935 Beech Avenue

Joseph and Rosa Klee had the row of houses at 927-935 Beech Avenue constructed between 1884 and 1885.

Plat maps published in 1872 and 1882 show that 927-935 Beech Avenue had not yet been built. Joseph Klee purchased property containing the site of the five houses on December 24, 1883. Klee paid $13,125 for the lot, which measured 105′ wide along Beech Avenue by 137.38′ deep. This purchase, at 91 cents per square foot, was comparable to prices paid for other undeveloped lots in Allegheny West at the time, and indicates that 927-935 Beech Avenue had not yet been built.

Joseph and Rosa Klee had the row of houses at 927-935 Beech Avenue built in a late version of the Second Empire style.

In urban neighborhoods like Allegheny West, where high land costs discouraged construction of houses with more than about 22′ frontage, Second Empire house exteriors were characterized primarily by mansard front roofs, arched door and window openings, prominent or projecting door and window hoods, and decorative brackets supporting box gutters. Second Empire homes in suburban and rural settings were built with full mansard roofs, and sometimes with centered wings or towers. Most local Second Empire homes featured two-over-two double hung windows, although some later or larger examples were constructed with one-over-one double-hung windows.

In the late version of the Second Empire style, shown at 927-935 Beech Avenue, smooth-cut stone window hoods with little or no ornamentation replaced the earlier arched and/or projecting hoods, and brick corbels replaced wood brackets. The row at 927-935 Beech Avenue is also among many late Second Empire houses that show the secondary influence of the Queen Anne style, which was popular locally between about 1885 and the late 1890s. At 927-935 Beech Avenue, the Queen Anne style is shown in the houses’ dormers, both in the steepness of the dormer roofs and in the ornamentation of the vergeboard, and in the fishscale roof shingles.

The Klees

Pittsburgh city directories, U.S. census records, and a book, The Jewish Experience in Western Pennsylvania by Jacob Feldman, provide information on Joseph and Rosa Klee, the first owners of 927-935 Beech Avenue.

The Trauermans

Pittsburgh directories listed Isaac G. Trauerman at 28 (935) Beech Avenue for six consecutive years beginning in 1892.

Records of the 1900 census are the earliest surviving census records that provide information on occupants of 935 Beech Avenue. The 1900 census was taken not long after Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church (now Calvary United Methodist Church) at Beech and Allegheny avenues began using the house as a residence for its ministers, in addition to its rectory at 939 Beech Avenue.

The Reverend James M. and Emma F. Thoburn and their children lived at 935 Beech Avenue at the time of the 1910 census. James M. Thoburn, 53, had been bom in Ohio, and Emma F. Thoburn, 50, had been born in Pennsylvania. The couple had had four children, three of whom were living: Ruth, 26, Jean, 22, both with no occupation, and Margaret, 13.

The Rev. William Baumgartner, 38, and his wife, Elizabeth H., 37, were the only occupants of 935 Beech Avenue when the 1920 census was taken.

Michael and Catherine Gavan, who had purchased 935 Beech Avenue in 1919, were enumerated in the house with their children in the 1930 census.

Michael Gavan, 69, was a foreman in a gas works. He and Catherine Gavan, 68, had both come to the United States from Ireland in 1880. The couple, married in or about 1891, had three unmarried children who lived with them at 935 Beech Avenue: Katharine, 38, employed as a social secretary in a private home, John J., 35, a moving van driver and James J., 32, a clerk working for a drug company.