Fate of historic Herbst House in Sewickley still hangs in the balance

A yearslong fight over the fate of historic Herbst House in Sewickley soon could come to a head when officials from the borough and Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh meet over the latest proposal for the former school and convent.

“A closed meeting of a few key individuals on both sides of the issue is being coordinated in the coming weeks in the hopes of finding common ground in terms of a reasonable fundraising and rehabilitation timeline,” said borough solicitor Nate Boring.

For more than two years, the diocese and Divine Redeemer Parish have been pushing for the demolition of the diocese-owned Herbst House — and Sewickley officials have been pushing back.

Parish officials want to raze the structure over safety concerns and create green space along Broad Street in the borough’s historic district. However, many residents and several preservation groups have rallied to halt those plans in an effort to restore the building to its former glory.

The latest proposal — floated by the diocese in July — calls for the borough to raise all restoration funds, estimated to top nearly $4 million, in two years, Boring said via email.

According to the Allegheny County Real Estate website, the house sits on the same parcel as the church and school, and the parish pays no property taxes on it. The county this year listed the total assessed value of the land and buildings on the 3.7-acre lot at about $5.2 million.

The diocese proposed that construction would begin after all the money was raised and it would take over maintenance responsibilities after renovations were completed, Boring said.

“The tradeoff was that the diocese wanted an automatic right to demolish the structure if 100% of the funds were not raised within 24 months,” Boring said.

No agreement has been made for various reasons, Boring said, including that the borough never proposed being in charge of fundraising or overseeing renovations. He also said that not beginning construction until the funds are raised leaves the property to deteriorate further.

Proposals from historic preservation organizations suggest it would be better to use some funds immediately to secure the property against further deterioration and rehabilitate the property in stages over the next decade, Boring said.

Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said the private meeting between key stakeholders would not violate the Sunshine Act provided there are not enough council members in attendance to have a quorum.

In Sewickley’s case, a quorum would be five or more members of the nine-person council.

“They can have litigation executive sessions about this issue with their attorney or other professional adviser,” Melewsky said. “They don’t have to, but they are permitted to under the law. They are not, however, permitted to negotiate a settlement privately as a quorum, odd as that may seem. … If there’s not a quorum, there’s not a Sunshine Act issue.

“There’s nothing that requires an executive session. They are choosing to exclude the public (from Herbst House litigation discussions). … Executive sessions are not mandatory. They are permissive. They can have this discussion in public.”

Historical society keeping tabs

The Sewickley Valley Historical Society is keeping close tabs on the developments but is not involved in discussions, executive director Amanda Schaffer said.

The group will host a public forum about the Herbst House at 7 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Sewickley Public Library. No registration is required.

“There’s been a lot of questions about what the historical society’s doing for the house,” Schaffer said. “We wanted to hold a space for the community to come together and hear what the updates, hear what the options were (and) give a space for people to share their feelings about it that’s not necessarily a borough meeting.”

The parish includes St. James Church in Sewickley and St. Mary’s Church in Aleppo. Parish officials declined to comment on the proposal, citing pending litigation with the borough concerning the original case for financial hardship.

The Rev. Brian Noel, Divine Redeemer pastor, acknowledged the invitation to the November meeting.

“We have only recently heard of the SVHS meeting in November, which was called without our prior knowledge of a planned community discussion,” Noel said.

Messages to other diocese officials were not immediately returned.

A storied history

The three-story mansion, built in the late 1800s, has been vacant for about three decades.

The mansion was owned by D.C. Herbst of Independent Natural Gas Co. and Standard Oil Co. The home was sold to the church in 1913 for $12,000. It became the first home of St. James School when it was dedicated on Dec. 6, 1913, according to church records.

Eighty students attended the school in its first year, according to church records.

Over time, the building served as a school, convent and parish gathering space. Historical society officials said nuns eventually were moved to another convent and the building was deemed not big enough to be used as a school, so finding a use for it has been a low priority. Utilities were cut sometime around the late 1990s, and exterior maintenance stopped about 10 years ago.

“The parish last used a portion of the former school/convent building as storage, but as the structure declined, regular access became more limited,” Noel said. “The site could be better used at this point as green space for outdoor parish and school events, as well as for the farmers market.

“The parish has never put up the property for sale, nor does it intend to now.”

