Piermont, Pittsburgh mansions share historic connection
- Lord's Castle%2C a landmark in Piermont%2C was purchased by Alexander Blair Thaw in 1890.
- William Thaw Jr. began construction on a 38 room mansion in Pittsburgh in the late 1880s.
Two magnificent mansions with ties to the Thaw family of Pittsburgh have recently been on the market, yet in very different forms.
Lord's Castle, a landmark in Piermont, was purchased by Alexander Blair Thaw in 1890. Thaw totally renovated the 26-room castle before leaving it to his sister.
Alexander Thaw's brother, William Thaw Jr. built his own pile of bricks in the Allegheny West neighborhood of Pittsburgh. It was home to some of the wealthiest Americans at the turn of the 20th century.
This concentration of the ultra-rich tagged the neighborhood that is now part of the North Side as the home of millionaires, some of whose names remain with the houses today.
Such is the case with 930 N. Lincoln Ave., also known as the Thaw mansion. William Thaw Jr., one of the 100 wealthiest Americans at the time, started construction in the late 1880s. Thaw made his fortune ($12 million in 1889) in transportation and banking, notably the Pennsylvania Co., which managed his major stake in the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The 38-room building in the heart of the Allegheny West historic district is on the market for $949,000.
The Thaw family has roots in Rockland County, as well. The Castle, as it's known, was build in the 1840s for railroad baron Eleazar Lord. In 1890 Lord's estate sold the castle to William's brother, Alexander Blair Thaw, who hired the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to expand and redesign the home.
Shortly after his lavish reconstruction was complete, Thaw, who owned many properties elsewhere, sold the house to his sister Mary Thompson. Thompson's daughter Dorothea lived there until her death in the 1960s.
The current owner purchased the home in 1969 and has preserved the home's unique architectural charms — including historical details such as the original ice box and walk-in safe — while introducing a more modern, lived-in lifestyle. The estate, no longer for sale, had been on the market for $5,500,000.
The most famous connection to both houses was Alexander and William Jr.'s half brother, Harry Thaw, who married Evelyn Nesbit, the iconic "Gibson Girl," in 1905. He shot and killed her former lover, architect Stanford White, on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden in 1906. His trial, in which he was acquitted, stands in the annals of American legal history as the first use of temporary insanity as a defense and the first time a jury was ever sequestered from the press.
The Allegheny Thaw mansion's two-phase construction took 30 years. A typical three-bay townhouse was built first, then an addition that included a grand ballroom nearly doubled its size. Today, the first floor is commercial space with apartments on the second and third floors. (The Castle, happily, has been retained as a private residence).
The property's current owners are Gary Adams and his business partner Ron Moehler.
When they bought it in 1981, the 13,000-square-foot, 3½-story building was "a glorified boarding house" in a state of disrepair, Adams said. They restored the red sandstone exterior and turned the first floor into their business offices. Visitors enter through the original doors and see a coffered ceiling, wainscoting and other woodwork made from African mahogany. The railing on the grand staircase features spindles with various patterns — a luxury since each would be done separately on a hand lathe.
The coffered ceiling continues into the reception area, where a trio of windows have full-length mahogany shutters and built-in seats. Dark burgundy carpet runs throughout the first floor and into the upper hallways. The grand ballroom has been fully restored.
"In the end, we were just caretakers of this property for those who follow," Adams said.
With additional reporting by Christine Gritmon, for The Journal News and lohud.com