From 1830 to 1930, the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had more millionaires than New
York City. Hi everyone, ken here, welcome to this house. Today we are exploring the
lost mansions along with the few that remain from Pittsburgh’s Golden Age. Make sure to
hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode of this house.
Unlike the Millionaires Rows of other cities, Pittsburgh’s was broken up into a cluster of
neighborhoods. Back in the mid 1800s, Pittsburgh was the center of manufacturing. Steel, oil,
and coal were produced and refined on a scale the world had never seen
before with factories opening up and expanding rapidly. This caused the population to boom,
which attracted magnates from other industries to set up shop and call
Pittsburgh home. The mansions we are about to see spanned from Allegheny to the East End,
an area that was already considered well-to-do before millionaires moved in.
We’ll start on Penn Avenue with the Mansion named Solitude. In 1871, George Westinghouse
purchased this 10.2 acre estate and began remodeling it. He had brought AC current
to the forefront of electrical engineering in direct competition with Thomas Edison who was
researching DC currents. Soon after purchasing the house, George had it doubled in size,
keeping with the original Italianate architecture to create a seamless series
of additions. He conducted several experiments in the basement of his carriage house which
paved the way for modern electricity, but his experiments required massive amounts of energy,
so he began searching for a source in his yard. In 1884 He dug a giant hole in his yard
and unleashed the raw power of mother nature. He hit a pocket of natural gas which caught flame,
sending a blazing fire 100 feet up in the air. It burned consistently for over a week
before George figured out how to safely cap it off. Just like his other estate, Erskine Park,
which we covered in a previous video, upon his death he had his son demolish the house as a
condition of his will. Thankfully, many of the architectural elements were stripped from the
home before its demolition and can still be found retrofitted into buildings along the east coast.
Down the road was Greenlawn, the estate of Henry J Heinz, commonly referred to as the
King of Ketchup. Henry Heinz had come from humble beginnings, starting off in a modestly sized house
Sharpsburg, which is why he had it moved to his Heinz Factory to serve as a reminder of
his humility and as inspiration to his workers to achieve their dreams. His factories were cutting
edge for the time period, offering dental services and weekly manicures for staff along with state
of the art roof top gardens where employees could eat fresh food on their breaks. He also
treated them to clean, running water in their locker rooms. This might not sound like much,
but this was at a time where the common person could only afford to bath once or twice per month,
many of them without access to clean running water at home. With his employees taken care of,
he purchased an existing Italianate style home and had it upgraded to an unrecognizable degree.
The new renovations made the house more akin to the Chateauesque style with white stone
blocks composing the façade behind an expansive veranda. He filled the house with not only art,
but trinkets that he found interesting. Every Sunday he would cycle parts of
his art collection into his factory for the employees and the public to enjoy. Back at home,
his maids and butlers were allowed to house their families in the servants quarters,
something that was unheard of at this time. Henry passed away in 1919 and the house was left to his
family. They tried to donate it to the city, but it was too great for the city to afford
its upkeep. It was sold in 1924 to a real estate developer who had the house dismantled. He then
built up to 5 new homes using the architectural salvage. Today, the only thing that remains from
the estate is the stone wall running along the street and a couple of the many outbuildings.
Next door was Henry Clay Frick’s House, Clayton. We just toured this house a couple videos ago,
so we won’t go into too much detail. Frick was an industrialist who sold coke to the Carnegie
Steel Company and made a massive fortune. His career was riddled with scandals, deaths,
and assassination attempts. But his homes were always his refuge. Clayton had also
started off as an Italianate style mansion that was reworked into a high queen anne with
soaring towers. A playhouse was built for his daughter Hellen to enjoy along with a massive
greenhouse. The interior of the home left no space for additional decoration as Frick’s
art collection spilled into each room. After a series of unfortunate events, spurred on by Frick,
he abandoned this house and moved his family to New York City. His daughter Hellen came back to
visit from time to time, taking care of the home she covered all the floors, furniture,
and paintings with dust covers. When she was 93 years old, she moved back into the house and
removed the dust covers to reveal a perfectly preserved time capsule from the Victorian era.
