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 section. And while you’re there, make
sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode of
this house. I would also like to take a moment to say a special thank you to our
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I’ll see you next time on this house!
I like that he ends it like Pittsburgh no longer exist and it’s just a city of ruins
I love that Youtube Chanel! I watch it on the regular while eating breakfast. Gotta hit up all the Pittsburgh mansions they mention.
Fantastic historical video thank you for sharing.