Diocese officials said the structure was unsafe and has further deteriorated because of a leaky roof. Vegetation reclaimed a portion of the property.

They had argued for its demolition and were denied twice, once by historic review commissioners in August 2022 and then by Sewickley Council in April 2023.

The historic review commission is a recommending body that addresses matters in the borough’s historic districts. Council has the final say on requests to make changes to structures in those areas.

Sewickley Valley Historical Society is an independent entity and does not have a vote on borough business.

Estimated restoration costs noted in April 2023 were around $3.7 million. Those figures likely have risen because of inflation.

A report from the borough’s engineering firm, Gateway Engineers, indicated Herbst House could be saved, although the report did not have cost estimates.

Diocese officials appealed council’s demolition denial to Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. The diocese claimed it was denied the opportunity to cross-examine the borough engineer, according to court documents.

Judge Mary C. McDinley in December remanded the case to council to allow cross-­examination and “consider further evidence on whether the property in issue is structurally salvageable,” according to court documents.

The hope is to come to a resolution in the closed-door sessions, Boring said.

The parish denied a request from the Sewickley Herald to go inside the building, citing safety concerns.

Herbst House in June was placed on the “Pennsylvania At Risk” list by Preservation Pennsylvania. The list is an annual compilation by the private statewide charity dedicated to helping people protect and preserve historic places.

Preservation Pennsylvania could connect the historical society with resources from across the state to help its cause and can provide letters of support for grant writing, which may result in leveraging funds for preservation planning and construction work.

Other buildings on this year’s list were the old Montgomery County Prison, also known as Airy Street Jail in Montgomery County, and the State Correctional Institution of Pittsburgh, also known as Western Penitentiary in Allegheny County.

Messages left with Preservation Pennsylvania were not returned as of press time on Oct. 17.

Forum coordination

Teresa Duff, architecture committee chair of the Sewickley Valley Historical Society, helped organize the group’s upcoming public meeting.

“We see this as an opportunity to fulfill our mission and facilitate a meaningful conversation,” she said.

Officials from the diocese, borough, State Historic Preservation Office, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and historic review commission were invited to attend, she said.

Noel said representation from the parish and diocese was being considered.

“I am sure we will have parish representation in some formal capacity,” he told the Sewickley Herald.

Duff, who is chair of the historic review commission, said she had not spoken directly with her fellow commissioners about meeting attendance as of Oct. 15. She stressed that the public forum is being coordinated through the historical society.

Officials from the History & Landmarks Foundation will not attend, spokesman Karamagi Rujumba said via email. But foundation officials will participate in the upcoming private meeting between the church and council.

The foundation had raised about $400,000 to go toward a $2 million plan to restore the exterior of Herbst House, demolish the decaying addition and remake the first floor to accommodate the church’s needs, according to information Rujumba shared.

“At one point, they said they would like to demolish their rectory building and that use would fit into the first floor very well. We would like to proceed with that meeting and see if we can find some positive result,” said the statement attributed to foundation president Michael Sriprasert and co-founder Arthur Ziegler.

Council President Cynthia Mullins said on Oct. 15 that she did not know whether anyone from the administration or council would attend the historical society’s meeting.

Messages with the State Historic Preservation Office were not returned as of press time on Oct. 17.

Melewsky said more than four council members — a quorum — could attend the discussion provided they were there just to listen.

“If they want to deliberate agency business at that other forum, they have to comply with the (Sunshine) Act and (the borough) advertise it as a public meeting, or avoid having deliberations,” Melewsky. “It’s hard to police that in the moment, though.”

Historic hopes

Duff hopes preservationists prevail and Herbst House remains standing.

“If the church decides to use it to fulfill the spiritual mission of the church, that’s great,” Duff said. “Probably the path of least resistance is that the church was to sell the property and a private owner can rehab it into a single-family home, its original intended use.”

The diocese’s latest offer to the borough to resolve the issue was a nonstarter, Duff said.

“There are many local, state and foundational funding sources available to the church to assist with the preservation and construction costs of this building,” Duff said. “Putting the financial responsibility solely on the taxpayers of the borough is not an acceptable option.

“The borough is upholding the ordinances in place. There is no reason to burden the taxpayers of Sewickley.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect number for the people on Sewickley council and what constitutes a quorum.