kenb
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Very cool story.
Artifacts recovered at Ross mansion site
Thursday, June 14, 2007
By Len Barcousky, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
U.S. Sen. James Ross kept peacocks on the grounds of his country home in what is now O'Hara.
"The Meadows was a "splendid mansion," visitor Lucy Ann Higbee wrote in her diary about her visit in 1837. "The house is completely furnished by handsome carpets, mirrors, lamps, chairs. . . . Walked over the meadows and through the garden, all in very fine order."
While Ross's Georgian-style house, its garden and peacocks are long gone, a quartet of township representatives recently uncovered remnants of his 19th century estate. During a three-hour expedition, members of the group sifted through rubble at the mansion site. They collected original bricks, some showing fire damage; pieces of flooring and bits of ornamental masonry decorated with leaf or clover patterns. They also found the sandstone capital for what probably was a decorative interior column.
The Ross name lives on in Ross, the Allegheny County township named in his honor, as well as Ross County in Ohio and Ross Street in Pittsburgh. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1794 to 1803.
"James Ross was the most renowned and well-connected lawyer in Pittsburgh," said local historian Tom Powers. "When he built his summer home out here, he probably was speculating in land development."
The estate, however, was about six miles from Pittsburgh's Point, and substantial suburban growth didn't reach that part of Allegheny County until long after the senator's death in 1847.
The subsequent decades were not kind to The Meadows," Mr. Powers said.
The owner of a graphic design firm in Aspinwall, he is the author of an upcoming community history. The 300-page book, called "O'Hara Township: Portrait of an American Community," is scheduled for publication by the end of this year.
A descendant of James Powers, the first European settler in what is now O'Hara, Mr. Powers has been researching and writing his history since 1995.
The original Ross estate was about 1,700 acres, extending north from the Allegheny River and including much of what is now Fox Chapel. After James Ross Jr., the son of the senator, died in 1851, the house and surrounding farms were rented out to various tenants, including the Holy Ghost Fathers. The order later founded Duquesne University.
The 1859 suicide of an alcoholic relative, Ross Johnston, generated a ghostly tale linked to the then run-down house.
According to an 1885 report Mr. Powers found in the Sharpsburg Observer, a "spiritualist" claimed that the long-dead Ross Johnston had been sending him spirit "letters" that revealed where on the family property $60,000 in gold was buried.
"The man dug for a few hours, but failed to reach the treasure," the paper reported. "He promised to return, but has not been heard of since."
Robert C. Hall, a Pittsburgh stock broker and president of its stock exchange, bought the property in 1903 and restored it. After he died in 1914 at age 49, his family lost the house. What remained of the estate first became part of a short-lived amusement park called "Ross Grove" in 1917. In 1920 the house was renamed the Sanders Inn and became home to jazz bands, Hollywood reviews and the farewell performances of Evelyn Nesbit. She was the former wife of Pittsburgh's Harry Thaw, who shot the architect Sanford White for having seduced his spouse. Mr. Thaw's murder trail become the first of the 20th century's "Trials of the Century."
By the time The Meadows burned down on June 21, 1930, its location, at the intersection of Fox Chapel and Freeport roads, had become a valuable commercial crossroads. Around 1932, the Blandi family, later owners of Pittsburgh's LeMont restaurant, had constructed an eatery on the site called Blandi's. In 1938 the restaurant changed hands and became the Riviera.
The Riviera had a reputation for offering customers more than food and drink, Mr. Powers said. As he was writing his history of O'Hara, he found few people willing to share any memories of the Riviera, which was torn down in the early 1950s. "No one wanted to admit that they had been there," he said.
The Fox Chapel Village Shopping Center was built on the site in 1956. For many years it was home to a Kroger's supermarket and Claber's hardware store, Mr. Powers said. A Busy Beaver home improvement store later became the main tenant.
Echo Development, which demolished the old shopping center this spring to build a GetGo gas station for Giant Eagle, granted access to the township team, led by township Manager Julie Jakubec, to explore the site.
Ms. Jakubec and Mr. Powers were joined on the dig by township workers Dan Lazaro and David Smith.
Items recovered from the site of The Meadows are being stored at the township building on Fox Chapel Road.
Bricks from the mansion are likely to become part of a township veterans memorial, Ms. Jakubec said. "In that way we can honor our veterans with pieces of township history," she said.
A second proposal calls for creating a permanent history display in the O'Hara community center, after that building is renovated.
"History can remind us where we have come from," Ms. Jakubec said. "That mansion was a big part of our township's story."
She was struck by an unexpected link between the past and present discovered amid the remains of the mansion. Some of the recovered bricks still had splotches of green paint adhering to them.
