In Allegheny West on the North Side, Victorian lamps glow and a white Moravian star shines on the front porch of a brick-and-stone row house. Inside, “Happy Holidays” plays merrily on a Kurtzmann player piano.
Every first-floor room is filled with holiday decorations and the anticipatory air of Christmas at the house that John Engle and Tom Cihil share with their three dogs, Bella, Buzz and Yoshi.
This is one of six Victorian-era houses on the Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour, which runs from 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 13 and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 14. Tickets are $35 in advance at alleghenywest.org or on tour day at the first stop, Calvary United Methodist Church, 971 Beech Ave.,15233. Tickets are $15 for a separate tour of a private toy train museum nearby.
The couple’s home is part of Klee Row, which is named for Jacob Klee, a Prussian-born clothing merchant who built them in 1885. Klee lived with his wife, Rosa, in one of these five identical row houses with mansard roofs, brick corbels, dormers and ornamental wooden verge boards with carved three-leaf clovers. In German, Klee means clover.
A tall Christmas tree dominates one corner of the front parlor, which is lit by an elegant gasolier, a chandelier fueled by gas and electricity. Beneath the tree is a hand-painted Christmas village that includes Heinz Hall. On a nearby drop leaf table is a beautifully painted creche with detailed faces and real gold gilding. The Christmas village and nativity scene figures are treasured heirlooms made by Mr. Engle’s late mother, Loraine Engle, who died in February.
The two men bought the house in January 2018 after talking to the owners for nearly a year about their desire to buy the property, which has high ceilings, transom windows, hardwood floors, custom draperies and elegantly painted trim.
The marbleized fireplace surround and mantel in the front parlor features grapes carved into the slate. High above on the parlor walls is a hand-stenciled frieze bearing sweet fruit. Two crystal Fostoria candelabra glow on the mantel.
Hundreds of music rolls are stacked neatly next to the player piano, which was made in 1923 in Buffalo, N.Y. The piano’s case is ribbon-grained Honduran mahogany. Mr. Engle has collected more than 1,000 player piano music rolls at estate sales and on eBay. His search for a player piano included some disappointments.
“They wouldn’t work or they’d be in really bad condition,” said Mr. Engle, who was a piano major in college and still plays.
He finally found this player piano in Saxonburg. A tag on the front indicates that it was sold by Schroeder Brothers of Pittsburgh, which was at 820-824 Liberty Ave., Downtown.
There was a time, Mr. Cihil said, when there were more player pianos in American homes than bath tubs.
A long hallway leads past an alcove containing a telephone and into a spacious dining room. On one wall, a tall mirror adorned by tropical hardwoods hangs above another marbleized slate fireplace. It was commissioned for the room by the previous owners.
A round table is set with elegant silver and holiday china. It’s lit by an Aladdin lamp, which was popular between 1880 and 1930. The two men enjoy collecting and restoring them. On an oak sideboard, a glass stand holds oranges.
Off the dining room is a kitchen with the French fleur de lis symbol on its tin ceiling and glass windows. There’s a wood-burning stove, custom hickory cabinets, a long breakfast bar made of Zimbabwe black granite and room for two chairs. Behind the home’s kitchen is a walled garden. A tunnel covered by a brick archway allows visitors who leave the house by the kitchen to return to the main street.
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First Published: December 6, 2019, 1:00 p.m.
