Historic designation pits architect against homeowners

Architect Keith Cochran won historic landmark status last Tuesday for his Greek Revival-style home on Carnegie Street in Lawrenceville.

The next day, he urged Pittsburgh City Council to designate another Lawrenceville property, Ewalt House, as a city historic landmark. Located at 186 Home St., that Greek Revival home had been slated for demolition before he nominated it last year against the owners’ wishes.

Built around 1840, the Ewalt House is one of a few pre-Civil War homes left in Lawrenceville, where property values have quadrupled and construction is booming.

“The neighborhood is in overdrive. The trend is to demolish small, historic homes,” Mr. Cochran said at Wednesday’s Pittsburgh City Council meeting.

Council did not vote to approve historic designation for Ewalt House. Instead, members voted, 5-3, in favor of holding the bill for three weeks. The result of that delay is that the Ewalt House will, on July 22, automatically become a city historic landmark.

“They manipulated the law to take our home without just compensation,” said Beth Rupert, whose husband, Eric, inherited the house.

The city’s Historic Review Commission and its Planning Commission both recommended historic designation for Ewalt House.

Eric Rupert, a Hampton masonry contractor, inherited Ewalt House from his father, George, who died in 2016. Beth Rupert said she and her husband have twice tried to sell the property on Zillow for close to the $550,000 estimated value in a market analysis prepared by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. There were no comparable properties. The land alone, Mrs. Rupert said, is worth $400,000.

Dirk A. Taylor, an engineer, in a March 2020 report prepared for the Ruperts, recommended “carefully demolishing the deteriorated house before it collapses.” David Green, the city’s assistant director of construction, disagreed.

“This is not the sole remedy for these conditions,” Mr. Green wrote, adding that the roof could be stabilized and the upper parts of its masonry walls could be repaired. The house, Mr. Green wrote, “does not pose an imminent danger to the public.”

Mrs. Rupert said she and her husband received nine offers for the property. A woman who wanted to renovate and live in it offered $385,000 in cash, then got cold feet. Two Lawrenceville women considered making it a bed-and-breakfast but decided against it, Mrs. Rupert said. A Lawrenceville resident offered $200,000 but could not get financing.

Last July, the Ruperts agreed to sell Ewalt House to developers Joe Casey and Matt Stookey of Duncan Ventures. The developers want to demolish the house and build five townhouses, four of which would face Eden Way, an alley. In October, Duncan Ventures received three variances from the city zoning board. A local group, Lawrenceville Stakeholders, is appealing the granting of those variances to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Mrs. Rupert said she and her husband had hoped to sell Ewalt House to finance the purchase of a building in Pine where she runs her child care business, Solid Foundations Academy. If Ewalt House becomes historic and they can’t sell it, she said, her family could lose everything.

The house was built by

Samuel Ewalt, one of Pittsburgh’s earliest merchants, a sheriff and a member of the state House of Representatives. He owned 263 acres of land by 1787, according to Mr. Cochran’s nomination for historic designation. Later, Charles Bickel, architect of Kaufmann’s department store and the South Side Market House, lived in the home.

At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Mr. Cochran said Ewalt House should be a city historic landmark because it represents a pioneer family and life in Lawrenceville before and during the Industrial Revolution. The architect lives in a house on Carnegie Street that was once owned by Dr. Peter Mowry, a physician who built it between 1830 and 1832. Since 2011, Mr. Cochran and his wife, Mary Mazziotti, have been renovating the property.

The city’s historic designation ordinance allows council 120 days to hold a public hearing and to vote. If council fails to act within 120 days, the designation is deemed approved so long as the Historic Review Commission has recommended historic designation.

City Council members Deborah Gross, Corey O’Connor, Bruce Kraus, Erika Strassburger and Bobby Wilson voted in favor of the delay. Council members Theresa Kail-Smith, Anthony Coghill and Daniel Lavelle opposed it. Councilman Ricky Burgess, who opposes historic nominations when a property owner opposes them, was not present for the vote.

Designating a property as a city historic landmark requires six votes if the property owner has submitted signed opposition.

Preservation Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville United and Lawrenceville Stakeholders also advocated for the designation.