"That green is very similar to our current township color -- what we call O'Hara green," she said. "That was a really neat parallel."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Len Barcousky can be reached at [email protected] or 724-772-0184. )
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07165/793767-54.stm
kenb
Artifacts recovered at Ross mansion site
Thursday, June 14, 2007
By Len Barcousky, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
U.S. Sen. James Ross kept peacocks on the grounds of his country home in what is now O'Hara.
"The Meadows was a "splendid mansion," visitor Lucy Ann Higbee wrote in her diary about her visit in 1837. "The house is completely furnished by handsome carpets, mirrors, lamps, chairs. . . . Walked over the meadows and through the garden, all in very fine order."
While Ross's Georgian-style house, its garden and peacocks are long gone, a quartet of township representatives recently uncovered remnants of his 19th century estate. During a three-hour expedition, members of the group sifted through rubble at the mansion site. They collected original bricks, some showing fire damage; pieces of flooring and bits of ornamental masonry decorated with leaf or clover patterns. They also found the sandstone capital for what probably was a decorative interior column.
The Ross name lives on in Ross, the Allegheny County township named in his honor, as well as Ross County in Ohio and Ross Street in Pittsburgh. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1794 to 1803.
"James Ross was the most renowned and well-connected lawyer in Pittsburgh," said local historian Tom Powers. "When he built his summer home out here, he probably was speculating in land development."
The estate, however, was about six miles from Pittsburgh's Point, and substantial suburban growth didn't reach that part of Allegheny County until long after the senator's death in 1847.
The subsequent decades were not kind to The Meadows," Mr. Powers said.
The owner of a graphic design firm in Aspinwall, he is the author of an upcoming community history. The 300-page book, called "O'Hara Township: Portrait of an American Community," is scheduled for publication by the end of this year.
A descendant of James Powers, the first European settler in what is now O'Hara, Mr. Powers has been researching and writing his history since 1995.
The original Ross estate was about 1,700 acres, extending north from the Allegheny River and including much of what is now Fox Chapel. After James Ross Jr., the son of the senator, died in 1851, the house and surrounding farms were rented out to various tenants, including the Holy Ghost Fathers. The order later founded Duquesne University.
The 1859 suicide of an alcoholic relative, Ross Johnston, generated a ghostly tale linked to the then run-down house.
According to an 1885 report Mr. Powers found in the Sharpsburg Observer, a "spiritualist" claimed that the long-dead Ross Johnston had been sending him spirit "letters" that revealed where on the family property $60,000 in gold was buried.
"The man dug for a few hours, but failed to reach the treasure," the paper reported. "He promised to return, but has not been heard of since."
Robert C. Hall, a Pittsburgh stock broker and president of its stock exchange, bought the property in 1903 and restored it. After he died in 1914 at age 49, his family lost the house. What remained of the estate first became part of a short-lived amusement park called "Ross Grove" in 1917. In 1920 the house was renamed the Sanders Inn and became home to jazz bands, Hollywood reviews and the farewell performances of Evelyn Nesbit. She was the former wife of Pittsburgh's Harry Thaw, who shot the architect Sanford White for having seduced his spouse. Mr. Thaw's murder trail become the first of the 20th century's "Trials of the Century."
By the time The Meadows burned down on June 21, 1930, its location, at the intersection of Fox Chapel and Freeport roads, had become a valuable commercial crossroads. Around 1932, the Blandi family, later owners of Pittsburgh's LeMont restaurant, had constructed an eatery on the site called Blandi's. In 1938 the restaurant changed hands and became the Riviera.
The Riviera had a reputation for offering customers more than food and drink, Mr. Powers said. As he was writing his history of O'Hara, he found few people willing to share any memories of the Riviera, which was torn down in the early 1950s. "No one wanted to admit that they had been there," he said.
The Fox Chapel Village Shopping Center was built on the site in 1956. For many years it was home to a Kroger's supermarket and Claber's hardware store, Mr. Powers said. A Busy Beaver home improvement store later became the main tenant.
Echo Development, which demolished the old shopping center this spring to build a GetGo gas station for Giant Eagle, granted access to the township team, led by township Manager Julie Jakubec, to explore the site.
Ms. Jakubec and Mr. Powers were joined on the dig by township workers Dan Lazaro and David Smith.
Items recovered from the site of The Meadows are being stored at the township building on Fox Chapel Road.
Bricks from the mansion are likely to become part of a township veterans memorial, Ms. Jakubec said. "In that way we can honor our veterans with pieces of township history," she said.
A second proposal calls for creating a permanent history display in the O'Hara community center, after that building is renovated.
"History can remind us where we have come from," Ms. Jakubec said. "That mansion was a big part of our township's story."
She was struck by an unexpected link between the past and present discovered amid the remains of the mansion. Some of the recovered bricks still had splotches of green paint adhering to them.
"That green is very similar to our current township color -- what we call O'Hara green," she said. "That was a really neat parallel."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Len Barcousky can be reached at [email protected] or 724-772-0184. )
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07165/793767-54.stm
kenb
