Phipps-McElveen Building

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Phipps-McElveen Building is a commercial building at 525-529 Penn Ave. in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, built around 1896 and designed by Peabody and Stems in Renaissance Revival style. It was listed in the National Register in 2000.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in architecture and commerce. The nomination gives its period of significance as about 1896 to 1949, reflecting its construction around 1896.

Physical character

Its steel-frame, hollow-tile structure has a buff-colored Roman brick facade trimmed in terra cotta, with a terra cotta cornice, a beltcourse with fleurs-de-lis, round-arched eighth-story windows and bull's-eye windows. A multi-story metal fire escape and a marble elevator lobby survive; the first and second stories were remodeled between 1907 and 1919, and in the 1960s the first story was veneered in polished granite while the seventh and eighth floors became offices.

Historical context

The McElveen Furniture Company was in the building by 1898 and stayed until about 1918; Oppenheim, Collins & Co. held it from about 1918 to 1934, occupying the first four floors in 1927 while Joseph Home Company held the fifth through eighth. A fire destroyed Joseph Home Company's store in 1897, and the company occupied this building temporarily that year.