Abandoned school in Swissvale PA

Longfellow School - Deniston School, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Date added: February 28, 2023 Categories: Pennsylvania School Classic Revival

Built in 1902, Deniston School the first school constructed in Swissvale Borough after its incorporation in 1898. As such, it played an important educational role in the growth of Swissvale, an area located between the City of Pittsburgh and the steelmaking centers of Braddock and Rankin. It is Swissvale's only remaining school building of the streetcar era.

The first substantial school building in the area was the McKelvy School, built in 1874 before Swissvale's incorporation. That school was demolished in the mid 20^th century. Planning for Longfellow School (its name was changed to Deniston in 1904) began in 1899, as members of the school board anticipated the growth of the newly incorporated Borough. With the awarding by the Borough in the same year of a franchise to the Pittsburgh and Swissvale Street Railway Company, the formerly rural aspect of the area largely disappeared. Indeed, the Borough's population grew 330% in the first decade of the 20^th century. (Swissvale reached its peak of population--16,000--in 1930; population in 1981 was 13,500.)

Although it was fashionable at the turn-of-the-century to name Pittsburgh, area schools after poets, the name, Longfellow School, was changed in 1904 to Deniston School, after the former landowner and one of Swissvale's earliest families, the Denistons. The Denistons arrived in the Swissvale area c.1839 and are believed to have operated coal mines in this area and nearby Wilkinsburg. James Deniston owned the approximately 3-3/4" acre plot of land, bounded by Monongahela, Church, McClure, and Maxwelton Streets that the school board examined and subsequently purchased in 1901 for $8,000 an acre, as the site for Swissvale's new school.

Minutes of the School Board of 1901 reveal that the architects were Charles J. Reiger and Eugene Currier. While the firm of Reiger and Currier is not well-known in the history of Pittsburgh's architecture, it designed a variety of buildings in Pittsburgh and elsewhere in the early part of the century including houses, churches, and office buildings. Their designs are noted in the catalogues of the Second and Third Architectural Exhibitions (1903 and 1905) of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club, an organization which, among other things, promoted the works of the region's younger architects. It may have been that the Longfellow School commission was one of the firm's first. George Hogg, the contractor for the school building, was an established contractor, builder, and lumber dealer in Braddock.

The school building is a solid, brick Classical Revival structure not unlike the houses being constructed at the same time in Pittsburgh's wealthier streetcar suburbs. The pillared entry, Palladian-type window motif, and gable dormers are all characteristic architectural features of Pittsburgh residential buildings of this period. In the Deniston School, however, these architectural elements help create a distinguished local landmark and a representative of Swissvale's expectations of a prosperous future.

An architectural mystery of the school is its unusual eave and bracket configuration, a Craftsman-like element, which suggests the work of Frederick Scheibler, Jr., one of Pittsburgh's most fecund and imaginative architects and active in Swissvale. Architectural historian James D. Van Trump's research notes on Scheibler contain a reference to "Deniston School adds.", suggesting that Scheibler may have been involved with the school design in some way. No additions to the school are apparent, however, and Scheibler's involvement with the school remains hypothetical at this writing.

Deniston was the first of several schools to be built in Swissvale as area industry expanded and more people moved to the young Borough to work and live. The nearby Edgar Thompson and Braddock steel works were already well-established by 1900 and, in Swissvale and Edgewood, Union Switch and Signal Company was thriving. Kopp Glass, the largest industry located wholly within borough boundaries, was organized in 1899.

Building Description

This school building is a 2½ story brick Classical Revival design, basically square with a nine-bay front (west) elevation and seven bays on its north, east, and south sides. The foundation and watertable are stone. The hip roof is pierced by four tall, corbelled chimneys and gable dormers. An unusual eave and bracket configuration consists of exposed rafters which rest on a horizontal beam supported by widely-spaced, flat brackets. Windows on the second story are Roman-arched; those on the first story are flat-arched. All are nine-over-one double hung sash, and nearly all are boarded. Pillared entries are located on the front (west) and north elevations. Paired wood columns support flat roofs, sheltering recessed doors with transoms and sidelights. The Palladian-type window arrangement over both entrances reflects, in larger scale, the arched windows of the rest of the second story. The central bays of the main (west) and east elevations project slightly and are framed by a gable. There are fire escapes on north, east and west sides.

Much of the building's interior has suffered fire and water damage. The basic, eight-room configuration (four classrooms per floor) around a central hall remains intact, however.

The building is prominently sited on a terraced corner lot. It is adjacent to the Carnegie Library of Swissvale, catercorner to a modern highrise, and across McClure and Monroe Streets from a church and densely sited 2-2½ story brick houses, most dating c.1910.