The city's Historic Review Commission yesterday recommended historic designation for the Queen Anne manse in Homewood that served as headquarters of the National Negro Opera Company.

It also recommended the same status for a prominent Beaux Arts-style building on the North Side, which was built in 1902 as the Workingmen's Savings Bank at 800 E. Ohio St., East Allegheny.

The nation's first black opera company sprang from the music school and choir that Mary Cardwell Dawson established at 7101 Apple St., which also served briefly as her home. She began the company in Pittsburgh in 1941. Two years later, she started its sister company in Washington, D.C., and the two functioned concurrently until her death in 1962.

Katherine Molnar, the historic review specialist for the city, said the only protest against the nomination was an anonymous letter. Letters of support came from the curator at Fallingwater and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh nominated the Homewood property for consideration. Besides its musical heritage, the building was owned for many years by William A. "Woogie" Harris, whose brother, Teenie, chronicled Pittsburgh's black history in the Pittsburgh Courier. William Harris rented rooms to blacks, who were not permitted to stay in hotels in other parts of the city, and they included Pirates' Hall of Fame right fielder Roberto Clemente and jazz great Lena Horne.

The current owners, Jonnet Solomon and Miriam White, could not be reached for comment. They bought the house in 2000 for $18,000 and created a nonprofit corporation to raise money to renovate it. The status of that project could not be ascertained.

The second structure recommended for historic status anchors the corner at East Ohio Street and Madison Avenue, just east of where Route 279 cuts through the neighborhood. In recent years, the North Side building served as the ARC House recovery center, a residential social service agency.

Except for more modern windows, the building is "remarkably intact," said commission Vice Chairman Paul Tellers. "There's no question this is a building of significance."

Bentley Commercial, a Lawrenceville company, owns the building. No one from the company spoke for or against the nomination yesterday.

City Council will make the final decision on historic status for the buildings.

The commission gave a third building, also on the North Side and built in 1927 as a temple of the Knights of Malta, protection from demolition or alteration by approving preliminary eligibility for later consideration of it for historic designation.

The Mexican War Streets Society nominated the building at 100 W. North Ave. David McMunn, a board member, said demolition had been the Salvation Army's stated intention during earlier discussions with neighborhood groups.

Yesterday, Salvation Army attorney Kenneth J. Yarsky II said only that "there are potential plans to make changes" to the building, which is adjacent to a squat building the agency also owns.

He told the commission the nomination is "a smokescreen" to prevent the Salvation Army from carrying out its mission in the neighborhood.

"We have correspondence from people who don't want us here, who want the neighborhood to change," he said.

The Malta building will come up for public comment at the commission's meeting at 1 p.m. on Feb. 6 in the first-floor conference room at 200 Ross St.