Brighton Heights House Tour: History remade
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David Oliver, namesake of Oliver High School, built this house in 1895 on Termon Avenue for his daughter Norah and her husband, Charles Shoemaker. It's one of 11 houses on the Brighton Heights House Tour. -
Larry Crouser and John Bratton had to find new fireplace mantels and do major restoration in the living room of their home on Fleming Avenue. -
Larry Crouser in the dining room of his remodeled home on Fleming Avenue in Pittsburgh's Brighton Heights neighborhood. -
Larry Crouser in the dining room of the home he shares with John Bratton. "We loved the old houses and Brighton Heights just gave so much more for the money," he says. Their large garden contains mature trees and newer shrubs and perennials added by the owners since they bought the property on Fleming Avenue in 2006.
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Iron and steel manufacturer David Brown Oliver lived for almost a century, dying just 10 days shy of his 100th birthday in 1934. By 1931, when a Pittsburgh Press reporter spoke with him for a series on long-lived people, he had been a Pittsburgh school director for more than 58 years.
In the interview, the white-bearded "Father of Pittsburgh Public Schools" and namesake of Oliver High School displayed what the reporter called his "dauntless optimism" and "droll sense of humor." The latter surely explains the name of his Brighton Heights home. What man could call his house Grumblethorpe without a twinkle in his eye?
Grumblethorpe, a green frame house that stood at 1516 Termon Ave. near the five-points intersection with California Avenue, is long gone. The house and its 10-acre landscape gave way to more than two dozen homes as the Brighton Heights neighborhood flourished in the early 20th century.
The estate has a sole (and alas, nameless) survivor. In 1895, Mr. Oliver and his wife, Rebecca, parents to 16 children, built on their land a home for daughter Norah and her new husband, Charles Shoemaker. Now the showplace of Termon Avenue, the house will open to the public for the first time as one of 11 on Sunday's Brighton Heights House Tour. The walking tour, sponsored by the Brighton Heights Citizens Federation, also features homes on McClure, California, Davis and Fleming avenues and Orchlee Street.
A century after its boom period, the neighborhood is again flourishing as home buyers find its roomy, well-built houses an affordable, attractive alternative to the East End.
Larry Crouser bought his Colonial Revival on Fleming Avenue in 2006 for $98,000. He and his partner, John Bratton, had been living on Beech Avenue in Allegheny West.
"We loved the old houses and Brighton Heights just gave so much more for the money," Mr. Crouser said.
First Published May 22, 2010 12:00 am
