A field guide to Pittsburgh houses (Millvale, Bloomfield: 2014, rentals, cost of)

[AmoebaShrew]

I recently got a copy of A Field Guide to American Houses and read it basically cover-to-cover over a few weeks. I've been casually interested for a while, and that book has helped me to notice some degree of details on houses when I'm just driving around.

But there's a big step up, for example, between browsing a few 2-inch black-and-white Second Empire photos and actually looking at the King Estate in person. However, the book doesn't have many Pittsburgh examples and it's a little overwhelming at first to try and apply all my new "knowledge" out in the real word.

Are there any books (or barring that, at least a blog or something) that have similar content with a Pittsburgh focus? Some kind of starting point for learning about styled houses in the area?

[ferraris]

WQED's Houses Around Here might interest you. They still show it on the air sometimes.

[PreservationPioneer]

I never got around to blogging about all of the Pittsburgh vernacular housing styles, but I did blog about the "mill house" and "hillside cottage" types of vernacular we have here. Someday I will continue the series with posts about the "foursquare" and Pittsburgh style row houses, which differ a bit from row houses in other cities. There are a couple more vernacular types, but I have no idea what I would call them. I attached one below -- I am mainly talking about these two and a half story houses with gabled roofs and a peak in the front middle (see photo). These date from about 1890 and are all over the city.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

I never got around to blogging about all of the Pittsburgh vernacular housing styles, but I did blog about the "mill house" and "hillside cottage" types of vernacular we have here. Someday I will continue the series with posts about the "foursquare" and Pittsburgh style row houses, which differ a bit from row houses in other cities. There are a couple more vernacular types, but I have no idea what I would call them. I attached one below -- I am mainly talking about these two and a half story houses with gabled roofs and a peak in the front middle (see photo). These date from about 1890 and are all over the city.

Pittsburgh rowhouses are mainly notable compared to other cities due to the prevalence of pitched roofs here. Most other rowhouse-filled cities tend to have flat or mansard roofs - probably because they were in climates where there was less snow accumulation. Pittsburgh began building more flat-roof rowhouses after 1900 or so as mass worker housing (rows survive in Homewood and Hazelwood, for example) but in the 19th century it was all but absent. The other main differences are the presence of wood rowhouses (which are vanishingly rare elsewhere, other than in the Coal Region of eastern Pennsylvania and Atlantic Canada) and the relative paucity of industrial-scale rowhouses (where an entire block is one housing style).

I've long attempted to look for information on the name for the ubiquitous style built in Pittsburgh from around 1895-1910 in wealthy areas. You know, the big, boxy brick houses with tons of woodwork and stained glass inside them. I've heard them described as Edwardian and Queen Anne, but neither really applies except for being in the proper time period. They are closest to American foursquare, but they don't quite fit that style either. The roof pitch is too steep, the front dormers are typically not hipped, and there is too much "frippery" inside the houses. They clearly developed into the American Foursquare over time, so I think this is the best name for this style however.

Pittsburgh also has its own unique bungalow style. I honestly think that houses like this may be the single most common house design in Allegheny County, insofar as there is very little variation in terms of design. It's very rare to see a bungalow in Pittsburgh which is lovingly restored, but there is a nice one down the street from me.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Pittsburgh also has its own unique bungalow style. I honestly think that houses like this may be the single most common house design in Allegheny County, insofar as there is very little variation in terms of design. It's very rare to see a bungalow in Pittsburgh which is lovingly restored, but there is a nice one down the street from me.

At $1,800, people were talking about how the high cost of housing was going to destroy Pittsburgh. (See image at bottom.)

Sears Homes 1921-1926

[Geeo]

Preservation Pioneer: I really enjoy your research on the different styles we have around here. Keep up the good work. We're fortunate that we still have so many examples, but it's sad to see so many of them abandoned or being torn down. It's nice to find areas where people have restored them.

[Goinback2011]

Since returning to Pittsburgh, I've noticed an astonishing number of house fires in the region. Maybe the local media just publicizes them more, I don't know. But when they show the burned house on the news, the vast majority look like the type in Preservation Pioneer's photo above.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Since returning to Pittsburgh, I've noticed an astonishing number of house fires in the region. Maybe the local media just publicizes them more, I don't know. But when they show the burned house on the news, the vast majority look like the type in Preservation Pioneer's photo above.

Many are rentals, and maintained only to a marginal degree, at best. Many of them probably have knob and tube wiring. I am waiting for the day when this city wakes up and realizes that all of these "cheap rentals" are actually historic Victorian homes that could be beautifully restored.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PreservationPioneer

I am waiting for the day when this city wakes up and realizes that all of these "cheap rentals" are actually historic Victorian homes that could be beautifully restored.

The housing stock in many of the old hillier parts of Pittsburgh, where frame houses are common, has the raw materials to match San Francisco if the houses were brought back to their glory days.

[PreservationPioneer]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The housing stock in many of the old hillier parts of Pittsburgh, where frame houses are common, has the raw materials to match San Francisco if the houses were brought back to their glory days.

Yes! Take Millvale, Bloomfield, or Spring Hill, for instance. There are many Victorian era wood frame homes. People always talk about the ugliness of the housing in these districts, but if you could only see them with the layers of aluminum, awnings, and inappropriate modifications peeled away! There are charming homes underneath.