House Hunting: Hornbostel home features five bedrooms, large closets
Architect Henry Hornbostel spotted the dominant feature when he named a house he designed in Monroeville the “Valley Tower.”
The stone building, nestled along Abers Creek, looks like a Norman keep that was built to ward off foes from an easy route to Monroeville Mall. But the five-bedroom home has a much more sedate history and is on sale for only the second time since it was built in 1939.
The house on Abers Creek Road maintains many of the eclectic features Hornbostel (1867-1961) designed. From the road, it looks like a defensive outpost. But it also has a two-car garage and a living room that is far from military.
“It amazes me a little that no one has decided to paint over the wood,” says Steve Mole from the Re/Max Shadyside office. He points to the deep wood that fills the house on stairways, doorways, doors, crown molding and window frames.
The house is on sale for $399,000. It was last sold in 1968 for $266,000, according to county records.
While the home draws attention because of its 11.6-acre site tucked away in a wooded Monroeville valley, its existence as a Hornbostel home creates even more interest.
Hornbostel designed more than 225 buildings in his career, more than half of them in Pittsburgh. He is the creator of the City-County Building, Downtown, and a large part of the Carnegie Mellon University campus, the Rodef Shalom Temple and the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum, all in Oakland.
The most impressive part of the home is the “tower” in the center that gives it a fortresslike appearance. A “winder” staircase with no landings climbs up the tower, with a bedroom and bathroom on each of three levels. While the second has the best light of all, the first is the biggest and features a bathroom with Carrera marble, Mole says.
The house's other two bedrooms are removed from the tower and, Mole believes, could have been designed as quarters for servants. They are reached from a stairway that winds down into the kitchen.
One of those bedrooms has been turned into an office.
Mole says he thinks one of the most unusual design features of the house is the number and size of the clothes closets. The first two levels of the tower have huge closets that are nearly walk-ins. Even the closets in the bedrooms above the kitchen are larger than would normally be seen for a house of that era.
Because Hornbostel designed the home in the late 1930s, when kitchens were more practical and not the centers of household gatherings, that room is less dramatic than those built today. It is an L-shape space with a small counter against one wall and the cooking area opposite it.
The dining room, next to the kitchen, is a tight 11-foot square, but the living room on the other side is 28-by-18 feet, and the adjacent family room is 18-by-11.
A high-ceiling basement is under the tower portion of the home and has two heating and air-conditioning units.
Details: 412-924-1085 or selecthomefinder.com
Bob Karlovits is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at bkarlovits@tribweb.com or 412-320-7852.
