Martha Rial, Post-Gazette photos In the music room in Dr. Lawrence Gipson's Manchester home, a sleek white grand piano contrasts with original cherry woodwork and cabinetry. Click photo for larger image. Manchester House & Garden Tour When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets: $12 at Conroy School, 1398 Page St., North Side. Proceeds benefit the Manchester Historic Society. Information: 412-321-7707 or www.manchesterhistoricsocietypa.com.

Dr. Lawrence Gipson lives in what is probably the largest and most spectacular house in the North Side's Manchester neighborhood. But it was the garden that caught his eye four years ago.

"I saw the garden without seeing the house. I knew I wanted it. It had so much potential," said the eye surgeon, ophthalmologist and owner of NeoVision eyesight centers.

Of course, he had only to see the house to love it, too. Lovingly restored by Tom Streever and his late wife, Barbara, and second wife, Teri, the 1892 Wertheimer-Sipe mansion was and is 3 1/2 stories of Victorian extravagance, each room more breathtaking than the last. All will be open for the Manchester House and Garden Tour today and tomorrow.

The tour, a fund-raiser for the Manchester Historic Society, will include eight houses and four gardens. Among the highlights this year are the dining rooms, some done up in Victorian style. Dr. Gipson feared his wasn't as elaborate as the others, but it certainly holds its own both in furnishings and size.

The 16-foot-long antique English mahogany table can comfortably seat 14-16 people. Candlelight and sunlight bounce off the oak wainscoting and crystal chandeliers. Much of the crystal and china -- including the current set of early 19th-century blue and white bone china -- came from the Czech Republic through the efforts of Lenka Braden, manager of the South Side NeoVision centers. Dr. Gipson picked up some of the other china and place settings at a Paris flea market.

"I'll have 10 people over for dinner, and there could be eight different patterns on the table," he said, laughing.

Early 19th-century bone china from Czechoslovakia is on display in the formal dining room in Dr. Gipson's home. Click photo for larger image.

Dr. Gipson, the son of a steelworker and metal salvage businessman, grew up in Forward and McMurray. He went away to a boarding school near Pottstown and lived in California for a time, but he returned to earn his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Before buying this house, he spent years restoring an 1871 Victorian in Sewickley that was featured on a house tour there. With all of the Streevers' work, this house didn't require nearly as much. But Dr. Gipson did remove lots of Victorian wallpaper and, together with Blaine and Sandy Hall of Classiques, chose rich colors and bold fabrics to jazz up the period interiors.

In the music room, for example, a sleek white grand piano contrasts with the original cherry woodwork and cabinetry. Dr. Gipson's grown children -- Jeffrey, 27, and Jessica, 22 -- play the piano when they're visiting from New York, but he doesn't; he plays violin.

With its carefully carved and restored woodwork, stained-glass windows, eight fireplaces and 14-foot ceilings, the house impresses with its quality and size. Dr. Gipson estimates it has about 10,000 square feet -- 3,000 square feet per floor plus a full apartment in the basement.

He has nearly finished renovating the third floor -- the only one not restored by the Streevers. Its original ballroom and billiard room have been transformed into a master bedroom suite and library with a modern loft aesthetic.

	Manchester provides "the best housing stock in Pittsburgh," says Dr. Gipson, who has a fabulous view of his neighborhood and Downtown from the third-floor smoking porch. Click photo for larger image.

The space where gentlemen once shot billiards now contains an antique bed, where 14-year-old Yoshie, a bichon frise, sometimes takes a break.

A glass door set amid leaded-glass windows on one side leads to the smoking porch. Dr. Gipson was surprised to find no railing in place to save cigar-smoking, brandy-drinking pool sharks from a 30-foot dive to the ground, so he had one installed. He also added a huge bathroom, complete with Jacuzzi tub and steam sauna.

He seems proudest of the loft library, reached by a steel circular staircase and bounded by modern wire railings. It will be open for the tour, as will his garden.

"This is my workout," he said. "I'm out a few hours every week, digging and planting. I'm inside all day long."

The 7,000-square-foot garden is crossed by pea-gravel paths and punctuated by a gazebo. Beginning with an impressive collection of perennials left by Teri Streever, Dr. Gipson has added a Southern magnolia and other specimen trees, 12 varieties of shrub, tea and climbing roses, Casablanca and other lilies and many bulbs and perennials. He likes to eat breakfast on his back porch, by his "quiet garden" of shade-loving plants.

Manchester is surprisingly quiet, he said, belying the North Side's reputation for crime and neglect.

"I looked in Squirrel Hill and Shadyside before buying here," he said. "This is more accessible to Downtown. I can walk to the Public Theater and catch a cab home for $4.

"It's the best housing stock in Pittsburgh, [considering] what you pay and what you get."