Waiting for buyers in Wilkinsburg
When engineer Vernon Covell bought a red-brick, two-story house at 816 South Ave. in Wilkinsburg in 1906, he set about making it a home with the same passion as he used when he designed bridges. He installed electricity in the house, and noted in his diary expenses for plumbing, paint brushes and colorful caladium bulbs for his yard.
Now, a century later, 816 South Ave. needs a new champion.
A group of borough residents and officials say the house, which fell into disrepair after Mr. Covell’s granddaughter couldn’t maintain it, can be rescued. It’s one of five houses on the first Vacant Home Tour, a free walking excursion designed to attract people who might buy and renovate abandoned buildings in Wilkinsburg, The tour is scheduled for 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday.
“The house still has good walls. It has a potential to be somebody’s home,” said Anne Elise Morris, president of the Wilkinsburg Historical Society, who will be a guide during the tour.
The house’s story is typical for Wilkinsburg, a borough of nearly 16,000 people. Founded in the late 19th century and originally part of Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg was once known as “The Holy City” for its many churches. Its decline beginning in the 1980s has led to a sharp drop in population and an increase in abandoned buildings. About 19 percent of its houses and 40 percent of its shops are vacant.
Last fall, the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation and a group of Carnegie Mellon University students came up with an idea for a vacant house tour, securing $17,000 in grants for the project.
At the end of the tour, organizers will hold a workshop to explain how someone could buy one of these buildings through direct deals with the owners, sheriff’s sales or the Vacant Property Recovery Program. It will be at Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation’s Preservation Resource Center, 744 Rebecca Ave.,15221.
“We do this tour to demystify this process and make it a little bit easier for people to acquire the properties,” said Marlee Gallagher, communications and outreach coordinator at Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation.
Proximity to Pittsburgh, public transit connections and cheap housing have recently made Wilkinsburg popular with artists and young families seeking an affordable place to live.
Four years ago, Jeff Lovett and his wife bought a house and opened a small arts and construction firm. On Saturday, Mr. Lovett will be showing visitors through one of the vacant houses on Rebecca Avenue.
Constructed in 1900, the house has rough lumber supporting its veranda instead of pillars. Its windows are boarded up and its roof has many leaks. Its current owner bought it in the early 2000s together with some other houses, but 10 years later, he stopped paying property taxes.
“It would be a serious undertaking to renovate it, but in the end someone could have a big, beautiful, turn-ofthe-century house with a ton of character for the cost of a cookie-cutter house in the suburbs,” Mr. Lovett said.
The owner of 718 Whitney Ave., another house on the tour, died in 2006 leaving around 70 delinquent properties in Wilkinsburg and no heir.
The high number of vacant houses like this one have put an added burden on a small number of taxpayers in the borough. The school tax rate in Wilkinsburg is 32.63 mills in comparison to just 9.84 mills in neighboring Pittsburgh.
“People are more afraid to buy here because the tax rate is so high even if the property values are low,” Mr. Lovett said. Those who take the risk do it for their own needs, not for investment, he added.
In 2014, Allegheny County’s Vacant Property Recovery Program received 80 inquiries in Wilkinsburg and 22 buildings were acquired with its help. The houses included into the tour will cost between $5,000 and $8,000 to acquire through the Vacant Property Recovery Program.
Mr. Lovett believes there are more people like him who are ready to buy in Wilkinsburg.
“People here care about the whole history of Pittsburgh and can see the richness that still exists and the great opportunities that are hiding just under the dust,” he said.