Pittsburgh council hears debate on possible historic designation of Tito House

Pittsburgh City Council on Wednesday listened to community members debate the future of the Tito House, a building in the city’s Uptown neighborhood that is nominated for historic designation.

If it doesn’t earn historic designation, the building will likely be torn down for new development on the site.

Dallas-based Fountain Residential Partners — a developer that specializes in college housing — wants to purchase and develop the site along Fifth Avenue. Their plan is to build an $87 million mixed-use development with about 11,000 square feet of commercial space and 280 apartments, 5% of which would be earmarked as affordable housing.

Local community group Uptown Partners, however, has nominated the building for historic designation, which would protect it from demolition.

Built in 1884, the house was owned by Joe Tito, a prominent Prohibition-era bootlegger who later became the owner of Latrobe Brewing Co. The Tito Garage, located behind the house on Colwell Street, also is nominated for historic designation. It became the brewing company’s first Pittsburgh beer distributor and was the first known place where Rolling Rock beer was sold, starting in 1935.

Tito, along with friend and business partner Gus Greenlee, contributed to the success of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, a Negro League baseball team that played at the former Greenlee Field in the city’s Hill District.

Uptown Partners has filed a petition for conservatorship of the abandoned property.

Opinions on whether the site should be preserved or leveled for new development vary. The city’s Historic Review Commission voted not to recommend historic designation, while the Planning Commission voted to recommend it. The ultimate decision is now before City Council.

In a presentation to council members, Sarah Quinn, from the city’s Planning Department, said she feels the best argument for granting the structure historic designation is its architecture.

“When you look at the Uptown neighborhood and you look at what’s left in the Uptown neighborhood after all these years, really, this is the only remaining Victorian building,” Quinn said. “There’s nothing else like it.”

In its decision to recommend historic designation, the Planning Commission cited language in an eco-innovation district plan that called for an end to demolishing structures in Uptown, Quinn said.

David Rotenstein, who authored the nomination report and was retained by Uptown Partners as a historic preservation consultant for the project, said Tito’s history at the house should be reason to preserve it.

“He controlled his bootlegging, numbers, gambling and other activities associated with Pittsburgh’s informal economy from the site,” Rotenstein said, highlighting also the connections to Latrobe Brewing and Negro League baseball.

“When these places are gone, demolished or forgotten because the history isn’t preserved, also gone is the stories of the families, the values, the triumphs and the mishaps that make Pittsburgh unique,” said Sabreena Miller, real estate and development manager with Uptown Partners.

Donna Brusco, whose grandmother Anna Tito-Mecca-Zizza previously owned the house, said she wanted to see the home earn historic designation.

The current owners of the property, however, want to sell it to the developers. Nicole McGuire and her brother James inherited the property when their parents died. They attempted to apply for a demolition permit, but that was halted by the conservatorship proceeding with Uptown Partners. They have already entered into an agreement of sale with Fountain Residential Partners.

Patrick Rega, who represents the McGuires, said the property is designated as “unsound.”

“It’s not that we did this for money,” Nicole McGuire said of the sale. “We did it because we think this is good for the area. My parents wanted to see this neighborhood brought back to its former glory.”

McGuire said her family is “very much against the history of the Tito family.”

Thomas Castello, a lawyer who represents the family that owns the Tito Garage on Colwell, said his clients similarly believe that the Tito family history isn’t one that should be celebrated.

“My clients seriously question the glorifying of Mr. Tito, who was alleged to develop and sustain his business through violence and intimidation,” he said, explaining that Tito was once accused of being involved in a hit against a business competitor. “My clients submit that Mr. Tito is not the kind of individual we should be glorifying, given his violent past — especially at the same time that the city of Pittsburgh is covering and removing statues of Christopher Columbus.”

Brusco, however, pushed against the negative narratives about her family.

Clarence Steiner, representing the owners of nearby Fifth Avenue School Lofts, said the site is a problem area for the neighborhood, and would be put to better use as a new development that could service nearby residents.

“We have watched the Tito House property sit vacant and deteriorating, a blight on the community,” he said. “The property has only been used for prostitutes and drug deals, which I have personally witnessed.”

The proposed development would add tax revenues, enhance the value of nearby properties, bring a grocery store to an area that is now a “food and shopping desert” and complement the Bus Rapid Transit project that will be going through the area, he said.

Jonathan Clayton, vice president at Fountain Residential Partners, said the site is “a very important piece” of their proposed development — which, he said, takes into account the goals of the eco-innovation district and the character of the surrounding neighborhood.

“We do understand the criticisms and the needs and wants of the neighborhood,” Clayton said.

Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle said he’s been told that lawyers from both sides are having conversations about potential compromise. He said he’s hopeful they can come to an agreement before council members take a final vote on the matter.