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Glenn Olcerst and Barbara Talerico in their new addition to their North Side home.
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Mexican War Streets tour to show off different kinds of renovations

Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette

Mexican War Streets tour to show off different kinds of renovations

It's a long road from the projects of North Jersey to a mansion on Pittsburgh's North Side. The journey from a high school gridiron to the Pro Football Hall of Fame is even more unlikely. Franco Harris has made both trips with his signature character and grace.

Way back in 1973, long before it was hip to fix up a decrepit old house and live in it in the Mexican War Streets, this Steelers running back bought a 1870s Tudor-inspired townhouse on West North Avenue. It's one of 13 houses on tomorrow's 40th anniversary Mexican War Streets House & Garden Tour.

The house was boarded up and had once been marked for demolition.

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"It was a nightmare," remembers his wife, Dana, whose introduction to it was, appropriately enough, on Halloween. "I actually thought it was a joke."

Her husband recalls it a little differently.


40th Annual Mexican War Streets House & Garden Tour

"You had to look underneath, past the mess, to see the treasure," says Harris, who paid less than $24,000 for the three-story house and then spent the next several years, and many more thousands, renovating it. He and Dana moved in in 1976; son Franco Dokmanovich -- known as Dok -- moved in three years later.

Another house on the tour, conversely, was in pretty good shape when Glenn Olcerst bought it in 1984. Although the house on Resaca Place had undergone a major renovation in 1978, that didn't stop the labor lawyer from embarking on five more remodels.

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The most recent project for him and his wife Barbara Talerico involved replacing a tiny courtyard at the rear with a two-story great room addition. Filled with his unique ultra-high contrast black-and-white photography and colorful stone and glass art, it includes a spiral staircase that winds to a rooftop deck.

"I think we're finished," he says. "We've run out of space."

Just a block apart, the two houses couldn't be more different: Harris' townhouse is a regal blast from the past, while Olcerst's modern abode gazes boldly into the future. Yet somehow, they both feel exactly right. This North Side neighborhood, after all, is as famous for its classic High Victorian architecture as it is for the funky Mattress Factory museum of contemporary art.

Harris' three-story townhouse still has all of its splendid 19th-century details: high ceilings, original interior shutters, marble fireplaces and raised judges paneling. There's also an exquisite quartersawn oak staircase with corkscrew balustrades and a rondel glass window on the landing.

It almost seems to have been made for the Steelers star. If you didn't know it was 120 years old, you'd swear the pattern in the leaded-glass entry is the Steelers hypercycloid logo. The same diamond-like design dresses up the living room transom.

"You have to appreciate the craftsmanship," Mrs. Harris says.

A built-in china closet in a paneled alcove in the dining room is especially lovely. "And I did love it when Dok was little being so close to Allegheny Library and the Science Center."

It's a far cry from the modest three-bedroom, one-bath house in Mount Holly, N.J., that Harris' father, Cad, built (and painted pink) in 1966 for his wife Gina and their nine children after they moved from the projects. But their famous son's home exudes the same sense of community of that town 19 miles east of Philadelphia.

"People get to know each other because of the close proximity," says Harris. "You tend to connect and bond."

Dok Harris, who now lives in Shadyside, remembers playing with area kids on a rusty fire engine with sharp edges that sat across the street in West Park.

"Somehow we all survived," he says.

As their son neared driving age, the Harrises decided to leave the city temporarily for a new house in Leet. With Dok now running for mayor of Pittsburgh, they've decided this is the ideal time to "reconnect" with their old home and neighborhood, "so I can be part of his election," Franco says.

He doesn't like to cook -- he leaves that to Dok -- but he does love to dine. Recent renovations include a brand-new kitchen that replaced the old gold appliances and yellow linoleum floor with stainless steel and hardwood.

"It was like, 'Oh my gosh, what did we do in the '70s,' " he says, grinning.

Other changes include opening the walls on the first floor so the rooms flow better.

"It just feels good," says Franco. As for the house itself, he hopes it "stays in the family. These old houses have character. They're a treasure."

Riches of a different kind fill Mr. Olcerst's great room addition. Eyes are naturally drawn to the sleek Spanish marble floor and row of five skylights that flood the space with natural light. But look around because nearly every surface bears a piece of art crafted by the lawyer. The bar area features a solid granite tabletop that he cut a design into and then epoxied onto a marble slab; a colorful triptych above a stainless-steel bench is actually three photographs on canvas he shot during the Dale Chihuly glass exhibit at Phipps Conservatory in 2008. An oval blue bahia granite coffee table of his design sits on legs by Jack Damrotoski.

Mr. Olcerst also created the platform with black granite and bronze inlays that takes visitors from the spiral staircase to the deck.

The deck itself, which required Frank Quinn Construction to dig extra-deep footers and special beams, has a built-in granite counter with grill and a funky, freestanding '50s fireplace from Design Within Reach. A canvas canopy keeps the elements off a cushioned seating area.

Between work and art, it's doubtful Mr. Olcerst ever has a spare moment to relax with his wife in this serene outdoor space. Then again, maybe not.

"It's really neat at night," he says. "We do a lot of entertaining."

And when the urge to groove hits them? They head to the dance space in the garage, which features a ceramic tile wall mural and an Italian glass ceiling fixture.

Bright lights, big city.

First Published: September 12, 2009, 8:00 a.m.

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Glenn Olcerst and Barbara Talerico in their new addition to their North Side home.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
The rooftop retreat in Glenn Olcerst and Barbara Talerico's North Side home.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
The renovated kitchen at Franco Harris' North Side home.  (Robin Rombach)
The spiral staircase leads from a rooftop retreat to the new great room addition in Glenn Olcerst and Barbara Talerico's North Side home.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
The dining room's built-in cupboard is one of the gracefeul details in Franco Harris' house.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
The modern kitchen in Glenn Olcerst and Barbara Talerico's North Side home.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
Original woodwork surrounds the leaded glass windows of Franco Harris's North Side home.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
The original woodwork on the staircase leads to an unusual stained glass window.  (Robin Rombach/Robin Rombach)
"Dok," Dana and Franco Harris outside their West North Avenue home. I  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
The renovated living room in Franco Harris' N. Side home.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
The new great room addition in Glenn Olcerst and Barbara Talerico's North Side home.  (Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette)
Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette
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