Built by a German immigrant brickmaker over 160 years ago, the ornate brick house at 2119 Sarah St. is part of the DNA of Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood.
Construction began in 1862 on what was to be the home of John G. Fisher, according to a house history by the late Carol J. Peterson. Built in the Italianate style, it was ornate and endearing, with elaborate trim and columns framing the front door. Then in 1893, a mansard roof with a steep pitch on the sides was added to the home, transforming it into a Second Empire-style building.
From 1862 to 1995, the property had seven owners, the last turning the home into a bed and breakfast, the Morning Glory Inn. The inn closed in July 2021 and has remained empty since that time. The property is currently owned by SSB Bank, which purchased it from another financial institution.
Now, the property is listed for $1.25 million (MLS No. 1684267) with Mary Dowd, Jason Carr and Chi Chi Contrucci of Compass (www.compass.com 412-715-8050). An open house is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 2, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
“It was used most recently as a bed and breakfast and venue for weddings and special occasions and corporate events,” said Dowd, who lives in the neighborhood known for its eclectic mix of rowhouses, bars and tattoo parlors. “It’s a part of the South Side.”
In addition to the main house with five guest rooms, which is zoned commercial, the property includes a rear carriage house, zoned residential, at 2122-2124 Carey Way. The sale includes everything inside, from the furniture to the mysterious tunnel in the cellar.
Longtime neighborhood resident Barbara Rudiak, former principal of Phillips Elementary School, remembers when a teacher took a group of students to visit the Morning Glory Inn. The class was studying the Underground Railroad and how it operated in Pittsburgh.
Although the teacher wasn’t able to verify that the tunnel was used in the mid-1800s, it was a chance to view a part of South Side unknown to many longtime Pittsburghers.
In 2019, KDKA-TV posted a YouTube video that showed the tunnel and then-owner Dave Eshelman, who suggested an alternative use for it: smuggling liquor during Prohibition. The tunnel has been closed off.
“They have kind of effectively sealed it off at this point,” Carr said. “You walk back about five steps and there’s a wall.”
The furniture inside the house is a unique array of antiques, including a grand piano in the living room and an impressive antique coat stand in the hallway.
The two buildings are very different in style. The main house is filled with floral Victorian wallpaper and furniture, while the other building, renovated in the last few years, has a more transitional feel.
Carr said the buyer could convert the main house back to a single-family home or reopen it as an inn.
“As a community, we’re in need of a space like that, a bed and breakfast, an event space,” Dowd said. “We also need great residents to be in the neighborhood. Sarah is such a great street.”
Walking in the front door of the 1862 main house is like entering another era. The front parlor that looks out onto Sarah Street connects to a second room that could be a formal dining room or a home office. Both feature beautiful ornate fireplaces and like much of the house, high ceilings and tall windows.
Down the hall is a powder room, dining room and the kitchen.
The kitchen is the one room in the house that hasn’t been touched and will likely benefit from an update. Though fully equipped, it is not a family kitchen; it was used to supply the inn’s guests and by caterers for weddings and other events.
Outside, tucked between the two buildings, is a spacious brick courtyard with a gazebo, an oversized playhouse and pergolas that feature retractable shades. It’s easy to see why this was a popular setting for wedding receptions, with a feeling of being transported to a lush and tranquil courtyard in New Orleans.
Each of the five guest rooms on the upper floors has a bathroom. When winding your way through the main house, you find stairway landings that are three steps below the next floor. It makes for a puzzling layout at first but adds to the charm.
The one-bedroom carriage house at the rear of the property was renovated by previous owners Nancy and Dave Eshelman in 2007, turning three attached, two-story buildings into a single-family home. The project captured first place, large category, in the Post-Gazette's Renovation Inspiration Contest.
Renovated again recently, the space now features a large room for group functions and a wet bar that you enter from the courtyard. There is a kitchen and powder room on the first floor; the living room, bedroom and a full bathroom are on the second floor.
Annual taxes are $6,242. The property assessments are $270,900 for the main house and $192,500 for the carriage house.
Over the last three years, six homes have sold in the 2100 block of Sarah Street, including this one for $525,000 in October 2022. The others ranged in price from $213,000 in May 2022 to $610,000 in August 2021 for a unit in the 22nd Street Condos (realestate.alleghenycounty.us)
The Compass agents said the new owner could run the main house as a bed and breakfast and the rear building as the innkeeper’s home or a rental unit.
“There’s a lot of really creative ways that space could be used,” Carr said.
First Published: January 31, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: February 1, 2025, 3:20 p.m.