Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation

Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation - Renewing Communities; Building Pride

Downtown Pittsburgh is like a smorgasbord of architecture, with a remarkable array of buildings and places old, new, res...
09/10/2026

Downtown Pittsburgh is like a smorgasbord of architecture, with a remarkable array of buildings and places old, new, restored, and re-imagined.

The great variety of styles, functions, and stories of these buildings are part of what makes Pittsburgh unique and allows us to understand the relationship between our history and our built environment.

In a vigorous tour of architectural landmarks, spectacular interiors, and significant urban spaces, our tour group, this morning, learned how Pittsburgh developed from a military outpost in the 18th century into the 21st-century city that has been lauded for its beauty, walkability, and livability.

A signature tour of our organization, “Downtown’s Best: Special Places and Spaces,” highlights how historic buildings have been preserved and maintained for contemporary uses, manifesting the resilience and ingenuity that have defined Pittsburgh since its beginning.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

We had a brilliant tour of the house of the late artist Henry Koerner (1915-1991), this morning, now the residence of a ...
08/29/2026

We had a brilliant tour of the house of the late artist Henry Koerner (1915-1991), this morning, now the residence of a historic preservationist who is also a collector of Koerner’s work.

In 1983, Koerner told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his house was “a miniature of what I wanted all my life. I wanted balconies. A miniature palace…. This house is anachronistic baroque but at the same time very modern. The walls are ten feet high. They are white. Paintings look well on them.”

Designed with substantial involvement by Koerner and completed in 1966, it not only was the family’s abode, but also functioned as a gallery.

Here, Koerner showed his art, which is generally described as a Magical Realist for the way in which he synthesized the real with the strange or unfamiliar in his paintings and other works.

Koerner was born in Vienna but immigrated to the U.S. in 1938, when Germany annexed Austria. In 1952, he moved from New York to Pittsburgh to become artist-in-residence at what is now Chatham University.

In his more than four decades in the U.S., Koerner became nationally and internationally known, producing work ranging from drawings commissioned by Westinghouse for use in advertising to enormous, 16-panel paintings that combined imagery from his life in America and his family’s regular trips to his native land.

Our tour, graciously offered and led by the home’s owner, gave our guests a unique insight into this beguiling artist and his architectural alter-ego.

The house was awarded a Historic Landmark Plaque by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation in 2021 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

When Pittsburgh’s first full street plan was devised, in 1784, the surveyors surely couldn’t imagine that the City would...
08/28/2026

When Pittsburgh’s first full street plan was devised, in 1784, the surveyors surely couldn’t imagine that the City would ever extend beyond today’s Grant Street. The site they designated as Market Square thus was at the physical center of the City.

Although Pittsburgh now extends far beyond Downtown in every direction, Market Square remains an important urban space, and perhaps the psychic heart of the Central Business District.

Our tour today of Market Square, together with Bruce Chan, Senior Director of Urban Design at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, telescoped in from a high-level history of the numerous forms the Square has taken in its 242 years to a granular examination of its most recent iteration, completed by the PDP earlier this year.

This kind of tour, conducted with our valued partners throughout the Pittsburgh area, allows us to demonstrate how cities endure over time and how preservation of historic resources contributes to this city’s survival.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

“Over the Hump,” our second in a three-part lecture series titled Delirious Pittsburgh by architectural critic, historia...
08/26/2026

“Over the Hump,” our second in a three-part lecture series titled Delirious Pittsburgh by architectural critic, historian, and author Charles Rosenblum, was held this evening at the historic University Club on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland.

We toured the 1923 limestone building designed by the notable American architect Henry Hornbostel, who among other buildings in Oakland also designed Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, Temple Rodef Shalom, and much of the original quad of what is now Carnegie Mellon University.

The building’s rooftop terrace which offers spectacular views of Oakland’s substantive architecture of the City-Beautiful Era, is one of the most desirable spaces of building which blends old-world building design details with a touch of modern hospitality.

We also toured the building’s grand ballroom with a 20-foot ceiling and dazzling crystal chandeliers and its other smaller ballrooms and spaces before we took the grand staircase to the ground floor and into the building’s cozy library for our lecture.

In “Over the Hump,” Rosenblum reflected on the effect of what lowering the hill upon which the Allegheny County Courthouse was once settled along Grant Street must have had not only on city residents in the Lower Hill district, but on the city’s sense of identity and the scale of its historic built-environment.

Our third and final lecture in this series will be on Tuesday, October 27, at the Carnegie Museum of Art Theater in Oakland. Don’t miss it!

Renewing Communities; Building Pride.

www.phlf.org

Join us for a special event at the historic Union Trust Building, one of Downtown’s most significant architectural landm...
08/21/2026

Join us for a special event at the historic Union Trust Building, one of Downtown’s most significant architectural landmarks, for a night of socializing with friends in the preservation community.

You will hear from the leadership of our organization, get a chance to tour the Union Trust Building, and also take in a moderated discussion by two Pittsburgh authors.