She died here in 1984, leaving it with a trust to fund the house as a museum for future generations
to learn about the Victorian era. Today, it continues to be open to the public for tours.
Heading over to the East End, We would have found the R.B Mellon Residence in Shadyside
sitting along Pittsburgh’s fifth avenue high up on a hill. Richard Beaty Mellon
was the brother of Andrew Mellon, when Andrew was appointed to Treasury Secretary, he took
his brother’s place as the President of Mellon Bank. Throughout his life he made significant
contributions to the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. With his fortune,
he also treated himself, building one of the largest homes in Pittsburgh with a rambling brick
façade towering over terraced gardens leading towards the street. The only surviving pieces
of the once grand estate are the carriage house and the iron fence which wraps around Mellon Park.
On Forbes Avenue in the East End sat John Worthington’s Squirl Hill mansion. John
was an executive for the South Penn Oil Company and had the chance to travel the world with his
job. While in England, he fell in love with the historic castle he visited and returned
home with inspiration for his dream house. It was designed in the Jacobean Revival style, over time
the façade was overgrown with ivy creeping between the parapet walls. The interior boasted oak wall
panels and what were said to be the most ornate plaster ceilings in the entire state. In 1946,
the stately home was acquired by Temple Sinai and continues to operate as a synagogue to this day.
In 1887, William Thaw began construction on his dream house named Lyndhurst. He had made
his fortune in banking before expanding to coal and railroads. He wanted a grand house
to flaunt his wealth. The Gothic Revival style mansion rose 4 stories, visible above the lush
canopy of trees surrounding it. When William passed away, he left the home to his widow,
Mary who was forced to sell it off in pieces to fund her son Harry’s legal defense. Harry
Thaw hated renowned architect Stanford White for several reasons. Harry alleged that Stanford had
dragged his name through the dirt to keep him from being accepted into high society. This was true,
but Stanford did this to hide a heinous crime he had committed. When Harry’s wife Evelyn was 16
years old, Stanford White had made unwelcome advances on her, traumatizing her for life.
On June 25th, 1906, Harry confronted Stanford in Madison Square Garden in New York, drew his gun,
and shot him in front of hundreds of people. Harry was later found not guilty after a hung jury
declared him insane. Now, this is the family friendly version of the story, but this trial
was dubbed the trial of the century. A quick google search of Stanford White’s murder will
give you the tragic details of the events if you want to learn more. Anyways, The family’s
wealth dried up after the court proceedings and in 1942 their mansion was demolished.
You might be wondering what happened to Pittsburgh, why isn’t it still like this
today. As I continue the story, I’ll show a few more photos of the mansions that once
thrived in the area. Just as the fate of so many other cities were bound to the stock market,
when the great depression hit, Pittsburgh saw its wealth all but whipped out. Families who
once had deep pockets were cutting costs at all ends including laying off tens of thousands of
area workers. Quickly, the money dried up and they could no longer afford their massive homes and the
upkeep required to maintain them. Following the New Deal and the rise of Labor Unions,
Pittsburgh started to see a revitalization of the working class, but the wealthy would have
new hurdles that prevented them from living such extravagant lifestyles including the introduction
of income tax and property tax following the world wars. For a brief period in the 1960s,
the steel industry began to ramp up again with some calling it a second gilded age or
the Pittsburgh renaissance, but after foreign competition undercut prices,
Pittsburgh collapsed with sweeping layoffs. Since then, the economy has been recovering slowly,
though in 2007 it was no longer listed as a major transportation hub in the united states.
Thankfully, there are still reminders of the city’s industrial heritage to be
found through its scarce remaining architecture.
Which house was your favorite? Make sure to let me know down below in the comments
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