- PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL AND MUSEUM COMMISSION PHOTO/SITE PLAN SHEET ( ),—' 89A Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Bureau of Historic Preservation 2nd Commonwealth Keystone Building, Floor 400 North Street Harrisburg, PA 17120-0093 County: Allegheny Survey Code/Tax Parcel/Other No.: B-4-8 - Municipality: City of Pittsburgh Address: 2410 Smallman Street Historic Name/Other Name: Phoenix Brewery/Otto Milk Company Photo Information Site Plan - Sz Hi Gard V. - ' Phoenix b Brewery 77 Yves t Pa~r'r " Mc 719 Vail mile Direction of 9TH ST - Number Description of View Camera 1 Front Elevation with tower, I SE fronting on Smaliman Street I!) . ' \ Phoenix Brewery! E. Otto Milk Company City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County U.S.G.S. 7.5 minute series Photographer Name: Jerry Clouse Date: Janaury 2002 Pittsburgh East, PA Quadrangle 1993 Negative Location McCormick, jylor & Associates I I National Register Boundary PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL RESOURCE SURVEY FORM - DATA SHEET 89B Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Historic Preservation IDENTIFICATION AND LOCATION Survey Code: B-4-8 Tax Parcel/Other No. County: 1. Allegheny 0 0 3 2. Municipality: 1. City of Pittsburgh 2. Address: 2410 Smallman Street Historic Name: Phoenix Brewery Other Name: Otto Milk Company Owner Name/Address: Ironrite_Corporation Box 22216 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Owner Category: x Private Public-Local Public-State Public-Federal Resource Category: x Building District Site Structure Object Number/Approximate Number of Resources covered by this form: 1 USGS Quad: 1. Pittsburgh East, PA 2. UTM References: A. 17 E 586 400 N 4478 680 C. B. D. HISTORIC AND CURRENT FUNCTIONS Historic Function Category: Subcategory: Code: Industry manufacturing facility 1 0 A Particular Type: A. brewery/milk processing plant Current Function Category: Subcategory: Code: Commerce warehouse 0 2 H PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Architectural Classification: A. Romanesque 4 7 B. Other: Vernacular Industrial 8 0 C. D.. Other.- Exterior Materials: Foundation Stone 4 0 Roof Walls Brick 3 0 Walls Sandstone 4 2 Other Other Structural System: 1. 1 4 2. Width: 3 C Depth: 3 C_____ Stories/Height: 5 D HISTORICAL INFORMATION Year Built: C. 1893 to C. Additions/Alternations Dates: C. 1935 to C. Basis for Dating: x Documentary x Physical Explain: The 1893 Sanborn Map for Pittsburgh notes that this building was "being built" as part of the Phoenix Brewery complex. Cultural/Ethnic Affiliation: 1. N/A 2. Associated Individuals: 1. N/A 2. Associated Events: 1. N/A 2. Architects/Engineers: 1. N/A 2. Builders: 1. George Trunzer 2. MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES See Physical Description Continuation Sheet 1 PREVIOUS SURVEY, DETERMINATIONS Strip District Survey, December 1993. EVALUATION (Survey Director/Consultants Only) Individual NR Potential: X Yes No Context(s): Architecture, Industry Contributes to Potential District: Yes x No District Name/Status: Explain: This property appears to be eligible under Criterion A for its association with the brewing industry in Pittsburgh. It also appears to be eligible under Criterion C for its vernacular, industrial Romanesque style architecture. THREATS Threats: 2 1. None 2. Public Development 3. Private Development 4. Neglect 5. Other Explain: Maglev Rail Project SURVEYOR INFORMATION Surveyor Name/Title: Jerry A. Clouse, Architectural Historian Date: February 11, 2002 Project Name: Maglev Rail Project Organization: McCormick, Taylor & Associates, Inc. Telephone: 717-540-6040 Street and No.: 75 Shannon Road City, State: Harrisburg, PA Zip Code: 17112 Additional Survey Documentation: Site plan and photographs Associated Survey Codes: B-4-9 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL RESOURCE SURVEY FORM - NARRATIVE SHEET Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Historic Preservation Survey Code: B-4-8 Tax Parcel/Other No.- County: Allegheny Municipality: City of Pittsburgh Address: 2410 Smallman Street Company Historic/Other Name: Phoenix Brewery/Otto Milk - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: The Phoenix Brewery is situated in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. The Strip is a narrow piece of flood plain just south of the Allegheny River. Formerly, it was an intensely industrialized area with iron and steel furnaces, railroad yards, etc. Now it is largely warehouses and wholesalers, and is best known for its food markets. The Phoenix Brewery faces north 24th 25th onto Smallman Street, between and Streets. The lot directly across Smallman Street is now a parking lot but was 1h 25th formerly the site of dwellings and sheds. The buildings adjoining the Brewery building, between 24 and Streets, are 201h masonry industrial style buildings, dating from the early to mid century, and ranging in height from one to five stories. The Phoenix