858 Beech Avenue

Historical records indicate that Thomas M. and Nancy R. Lyons commissioned construction of 858 Beech Avenue in 1867 or 1868. The couple had the house built two to three years before they acquired title to the lot on which the house stands from Elizabeth F. Denny, who had subdivided property on and around Beech Avenue.

Thomas M. Lyons purchased the lot on which 858 Beech Avenue now stands from Elizabeth F. Denny on August 18, 1870. Lyons paid $1100 for the lot, measuring 20’ wide along Beech Avenue by 100′ deep along Galveston Avenue. This purchase, at 55 cents per square foot, was slightly lower than prices paid for other undeveloped lots on Beech Avenue at the time.

Thomas and Nancy Lyons had 858 Beech Avenue built in the Italianate style.

In urban neighborhoods like Allegheny West, where high land costs discouraged construction of homes with more than about 25′ frontage,Italianate house exteriors were characterized primarily by side-gabled roofs, arched door and window openings, prominent or projecting door and window hoods, and decorative brackets supporting box gutters.

Interior details of Italianate homes often included flared newel posts and spindles, marble or wood mantels with arched openings, four-panel doors with porcelain knobs and ornamented cast iron hinges, and non-symmetrical door and window trim with diagonally mitered comers.

Pittsburgh city directories, U.S. population and manufacturing census records, and Allegheny County land records provide information on Thomas M. and Nancy R. Lyons, the first owners of 858 Beech Avenue.Elizabeth F. Denny inherited property that included land on both sides of Beech Avenue from her father, Harmar Denny, in the 1850s or 1860s. Elizabeth F. Denny subdivided the land into building lots and began selling the lots. Maps published in 1852 and 1862 show that no houses had yet been built on Beech Avenue. An 1872 plat map shows that about 22 houses had been built on the street in the preceding decade. Elizabeth F. Denny sold most of the lots fronting on Beech Avenue in the 1860s and 1870s, although a few of the lots continued to be owned by her heirs in the early 20th century.

Review of early sales of lots on Beech Avenue by Elizabeth F. Denny between 1866 and 1872 and city directory listings suggests that 858 Beech Avenue is among at least three houses on the street that were built before their owners acquired title to the lots on which they stand. Other houses that are known to have been built in this way are 908 Beech Avenue, occupied beginning in 1867-1868 by real estate agent John Sterritt, who bought the lot on which the house stands for $2200 in 1872, and 922 Beech Avenue, occupied beginning in 1868-1869 by James Hamilton, a jeweler who bought the lot for $2900 in 1871.

Pittsburgh city directories listed Thomas P. Roberts as living at 858 Beech Avenue between 1887 and 1891. Roberts was the chief engineer of the Monongahela Navigation Company during most of the time that he lived at 858 Beech Avenue. The Monongahela Navigation Company’s offices were at the comer of Forbes Avenue and Grant Street in Downtown Pittsburgh.

In 1887, the first year that he was listed at 858 (then 63) Beech Avenue, Roberts was the chief engineer of the Pittsburgh East End Railroad Company. He and his family had lived on Logan Street in the lower Hill District (on or near the present site of the Mellon Arena) before they moved to 858 Beech Avenue.

In 1900, according to census records, 858 Beech Avenue contained two occupied apartments.

The first apartment at 858 Beech Avenue was rented to Eliza McCracken. McCracken was 69 years old and had no occupation. She was single and lived alone. She had been born in Ohio to parents bom in Ireland and Pennsylvania.