PHOTO BY PENNSYLVANIA REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY

I grew up on Pittsburgh’s East End in Highland Park. I attended the local schools, played with the neighbors on my street and, like most other kids, had no idea how beautiful it was until I visited Miami Beach.

Shortly after I returned, I keenly remember riding in a car and looking at the houses while feeling the first snap of fall in the mighty oak trees that lined North Highland Avenue; it was a cool respite from the Florida heat I had just encountered.

I said out loud, “It’s so pretty here. Look at all of these houses. Florida has nothing but palm trees and sand, and there is nowhere to walk.”

I was just 16, and it was my very first awareness of how the neighborhood and the city could feel to someone viewing it for the first time. In the time since, I’ve traveled all over the world, visiting many beautiful homes. Everywhere I go, I see slices of my hometown ingrained in the architecture that scores of immigrants carried to these shores, building the homes, churches and even public parks that shape the landscape of our region.

A trio of East End houses featured in the weekly Hot Property feature online all have one thing in common, ties that bind them to the past, present and future. If you missed them, take a few moments to check them out; the houses and owners all have the most extraordinary stories buried within — just as Pittsburgh itself does.

PHOTO BY STEEL CITY VISUALS

146 North Woodland Road, Squirrel Hill North
A Most Convenient Condo
Tucked away on the edge of Chatham University, this property is one of those rare condos that sticks with you — just ask Kimberly Dobbins. Touring it on a whim, she fell in love with the two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit years before she was able to purchase it. The luxury features include a private elevator from the garage, floor-to-ceiling windows and a perfectly executed floor plan. It’s also walking distance from several Shadyside business districts. Dobbins lived there for two decades before letting it go. Listed for $699,900, the home went under agreement 10 days after it was listed.

PHOTO BY PENNSYLVANIA REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY

6354 Aurelia Street, Shadyside
A House as Lovely as Its Name
This classic Shadyside Victorian was restored to its former glory by Mike Edwards and Ryan Klimovich of NYSB Construction. The pair pride themselves on paying attention to the details. “The home needed some love,” Edwards says of the all-brick home built in 1906. Because it was in the same family for 37 years, many of the original features, including an oak-paneled staircase and stained glass windows, remain today. The solidly built, five-bedroom, four-bathroom home also boasts brass fixtures, glass door handles and new oak flooring in a floorplan that has been reimagined for modern living. Listed for $1.225 million after going on the market near the end of June, it is still available as of press time.

PHOTO BY EXPOSURE IT REAL ESTATE MEDIA

836 N. Highland Avenue, Highland Park
The Remaking of a Handsome Stone Manor
After accepting a job with the University of Pittsburgh, Chris Schunn was looking for the perfect house to move his family to from Virginia. He targeted the East End as the place to be as it was close to the school. Walking into the stone manor on the corner of North Jackson and North Highland avenues, he was awestruck by the property’s panel wainscoting, inlaid oak floors and plaster crown molding. “I asked myself, ‘Why can I afford this house, where is the disaster?” he says. The answer was the building had been divided into several apartments —which included six bathrooms and three kitchens. Built in the late 1800s by William Flinn (he owned a large-scale construction firm that built the Liberty, Armstrong and Wabash tunnels in Pittsburgh, as well as the Holland Tunnel that connects New York and New Jersey), the house’s history unfolds to include the Magees, the Bigelows, the Mellons and the Pittsburgh Zoo. The couple worked with a contractor to restore the home’s footprint and features. Listed in July, the seven-bedroom, four-bathroom home is still on the market for $875,000.

Hot Property offers an inside look into unique and historic homes on the market. As part of the Nest newsletter, Hot Property also goes behind the For Sale sign each week to share the story of a special Pittsburgh area home. Four times a year, Hot Property gives an in-depth look at the region’s real estate market in Pittsburgh Magazine HOME, tracks housing prices and sales and details where hot properties can be found.