It's a beautiful day for a dog walk! And, I had to restrain myself from putting an exclamation point in the title of this post. Porter and I visited the! Linwood! Apartments! One of my favorites, since they are so similar to my apartment building, the
Old Heidelberg.
The Linwood Apartments were designed at the same time as the very-similar
Whitehall Apartments,
which we looked at here. Like the Old Heidelberg, it has a T-shaped design but only 6 units. Aurand's book tells me that the maid's quarters differ from those of the Old Heidelberg. Like the Old Heidelberg, the individual apartment entry doors have art glass windows and the interiors have wood trim, window seats and build-in cupboards.
I absolutely love them.
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| Click to enlarge this! |
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| Can you spot Porter the Beagle in this photo? |
A pergola joins the two sides of the Linnwood Apartments.
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| Entry, today. |
An older photo in Martin Aurand's book shows a stained glass motif in the front door and domed lamps flanking the entry.
Today, you can see stained glass windows on the second floor balconies, just like the Old Heidelberg and Whitehall Apartments. Photos in Aurand's book show gorgeous French doors, which must have come out. (I feel so late to the party.) These tapered wood posts are straight out of the Old Heidelberg.
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| A peek inside a dining room. Look at the ceiling! |
The realtor who sold the building (for $465,000) in 2013 writes:
"Each front to back unit is 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and has 2 ornate fireplaces, 1 with a brass hood/marble surround and the other with tile. All floors are hardwood. Lots of beautiful woodwork. In the main hall, skylights shine light down through stained glass. Each apartment door features a detailed stained art glass panel.
Pergola is located at the front of the building. Each unit has a front porch almost big enough to be a bedroom, with the the top two floors’ porches being enclosed. The roof is clay tile. The foundation features massive blocks of sandstone and enormous I-beams built to last. The exterior walls are very thick brick with stucco overtop."
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| Porter is irrationally happy to see me again. |
Exciting update! September 17, 2014: I found interior shots! It looks almost JUST like the Heidelberg.
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| See what I mean? It's gorgeous! |
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| View from the dining room, through the foyer and into the living room, with balcony yonder. |
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| Living room |
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| The tile on the lower right of this photo shows that this is the spot in the dining room where the Old Heidelberg has a window seat. I'm not sure whether a window seat was removed from or never existed here. I noticed the outlet, of which the Heidelberg has very few! |
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| So lovely! This is where the Old Heidelberg has French doors. |
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| Stained glass windows in the main bedroom |
Update! April 27, 2015The Linwood Apartments are for sale again, at an asking price of $720,000. The listing offers some more interior shots.
It's so sad to see original details, such as the French doors in this building, taken out for no other reason than to update the building. This seems to be so routine in Pittsburgh. Owners of these beautiful and historic homes don't realize what they have and are completely ignorant of their building's history or who might have designed them. I could write a book about the horrors that I've seen over the years. At least this building is still extant and seems to be in relatively good shape, even without its French doors.
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