Pitcairn House: A Brief History
1906
The building is designed and built by Charles and Henry Greene as a private residence for Robert Pitcairn, Jr. of Pittsburgh, PA. The house exhibits many features common to Greene & Greene designs - stained shingle exterior, cantelivered sleeping porches, massive exposed beams and broad terraces that integrate the house with the site. Pitcairn House, though a “modest” home, contains many of the design featuers the Greene brothers will go on to use in their mansions such as the Blacker House and the Gamble House.
1963
Westridge School purchases Pitcairn House for $50,000. The house is rented until 1970.
1973
Westridge employs architects Roland E. Coate, Jr. and Tim Anderson to refurbish the house and adapt it for school use. Public rooms are left original and walls are removed upstairs and in the kitchen to create classroom spaces. Unfortunately during this remodeling there was a theft of interior french doors, light fixtures and the butler’s pantry cabinetry. During the 1970s and 1980s Pitcairn House was referred to, at Westridge, as “Greene & Greene.”
1996
The architectural firm of Moule and Polyzoides refurbishes the living room and dining room and redesigns lighting and floorcoverings for those rooms.
2000
The firm of Pica & Sullivan Architects restores and refurbishes Pitcairn House after nearly 30 years of use as a classroom building. In addition to updating electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems, all wood walls and floors are refinished, linoleum flooring and carpeting removed, and walls previously taken down are restored. The living room is furnished as a meeting and gathering space for Westridge alumnae. The current configuration of the house is not an exact restoration, but it brings the house much closer to its original floor plan and intended space usage.
2001
Friday, April 20 - Dedication of restored Pitcairn House and the alumnae living room. The living room and dining room are used as meeting and gathering spaces, with the Business Office housed on the first floor and the Development and Alumnae Offices on the second floor.
2004
May - Dedication of the Leslie Clarke Gray ’62 Alumnae Living Room.
2006
Celebration of Pitcairn House centennial.