Rescuing Pieces Of History From Demolition

Greetings Reuse Fans!

For those of you who follow the blog posts, you are aware that CJ operates our own deconstruction/salvage crew. We have started 2019 with some great projects! One of these projects was initiated at the end of 2018, when we had the good fortune to be contacted by Walnut Capital (WC) about salvaging material from a large Victorian house on McKee Place in Oakland. WC had purchased the house from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh (JF) in order to redevelop the site.

Over the decades, the house at 242 has also held the offices of J-Film, a Jewish film organization, the JF’s Volunteer Center; the community “shaliach” program and the “shinshinim” program (cultural and volunteer emissaries from Israel) and many other JF programs.

We’ve looked into the history of the house that resided at 242 McKee Place. We could not find a record of when the house was built, but we have the above image of the property from 1920 (provided by the JF), and Walnut Capital put me in touch with a woman whose family owned the house at #236. That house was constructed in 1914, so it is likely that #242 was constructed about the same time. The house at 236 was sold and razed to become the Jewish Federation’s main building. The building at 242 was acquired by the Rudolf Family in 1985 and became the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, which was part of the United Jewish Federation, which was the predecessor of the Jewish Federation (JF). The Jewish Federation headquarters moved into their new space in the Pittsburgh Technology Center in January. The Holocaust Center relocated to Squirrel Hill in 2014.

Removing these built-in cabinets was a tricky process.

As a result of CJ being contacted early in the process, we were able to coordinate schedules with the demolition contractor, Noralco, and salvage a significant amount of material from this building, some of which have already been purchased to find a new purpose! Mantels, stained glass, plumbing fixtures, doors, pocket doors, built in cabinets, trim and paneling were all kept out of the dumpster and found a chance for reuse. The employees from the Jewish Federation were extremely supportive of CJ’s efforts and thankful to see the materials in this house saved for reuse.

We had to do a bit of demo ourselves to get this pocket door out.

It is never easy to see buildings that have been part of an organization’s or a family’s history demolished, but it is part of the change that happens in all urban landscapes. If a building is coming down and it has reusable materials call us, contact us early, so we can maximize the amount of material that should not be going to a landfill!