, and water-damaged.

And also, western PA has had waves of immigrants, most of them in the 20th Century, and most old historic homes are, to them, not the family mansion or homestead. They are someone else's hand-me-downs. Historically the more affluent business people moved on to newer homes in grander areas of town, or moved farther out into the surrounding suburbs, and the old mill housing and urban mansions got pushed down the food chain. Additionally, the better-educated people left western PA for better career opportunities elsewhere. So then western PA was stuck with a largely immigrant working class of mill people who don't see old houses as their history, or as something to be valued, and might even see them as the "rich people's leftovers," that they want to deliberately change or destroy.