Sauer Buildings Historic District, located between 607 and 717 Center Avenue in

Aspinwall, Pennsylvania Aspinwall is a borough on the Allegheny River in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 2,916 at the 2020 census. History In the mid-1880s, the area which is now Aspinw ...

, consists of a group of buildings designed and built by

Frederick C. Sauer Frederick C. Sauer (1860,''Landmark Architecture of Allegheny County'' by James D. Van Trump and Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., page 161 (1967, Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ) Heidelberg, Grand Duchy of Baden � ...

from 1898 until his death in 1942. This

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on September 11, 1985.

History

In 1898, Frederick Sauer bought a hillside tract of land in

, and built a home for himself and his family. This house was designed in "conventional fashion out of ordinary Kittanning brick on a four-square

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

footprint."''Pittsburgh: A New Portrait'' by

Franklin Toker Franklin K. Toker (29 April 1944 – 19 April 2021) was a Canadian-American professor of the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of nine books on the history of art and architecture, ranging from the exc ...

, pages 435-436 (2009,

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Sauer was an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

by trade, and he designed about a dozen

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

churches in the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

area, most of which were fashioned in some variation of

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style. After many years of designing buildings to suit the wants and needs of his public, Sauer constructed a group of buildings for his own amusement on his plot of land in Aspinwall.''Landmark Architecture of Allegheny County'' by

James D. Van Trump James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince James ...

and Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., page 161 (1967,

Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1964 to support the preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. In 1966, PHLF established the Revolvi ...

, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ) He began to construct rental properties, acting as his own designer, mason, bricklayer, and carpenter. From 1928 through 1930, he converted his former

chicken coop Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises poultry, domesticated birds such as chickens, Domestic duck, ducks, turkey (domesticated), turkeys and domesticated goose, geese to produce chicken meat, meat or Egg as food, eggs for ...

into a three-story apartment house called "Heidelberg".''Landmark Architecture: Pittsburgh and Allegheny County'' by Walter C. Kidney, page 334 (1985,

, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) After this eccentric building, he gradually transformed his wooded hillside into an architectural fantasy, and a complex of castlesque buildings and landscape features in Fantastic architectural style took shape and was progressively added to by Sauer until his death in 1942.

Reception

"It is the most bizarre collection of buildings in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the Unite ...

," says

, professor of

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

. "This

fantastic Fantastic or Fantastik may refer to: Music * ''Fantastic'' (Toy-Box album) * ''Fantastic'' (Wham! album) * '' Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1)'', an album by Slum Village * '' Fantastic, Vol. 2'', an album by Slum Village * ''Fantastic'' (EP), an EP by ...

group of buildings constructed by a local architect in the later years of his life is possibly unique in

." –

and Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. "Sauer really seems to have made one of those odd essays in personal expression in building that turn up now and then in some otherwise-staid part of the world." – Walter C. Kidney

References

Gallery

File:SauerBuildingsHistoricDistrict.jpg, Sauer Buildings Historic District located between 607 and 717 Center Avenue in

File:SauerAspinwallMailbox.jpg, Sauer's fantastical mailbox circa 1930 File:SauerApartmentAspinwall.jpg, Apartment building at 607 Center Avenue circa 1930 File:SauerBuildingAspinwall.jpg, Another apartment building circa 1930 File:SauerTurretAspinwall.jpg, Apartment building with a

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

circa 1930 File:FrederickSauerHouse.jpg, Sauer House, built in 1898, at 625 Center Avenue File:SauerBuildingsStoneFace.jpg, Stone face keystone on the arched doorway of a building circa 1930 File:SauerBuildingsHistDistrict.jpg, House at 615 Center Avenue circa 1930

External links

{{Registered Historic Places Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Historic districts in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania