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Community Corner

An Official Farewell to an Edgeworth Treasure

The historic home at 420 Oliver Road that burned in a September fire will be demolished, leaving the lot -- and its neighbors' hearts -- empty.

Last Sept. 15 was a beautiful end-of-summer day. It was the kind of day you really savor because you don’t know how many you’ll have left that season.

As I sat in the living room of my parents’ house that afternoon, I noticed smoke billowing around our neighbor’s house at 420 Oliver Road.

By the time I walked outside to get a better look, a gray cloud of fog encompassed the house. We soon found Kay and Roger Wiegand, our dearest friends, and their grandson, Jack, standing in front of their beloved home, helplessly watching it burn.

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Assuming the fire had only taken over the kitchen, we were confident that the would have it under control quickly. At the sight of flames blazing from the roof hours later, there was nothing to do but watch this piece of their lives, and an even bigger piece of local history, smolder.

This 170-year-old landmark and beloved treasure of has a history of fire. It was used originally as the Edgeworth Female Seminary, and its two wings burned down in 1865.

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The building eventually became home to the Wiegands in the 1980s. My mother had grown up down the street from the Wiegands in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, and when our family moved back to Pittsburgh in 1993 from Atlanta, the lot next door to their home in Edgeworth was for sale.

Since then, they have become our second family. So many of our memories took place in and around their beautiful home. My three sisters and I were the flower girls in the September wedding of Kay and Roger’s daughter Betsy in their back yard. The image of beautifully lit white tents behind the stately colonial home is ingrained in my mind as the most gorgeous scene in memory.

From Christmas parties to Kay’s surprise 60th birthday on the back patio, there was always something being celebrated in this home.

Our close proximity to the Wiegands became even more of a blessing last September, as we were able to give them shoulders to lean on, as well as lawn chairs to sit in, while they watched their house burn from our driveway.

Firefighters salvaged tons of family photos and pieces of art that had to be torn from their frames immediately to avoid further damage. For the next few days, hundreds of photos and art were strewn all over our house, no longer having a place to belong. Kay and Roger felt that same loss of belonging.

Now, six months later, what remains of the house will be torn down. Not having the heart to try to rebuild the same house,  Kay and Roger will build a home on another lot in Sewickley.

After all, it would never be the same anyway.

Though the half-standing structure is an eyesore from the road, the small glimpses of white that can be seen through our bushes comfort me and for just minutes at a time, allow me to believe the fire never happened.

The empty lot will leave us feeling just that — empty. Empty of a beautiful home full of memories and empty of our neighbors and best friends.

We are thankful, however, for our friendship that flourished next door during those years and will continue from a few blocks away.

Also, with a large plot of land in Edgeworth, the possibilities of another historic monument are ever-present. Let the bidding begin.

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