I am, to forgive a tired metaphor, drawn to moldering historic buildings like a moth to a dancing flame. Last year, while working in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, I encountered dozens upon dozens of great examples of architecture, but none captivated me like the Samuel Alwine House on East Pittsburgh Street. Though ill-used in the last few decades, the mansard-roofed brick building remains visually interesting, with the promise of many a story held within its walls.
Façade of the Samuel Alwine House, Greensburg, PA.
The house was built between 1860 and 1867 for Samuel Augustus Alwine, a prosperous merchant and landowner. The dwelling likely originally was a hybrid of vernacular Greek Revival/Italianate in style; the Second Empire style mansard roof wasn’t added until between 1897 and 1903.
The five bay wide house has an impressive bay window on the second story, with a three part window framed by pilasters in the center as well as windows topped by arched transoms on the side of the projecting bay. The attic gable features shingles and a sunburst motif.
Hoodmolds likely once graced the second story windows but are sadly gone now.
The Alwine House as seen on the 1867 Atlas of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.**
Born in 1820, Alwine worked as a blacksmith as a young man. By 1870, he owned a livery stable, and his real estate holdings were estimated to be $193,000. That’s equivalent to around $4 million today.
Samuel Alwine.****
Alwine also ran a contracting business, and one of his most important clients was the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The mineral resources in the region and the increasing demand for coal after the Civil War helped transform Greensburg into a shipping center. The town and economy grew and prospered.
The Zimmerman House in Greensburg, PA, circa 1899. No longer extant.***
Perhaps to take advantage of the coal-fired boom, Alwine apparently left the livery and contracting business and purchased a hotel, then known as the Richmond House. It would later be known as the Zimmerman House (the name of his son-in-law).
Façade and west elevation of the Alwine House.
Between 1886 and 1891, Alwine’s large tract was subdivided, with Alwine Avenue developed on the west side of his residence, and a tidy street of frame dwellings, most gable front or gable and wing in form, constructed.
Circa 1899 view of the Alwine House.***
Samuel Alwine died in 1901, and his wife Elisabeth died six years later. The building remained a single family dwelling until between 1909 and 1915; on the 1915 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, it is shown as being occupied bye the Loyal Order of the Moose. Alwine was a staunch Mason, so he may well have approved of this use.
Section of the 1915 Sanborn map showing the Alwine House.
By 1925, the house had been divided into “flats.” In the 1860s, apartments designed for middle and upper class tenants began to be seen in urban areas of the country. The first apartment building in America is generally considered to be the five-story, 10-unit Stuyvesant Apartment House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and built in New York City in 1869.
The ground floor storefront of the Alwine House was likely installed shortly thereafter, and the building operated as a grocery wholesaler for many years, with three apartments on the upper floors.
Streetscape view of the Alwine House and its neighbor, which was built between 1867 and 1886.
I hesitate to speculate about the future of this building. Many people cannot see beyond the signs of neglect, and deferred maintenance does exact a toll on any structure. I hope that someone with imagination and determination seizes hold of the Alwine House, and saves it. The house is located within a potential National Register of Historic Places district (an expansion of an existing district) and would be eligible for historic tax credits – which would a huge boon to its restoration.
*1870 Federal Census Returns
**Atlas of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, from actual surveys and under the direction of S.N. and D.G. Beers. Philadelphia, PA: A. Pomeroy, 1867. Online at https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735060441007/viewer#page/2/mode/2up
***Benjamin Franklin Vogel. History of Greensburg (Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania) and Greensburg Schools: One Hundred and Seventy Local Illustrations. Greensburg, PA: Vogle & Winscheimer, 1899.
****H.M. Zundel. The Burg of Greene in Pictures Seen – A Collection of Pictures of Greensburg and Vicinity Including Views, Maps, Scenes, Parades, Groups, Prominent Persons, Historic Sketches and Sentimental Quotations. Greensburg, PA: Charles A. Henry Printing Company, 1927.
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