Des Res 1

When I visited Pittsburgh in 2014 I was taken to see these two neighboring properties in Cedar Avenue, overlooking the park. This is the photograph I took. Both homes were on the market, and the owner was offering to turn them into whatever you wanted for over $400,000 per plot.  Much of the interiors had to be gutted, because all new floors were needed. However, the aim was to restore the homes as sympathetically as possible. So the double spiral staircases on each side were to be fully restored.

By 2016 the restoration work was complete and here is a photograph from that year to show the new exteriors.

Readers can use Google Earth or similar to view a more recent photo. Simply search for 1006 Cedar Avenue, Pittsburgh.

For any new to this subject, these two houses were at one time owned by the Russell family. Joseph L Russell and his wife Emma owned the house on the left (originally number 80 but renumbered as 1006 at the turn of the 19^th century), and Charles T Russell and his wife Maria owned the one on the right (originally number 79 but renumbered as 1004).

CTR and Maria moved out of number 79 into accommodation at Bible House in Arch Street in the late 1880s and CTR let the property out.

Joseph L died in his property in December 1897. Shortly before that Maria left CTR at Bible House and went to stay with her brother in Chicago. When she came back to Allegheny she moved into her sister’s home at number 80 on the left, probably very soon after Joseph L died. As soon as the tenants moved out of the next door property (number 79) she moved in there. Other family members moved in with her. Her mother Selena died at this address in 1901.  She also rented out rooms to lodgers.

When CTR took back the property in 1903, he put it in the hands of his sister, Margaretta Land, and offered Maria a room there. Maria chose to move back in with Emma next door. The two women would then live together at various locations in Pittsburgh and later Florida until Emma died in 1929. Maria lived on until 1938.

So any collectors with too much money can forget about bidding on eBay for rare bits of paper and perhaps consider obtaining some historic real estate instead…