Brian O’Neill, a former Post-Gazette columnist, and Chris Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research, will present and discuss themes and ideas on Pittsburgh from their respective books, "The Paris of Appalachia: Pittsburgh in the Twenty-First Century," and "Beyond Steel: Pittsburgh and the Economics of Transformation."

The discussion will be moderated by longtime Pittsburgh journalist John Allison, a news editor at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

For tickets: https://phlf.org/event/landmarks-night-at-the-union-trust/

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

Hill Top United Methodist Church in Allentown was able to undertake a stained glass restoration project, this year, in p...
08/17/2026

Hill Top United Methodist Church in Allentown was able to undertake a stained glass restoration project, this year, in part, thanks to a matching-grant from our organization's Historic Religious Properties Grant Program.

The church was one of 19 congregations in Allegheny County to receive funding to help it maintain its historic building.

Our organization is the only nonprofit organization in Allegheny County offering a continuing program of financial and technical assistance to historic religious property owners.

We have awarded more than 320 such grants totaling nearly $4 million, and provided more than 70 technical assistance consultations, since the program’s inception in 1997.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

A dozen participants from here and abroad reveled in one of our signature tours in Downtown Pittsburgh — an in-depth exp...
08/14/2026

A dozen participants from here and abroad reveled in one of our signature tours in Downtown Pittsburgh — an in-depth exploration the Allegheny County Courthouse (H.H. Richardson, 1888) and City-County Building (Henry Hornbostel, 1916).

Seated side-by-side on Grant Street, the two expansive buildings, which comprise the heart of our city and county government operations, are stylistically as different as night and day.

Their stunning interiors also reflect different approaches to using art and design to educate and inspire reflection on the city’s history and aspirations. Together, the Courthouse and the City-County Building make an indelible architectural impression on Grant Street.

We couldn’t offer our wide variety of programs without the volunteer docents who lead many of our tours. All are very knowledgeable, but some also bring personal experience of a building or place that gives tour participants a different perspective.

On this tour, for example, Nancy Pulsifer, a participant was particularly impressed by the fact that one of our lead docents worked in the Courthouse as an attorney for several decades.

“[Because of her experience] we got to visit a restored courtroom, meet a judge whom she knew, and we asked any questions we wanted,” she said.

These are the experiences, we hope, give our guests a deeper sense of appreciation of our city, its history, and its distinctive built environment.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

Lawrenceville is one of the city’s largest neighborhoods. It extends along the Allegheny River for more than two miles, ...
08/12/2026

Lawrenceville is one of the city’s largest neighborhoods. It extends along the Allegheny River for more than two miles, and its nationally listed historic district covers much of the neighborhood, but our tour of Lower Lawrenceville on Saturday focused on the six-block stretch from 34th to 40th Streets.

That bit of the neighborhood alone encompasses architectural manifestations of many key elements of Pittsburgh’s history. From the Native American pre-history of our area, to the impact and power of industry and rail transportation, to Pittsburgh’s ethnic diversity, and to the deep importance of religious life to the city’s inhabitants.

This vital neighborhood is a microcosm of what makes Pittsburgh distinctive.

We were delighted, this evening, to host a reception and behind-the-scenes tour of a nearly completed restoration of an ...
08/07/2026

We were delighted, this evening, to host a reception and behind-the-scenes tour of a nearly completed restoration of an 1800s-era building, for which Landmarks Community Capital provided a $332,000 loan.

Landmarks Community Capital, is a non-profit lending subsidiary of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.

A c.1865 two-story red-brick building, with additions from 1902, sat vacant for more than 20 years and was on the brink of demolition when Architects Erik and Kalina Kath, acquired it.

They undertook an expansive restoration, which has seen the property converted into a multi-use live-and-work space that will be comprised of an office and two-housing units.

We were happy to be joined by board members of our organization, staff, and friends in the East Allegheny community where this impressive historic restoration project is located at the corner of Chestnut and Suismon Streets along a cobblestone road that was once a busy streetcar line into Spring Hill.

Erik and Kalina gave us an overview of the meticulous restoration which included deconstruction of an exterior wall and reuse of its bricks among other neat and impressive discoveries in the historic property.

Renewing Communities; Building Pride

www.phlf.org

Clare Horner, a lifetime member and longtime supporter of our organization, stopped by our James D. Van Trump library to...
08/05/2026

Clare Horner, a lifetime member and longtime supporter of our organization, stopped by our James D. Van Trump library to deliver a copy of her manuscript, The Mexican War Streets: A Story of Historic Preservation and Community Building in Pittsburgh.

Clare and her husband, Duncan, are long-time Mexican War Streets residents, who purchased their house from PHLF in 1975 when we were working to save distinctive parts of the North Side from demolition during the era of “urban renewal.”

Clare used our library and archives to conduct research for her project and even interviewed PHLF co-founder Arthur Ziegler.

Seen here: Archivist Anna Samuels and Clare Horner in the James D. Van Trump Library.

The James D. Van Trump Library is open to members of our organization and to the public. Members have unlimited reference use of the library, and non-members may use the library for a fee of $25.

To schedule a research appointment contact Anna Samuels ([email protected]) or Frank Stroker ([email protected]).

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Pittsburgh, PA
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