St. John the Baptist Church in Lawrenceville may be no more, but its buildings live on in new ways -- the historic main church has been a popular brewpub and restaurant since 1996, and now its former rectory will become a residence for teenage students at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School.

Ballet officials completed their $290,000 purchase of the building, located next to the Church Brew Works on Liberty Avenue, earlier this week, said Harris Ferris, the ballet company's executive director. It is a few blocks from the ballet headquarters and school at 2900 Liberty Ave.

The ballet school has been searching for an opportunity to house its out-of-town, high school-age students in a residential facility rather than scrambling for host families every year, Mr. Ferris said.

"One of the constraints to future development was our ability to secure housing for high school students around the country. This puts us in a much more competitive position," he said, noting that a number of regional ballet companies -- in Boston, Houston, Seattle and Boca Raton, Fla. -- have residential facilities for its students.

Nearly half of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's students come from other states and abroad, he said, usually boarding with a family. On occasion the school has had to turn away talented students when they couldn't find families to take them in.

The former rectory, which will house 16 students in PBT's pre-professional program beginning next June, is perfect for the school's needs: it has sleeping facilities, a common area and a kitchen, said Terrence S. Orr, the ballet's artistic director.

"This gives us a chance to recruit the best students who might not have been able to come here otherwise," Mr. Orr said.

The company expects to spend about $600,000 on improvements to the 9,500-square-foot site, said Mark Popovich, vice chair of the ballet board. Funds for the project came from both the state and private donors, he added.

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