Ex-Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy saves North Huntingdon log house
Amish workers dismantle log house
Three Amish workers from Volant, Eli Byler, his son, Dan Byler, and his brother-in-law Dan Byler, take down a log house by hand to save the logs for former Pittsburgh mayor Tom Murphy, who wants to preserve the logs.
Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy is saving a piece of North Huntingdon's history – an 1840s-era two-story log house that was hidden for decades underneath siding.
Murphy, the city's three-term mayor from January 1994 to January 2006, worked Thursday with three Amish workers taking apart the remnants of the hand-cut log structure along Robbins Station Road. The labor-intensive process of carefully dismantling the structure and saving the long wooden beams for reuse, began last week. By Thursday afternoon, only some floor boards, floor joists and two brick chimneys remained of the structure.
The North Side resident, now an Urban Land Institute senior fellow, declined to say what he wanted to do with the giant logs, which he had tagged with metal markers indicating from which side of the log structure they were removed. Murphy kept the wood that was salvageable and tossed away what was too damaged to reuse.
The property owner, John Marino, a developer and owner of a White Oak accounting firm, said he sold the logs to Murphy for an undisclosed price.
The dismantling of the log house puts an end to a year-long saga that saw North Huntingdon delay Marino's initial attempt last May to demolish the structure so that an attempt might be made to save it. There was discussion about dismantling the structure and moving it to a township park, but that was deemed too costly to move and maintain.
Marino had entertained the option this spring of selling the property, with the house intact. He and a business partner purchased the .8-acre parcel for $60,000 in February 2017, and Marino was asking $75,000. He also was wiling to sell the house to someone who would move it.
“I took many, many calls from people who were willing to save it, and many, many calls from others who wanted to tear it down,” Marino said.
With the log house gone, Marino said intends to build a duplex on the site, after he obtains all of the necessary government approvals. He said he hopes to begin construction in June and have it completed in the fall.
If no one had come forward to save the log house, Marino, who owns the property with his business partner, John Payne of Northeast Builders, had intended to keep some logs and materials for re-use.
The Norwin Historical Society, which had approached township officials about saving the log house, had said the historical society did not have the money to move it, reassemble it and staff it.
“I'm extremely happy that somebody will save the log house. It's great to know that this wonderful piece of history will be preserved,” said Carl Huszar, president of the Norwin Historical Society.
Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
