John A. Brashear House and Factory
- Style
- Second Empire
- City
- Pittsburgh, PA
The John A. Brashear House and Factory in Pittsburgh's Perry South neighborhood was built in 1886 as the home and workshop of astronomer John Brashear (1840-1920), whom former Pennsylvania Governor Martin Grove Brumbaugh called "Pennsylvania's most eminent citizen." The Second Empire-style house and its two-story brick factory were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 2012.
the building
Brashear's optical works. The 105-by-38-foot brick factory building housed the Brashear Company, which manufactured optical instruments for science and industry and, after Brashear's 1920 death, went on to make components for the World War II-era Norden bombsight before moving out around 1954.
the style
The house is built in the Second Empire style, with mansard-roof details visible from the street; a small brick wash house was added around 1900.
More on Second Empiresignificance
The city took ownership of the site in 2012 but could not fund repairs, and after one of the factory's walls partially collapsed onto a neighboring apartment building, Pittsburgh demolished the factory on March 17, 2015.
nearby
- House at 200 West North Avenue
- Henderson-Metz House
- Emmanuel Episcopal Church
- Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny
- B. F. Jones House
- Byers-Lyons House