The Johnston House, 6349 Jackson Street

I have a treat for you! I get to share absolutely stunning photos tonight!

Earlier this year, when 6349 Jackson Street was listed for sale, I started a post about it here. This weekend, I was fortunate to meet the new owner, Fred. He has been doing amazing work on the house and generously sent me pictures to share with you.

First, let's learn a little bit about the house, courtesy of Martin Aurand's The Progressive Architecture Of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr.

Scheibler designed it in 1921 - 1922 for William D. and Clara E. Johnston, who commissioned three Scheibler designs in Highland Park. Aurand describes the Johnston House's "simple cubelike massing, self-effacing stucco, and crisp detailing." It is set on a slight hilltop, which was built, and sits back further from the street than its neighbors. Aurand writes that the house "masquerades as a pint-size Palladian villa on a Mediterranean hilltop."

As you approach, the home has an open porch on the right and and enclosed sun porch on the left. Aurand writes, "It functions like a sundial as the sun tracks daily across the southern sky, giving growth to vines in the art-glass windows."

Inside, you'll find rooms of all different sizes, arched windows, mahogany cabinets, room dividers with art-glass panels, built-in light fixtures, and a fireplace focal point with Moravian tiles in the living room. Aurand describes the "fine details [that] demonstrate Scheibler's growing penchant for rich interior treatments, completing the house's multi-faceted personality."

Scheibler designed the house with 3 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, a maid's room, sun porch, living room, dining room, kitchen, sleeping porch, and a garage with living quarters.

Scheibler designed a near twin of this house for Frank and Eva Harter in Ventor City, New Jersey, adding a side entry and bay window to face the ocean. (Ocean views were later blocked by the construction of another house.)

Okay, let's get to Fred's beautiful photos! He's done incredible work. (Don't forget that you can still see old photos here. Check out the "before" picture of the fireplace to appreciate all the work Fred has done!)

Look at that amazing fireplace! 

Fred tells me, "A previous owner had removed several of the art glass panels and mahogany room divider panels. Fortunately, they stored them in the garage so I was able to hire a furniture maker who was able to restore and replace missing components and reinstall them.  Most of the mahogany trim work had also been painted over and I spent the winter removing and refinishing the mahogany.  It now looks like Schelibler meant it to look.  I was fortunate enough to have copies of the original blueprints which had elevation sketches of the interior so we could see how it was supposed to look."

Fred is in the midst of having the exterior painted. He said I could come see it and take more photos when it's complete! As Fred says, "These Schelibler houses are real treasures and should be shared and enjoyed by everyone."

I agree! Thank you Fred, and thank you, reader!

So long from Abigail.

Klages House, 5525 Beverly Place

"Entering the Klages House in Highland Park is like walking into an enchanted cave where stained glass parrots roost in the dormers, tile turtles and ducks are underfoot and carved wooden dragons greet you at the top of the staircase,"

...writes Patricia Lowry in her article "Dynamic Domiciles" for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

Welcome to the Klages House, one of Scheibler's most romantic houses!

This Historic Landmark was designed in 1922-23, my favorite Scheibler period. Today, big, beautiful trees block much of the house, but we're lucky that this home has many fans and lots of information online.

According to Lowry's article, the home is made of Philadelphia schist, a luminous, reflective stone.

This  house is another example of Scheibler rejecting the idea that a main entrance has to sit at the front of the facade. This home's entrance is delightfully, ambiguously tucked in a tower on the side! The entrance sits under, according to floor plans, a "sewing room" and forces one to make a 135-degree turn to enter the house.

Tucked in a tower!

Recessed front porch, with floor-to-ceiling windows and grids of art glass

The Klages House was designed for Allen and Elizabeth Klages and remained in the family till 1994. In The Progressive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler, Martin Aurand writes that the owners were proud of the Klages House, even featuring a drawing of it on their Christmas cards, but that they had to prod Scheibler about its completion and, according to Allen's second wife, Suzanne Klages, even filed a suit against him over a disagreement about the second story flooring.

The Klages House is featured in WQED's Houses Around Here, which you can borrow, locally, on DVD from the Oakland branch of the Carnegie Library.

I'm dazzled by the interior--a fairy tale space brimming with birds, bees, butterflies, crabs, ducks, dolphins, owls, dragonflies and turtles. Aurand writes that the elaborate ornamentation is second only to the amazing Eva Harter House in Squirrel Hill.  He says that the living and dining rooms are paneled in dark wood and separated by stained glass panels of flower and spider web motifs!

The following photos are gratefully borrowed from the Aronson-Manning Online Museum. I did not snap these.

Martin Aurand writes that this living room mosaic was inspired by Allen Klages and his love of travel and the sea.

Stained glass parrots live in two of the bedrooms

Carved mahogany dragons at the top of the stairs

Built-in china cabinet

Coat closet with stained glass butterflies

"Sewing room" balcony doors

Stained glass hibiscus in the mahogany dining room

The bathroom looks somewhat similar to one in the Parkstone Dwellings. Mercer tile (from the Moravian Tileworks), is shown here around the bath that adjoins the master bathroom. 

There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a sun room off the master bedroom.

Kitchen with original windows

Rear left

Rear second floor

Right side with entrance tower

According to Lowry's article, the kitchen was updated when it was purchased in 1994. (Those owners have since moved to Australia.) The original built-ins, like a refrigerator underneath a china cabinet, were removed. 

Here are first and second floor plans. You can see more on the house's Library of Congress site.

Click to enlarge!

Click to enlarge!

You can read the entire Post-Gazette article here:

Click to enlarge!

Click to enlarge!

From The Progressive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler:

In conclusion, Klages House owners, can I come over?

Parkstone Dwellings, 6937-6943 Penn Avenue

What a treat! Today I get to show you the romantic, whimsical Parkstone Dwellings!

I'm thinking it like this: The Parkstone Dwellings!!! 

Many people who have never even heard of Frederick Scheibler know of "that building in the East End that looks like it has Oriental rugs hanging over the side."

The Parkstone Dwellings, an absolutely amazing Historic Landmark on Penn Avenue, are a true testament to Scheibler's imagination. The building is magical from the inside out. 

First of all, there are four side-by-side front entries, ornamented with concrete toad stools and stained glass twining-roses. The four separate doors make these homes dwellings instead of apartments--as Aurand writes, they are "private beyond the first stoop."

He compares the roof's multiple, delicate folds to origami. There is also, apparently, a random and fully sculpted seagull perched on the southeast corner of the facade.

See how the chimney stands at the center of the house. Martin Aurand explains that the fireplace flues have to jut at odd angles over the entrances to make this design decision possible.

Click to enlarge this!

And the rounded windows look like turrets!

One day several years ago, I saw that there was an estate sale in the garden of the Parkstone Dwellings. I made a beeline for it. I begged for a tour and, since there was a vacant dwelling at that time, got to go inside. 

I felt like I was absolutely bewitched. It was stunning. And best of all, the architecture seems playful for the sake of playfulness. After basking in the Parkstone Dwellings, I know I could never, ever live in a boring cookie-cutter home.

What you'll see now are the dreadfully bad photos I managed to snap with the only camera I had when I stumbled upon that estate sale--my free-with-the-plan LG Cosmos cell phone camera. Here goes.

This is one of the tile mosaics that, from Penn Avenue, looks like a regal rug draped over the balcony. The tiles were reportedly arranged and assembled by Scheibler himself, because he just couldn't trust anyone else to do it.

The "rugs" were reportedly requested by Harry Rubins and his sister Rose Rubins, who commissioned the home. They lost the home at sheriff's sale just ten years after it was built.

Front door with stained glass

The massive fireplace just inside the front door. You can't see the mosaic detail in this photo but the interior mosaics depict panthers and kingfishers.

Living room, paneled with Laguna mahogany

Art glass again. Look to the left!

Living room, looking into the dining room. Amazing art glass details.

Dining room

My friend Ken in the bedroom, with window seat. 

Ken again in the shower, which had body sprayers! 

Second bathroom

Hallway ceiling painted to look like sky. This is a recent detail, but large murals are historically appropriate in houses like this.

Fireplace detail from Martin Aurand's The Progessive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr.

The Parkstone Dwellings were somewhat later work, designed in 1922. 

It's hard to articulate the thrill that Scheibler's architecture gives me, but this building leaves me breathless. It's one thing to appreciate art. But this is art you can go inside, and live inside--art that stands and survives time and weather for a century or more. My heart flutters with both love and longing, to be inside it, to look at it, to photograph it, to smell it, and to lay my hand against the walls and try to absorb the decades of history that unfolded inside it. 

I hope I get to go inside the Parkstone Dwellings again one day.

Update! May 3, 2015: Article and photos published

Click over here to read an article in the Tribune-Review about Scheibler's work in Pittsburgh.

It comes with these and other great photos: