It was a house-hunting friend who issued the alert to a remarkable property for sale in the Ohio River suburb of Emsworth. Intrigued by the description, he had gone to an open house and now returned for a second visit with friends in tow. The house is located on Gibb Street on a steep hillside across from Camp Horne Road. At first glance, one sees a rough-cut stone first story topped by a gabled second floor covered with red shingles. Seen from the west, where a gabled open porch leads from a patio into the house (the rear door in fact), the house appears charmingly rustic but not exceptional. At the opposite end, however, the building turns positively quirky. The corners of the house have been sliced off at either side of a massive flared stone chimney that rises up to the roof and beyond. On the left side, a stone porch is tucked into the cutaway space; this is the main entrance with a grand wooden front door. A closer look at the exterior reveals that the roof is 'cross gabled,' in this case, there are gables at each of the four sides of the roof. The underlying symmetry of the house is made to appear asymmetrical by the flared chimney, a tower that swells out of the south side and has its own conical cap, and dormers that jut out from the roof. One wonders: Since the second story is the roof, do all the interior ceilings slope downward• Another quirky (and ingenious) feature is the way lower rows of roof shingles flare out over first-floor windows to provide a kind of hood or awning. Most of the windows are double-hung; some have diamond panes in the upper sash, thus placing a Gothic Revival pattern within a Classically derived frame. A 19th-century visitor would probably have called 83 Gibb St. a 'cottage.' In Emsworth, it has been known for years as 'The Castle.' It is, essentially, a Shingle Style house - an artful local variation on a house type that began in New England in the 1870s as an interpretation of early American domestic architecture. The Shingle Style spread as far west as California, then faded after World War I. It had many notable creators, none more notable that H.H. Richardson, whose finest Shingle Style house is 'Stonehurst,' the Robert Treat Paine residence (1886) in Walton, Mass. Interestingly, three architects from Richardson's office - Frank Alden, Frederick Russell and Frank Rutan - established firms in Pittsburgh in the 1880s, built homes for themselves in Sewickley and were among the many local architects who designed houses in the Shingle Style (and its more derivative sibling, the Colonial Revival). The interior confirms impressions from outside. As anticipated, there are no flat ceilings in the bedrooms upstairs; one instinctively ducks. Closets are located in spaces both ingenious and bizarre. It would take a special person, someone attuned to 'Alice in Wonderland' perhaps, to spend much time within this perpetually tilting world.

The first floor is splendid. Living room, dining room, and hall are finished with wood paneling and ceiling beams typical of the Shingle Style - late medieval forms modified in the 18th century and carried on into the 19th. Art glass windows display lush Aesthetic Movement floral arrangements edging toward Art Nouveau. The dramatic stairway windows combine the flower arrangements with diamond patterns. These windows, the niche overlooking the landing (waiting for a saint?), and the stunning open woodwork of the stairway give the hall something of a Gothic Revival cast. There may also be an Oriental element in this artfully carved stair railing, whose open work suggests a screen as much as a balustrade. Whatever the sources, it is exotic, as are the elaborate metal lamp on the newel post and the odd kidney-shaped counter that separates the first floor of the tower from the hall. (The house, it had been reported, had been vacant for several years. Previous owners had made changes - wall-to-wall carpeting upstairs, a remodeled kitchen, and, regrettably, the once open stone porch facing south had been enclosed and paneled with 'knotty pine.') It appeared that an architect was involved in the house design. Why hadn't the late Jamie Van Trump, who missed very little of architectural interest, written about it• Was the house recorded in the countywide architectural survey - the Allegheny County Historic Site Survey 1979-84 - conducted by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation• Yes. In January 1982, a Landmarks surveyor visited 83 Gibb St. and interviewed 'the owners, Helen and Stephen Bach. The surveyor was told that the house was built of stone from the Lowries Run Creek bed, that there had once been a garden below the house and that the house had acquired a name, 'Stony Brook Acres.' Mrs. Bach also supplied a construction date - 1893 - and the name of the architect - Thomas B. Wolfe. The date seems appropriate, and the identification of the architect, intriguing.

Thomas Barnes Wolfe (1860-1923) was born on a farm in Sewickley Heights and trained as a carpenter. He traveled west and eventually worked for the architectural firm of Vrydaugh & Shepard in Kansas City, Mo. It is believed that Wolfe helped Vrydaugh & Shepard get the 1892 commission to design Calvary Methodist Church (1892-95) in Allegheny City, now Pittsburgh's North Side. Charles Shepard remained in Kansas City, and Martin U. Vrydaugh formed a partnership in Pittsburgh with Wolfe. Vrydaugh & Wolfe designed the Heinz family mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery (1898); residences in the East End, including several for members of the Heinz family; and the Dilworth Public School in East Liberty (1914), now a City of Pittsburgh Historic Structure. The Vrydaugh & Wolfe partnership ended in 1918, and Wolfe formed the firm of T.B. Wolfe & Lawrence Wolfe with his oldest son. Thomas Wolfe died in 1923. Wolfe presumably returned to the Pittsburgh area sometime before 1892. He first appears in a city directory in 1894; his office was on Federal Street in Allegheny, and his home was in Ben Avon, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Van Trump did write about Calvary Methodist Church. He writes of its 'fantastic exuberance, a sort of wild dignity that still cannot fail to astonish us.' Along the front of the church and above the main entrance is a band of carved faces set within luxuriant foliage. Van Trump thought they look 'haunted.' They exhibit Aesthetic Movement neo-medieval poses such as are found in the art of Walter Crane and Edward Burne-Jones. These carvings and the entrance hall of the Emsworth Castle share a similar decorative world. Furthermore, the exotic Emsworth staircase may reflect not only a gifted designer, but a master carpenter as well. Helen Bach identified Thomas B. Wolfe as the architect of 83 Gibb St. But this has not been confirmed. Conversely, there is no evidence refuting it, and the dates, times, proximity, and what we know of the architect's skills lend credibility to the attribution. Documented evidence, at least for ownership, appears in 1906. The property is shown on a 1906 real estate map as belonging to S. Joseph Wolf(e).

Samuel Joseph Wolfe (b. 1850) lived with his sisters Cornelia 'Cora,' widow of James B. Sowers, and Catherine 'Kate,' a teacher. From census records we learn that Samuel J. Wolfe, gardener, gradually became S. Joseph Wolfe, florist. Local directories indicate that Wolfe conducted his business from his home. Was the garden in the meadow below the house a florist's nursery• We have identified an owner and posited an architect - both named Wolfe. Were Thomas B. Wolfe of Ben Avon and S. Joseph Wolfe of Emsworth related• The mystery of 83 Gibb St./Stony Brook Acres/The Castle has not been solved so much as deepened. Given the character of this house, that may be appropriate. May it retain under future owners 'fantastic exuberance, a sort of wild dignity.' Albert M. Tannler is the historical collections director of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and a free-lance writer for the Tribune-Review.

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