Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Phylicia Rashad in front of the childhood home of August Wilson.

Actress Phylicia Rashad visited playwright August Wilson's childhood home at 1727 Bedford Ave. in the Hill District yesterday.

Rashad was in Pittsburgh to talk with drama students at Carnegie Mellon University. Having played Wilson's ancient seer, Aunt Ester, in his "Gem of the Ocean" on Broadway, she asked to visit Wilson-related sites, both to pay her respects and to do research to direct "Gem of the Ocean" in Seattle in April.

She was last in Pittsburgh for his Oct. 8, 2005 funeral at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in Oakland.

Wilson, born in 1945 as Frederick August Kittel, was raised primarily by his mother, Daisy Wilson. Until he was 12, he and his three sisters and two brothers lived in a small apartment behind Bella's Market (shown at right), which was run by the Siger family.

To the left was John Butera's Watch and Shoe Repair. Italian, Jewish and African Americans living in proximity was typical of the mid-century Hill before the cataclysm of urban renewal.

The building is now empty and in disrepair. "We have to save this house," said Rashad, who took pictures of it with her cell phone.
-- Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Theater Editor