Brewery is a three-bay, five-story, stone and brick structure with a two-story tower on its northwest corner. The tower has a bracketed cornice which supports a pyramidal roof. The building is constructed in what may be termed an industrial style Romanesque (Kidney 1997: 56). The façade consists of a series of arches and cornice-like belt courses. Six courses of ashlar stone, topped by a stone belt course run along the front of the building at street level. This supports squat pilasters for three large brick corbeled arches. Above these arches is a corbeled belt course which support plain brick pilasters reaching two-and-a-half stories. These pilasters again maintain three large corbeled arches. Above these arches is another corbeled belt course upon which the sills of three sets of ribbon windows rest. This is the top floor in the main block of the building, but there is an additional set of arched ribbon windows on each side of the tower. Finally, there are three bullseye windows just below the cornice of the tower. The entrance on Smallman Street has been infilled, and all of the windows have been infilled with glass brick. This was likely done in the 1930s or 1940s. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE: The Phoenix Brewery was at this location on Smallman Street by at least 1893 when according to Sanborn maps, the company is shown as owning adjoining lots, and this particular five-story building is being constructed. The Phoenix Brewery does not appear in the 1890 Pittsburgh City Directory. The 1910 City Directory notes C. W. Blumer as superintendent of the Phoenix Brewery at 2400 Smallman Street. The Directory noted a total of 15 breweries in southwestern Pennsylvania that year. This property does not appear in the industrial directories from 1916 to 1932. By 1935 the Otto Milk Company was listed at this location. At that time the company condensed and evaporated milk (Industrial Directory 1935: 40). By 1965 the company employed 375 workers at 2400 Smallman Street (Industrial Directory 1965:5). In 1970 the company was still located on Smallman Street, but by 1975 it was located in Kilbuck Township, Allegheny County (Industrial Directory 1970:13). Thomas Otto was president of the company during this time. The property has evidently served as a warehouse since the Otto Milk Company left about 1975. EVALUATION The Phoenix Brewery/ Otto Milk Company building has been evaluated according to the criteria set forth in National Register Bulletin 15: "How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation." The Phoenix Brewery/Otto Milk Company building is recommended as eligible for listing in the National Register under Criterion A for its association with the industrial development of Allegheny County. It is also recommended eligible under Criterion C for its industrial Romanesque style architecture retaining a high degree of integrity. BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION The boundary for the Phoenix Brewery/Otto Milk Company building has been drawn to include only the lot of ground on which the five-story building is situated. The boundary on the northwest or front façade is the edge of pavement with Smallman Street. The boundary on the southeast or rear of the building is the north edge of the alley which runs parallel PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Continuation Sheet I with Smailman Street and Penn Avenue. The boundaries otherwise follow the building or lot lines running perpendicular to Smaliman Street and Penn Avenue. BOUNDARY JUSTIFICATION The National Register boundary for the Phoenix Brewery/Otto Milk Company has been drawn to include only the five- story stone and brick building associated with the Brewery and Milk Company. BIBLIOGRAPHY Walter C. Kidney, Pittsburgh 's Landmark Architecture: The Historic Buildings of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, PA.: Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, 1997) Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs, Eighth Industrial Directory of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Pa.: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1935) Pittsburgh City Directory, (New York: R. L. Polk & Co., 19 10) Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps ofPittsburgh, Pennsylvania (NewYork: Sanborn Map Company, 1893) Photo 2: Looking southeast toward Phoenix Brewery. Note that it is the most architecturally distinctive building in this block of Smaliman Street. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Bureau for Historic Preservation Commonwealth Keystone Building, 2nd Floor 400 North Street Harrisburg, PA 17120-0093 www.phmc.state.pa.us April 3, 2002 Port Authority of Allegheny County Attention: Gary Antonella 345 Sixth Ave., 3rd Floor TO EXPEDITE REVIEW USE Pittsburgh, PA 15222-2527 BHP REFERENCE NUMBER RE: ER 00-01 19-042-E FRA: The Pennsylvania High-Speed Maglev Project Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties Historic Resource