Friendship is putting on its Sunday best and opening up its homes this weekend for the 16th annual
House Tour.
This year's event will showcase eleven homes' kitchen and bath renovations. The tour features a mix of inspirations and innovations, from grand Victorian restorations with crown moldings and ornate woodwork to sleek, modern lofts and townhouses.
Once a prestigious "streetcar suburb," Friendship experienced a decline, but is "on the upswing with the rest of the East End," says Sarah DiLeo with Friendship Development Associates (FDA). The neighborhood, which was named one of Pittsburgh's "10 Neighborhoods You Need to Know About" by Pittsburgh Magazine in 2006, offers residential opportunities for everyone from young professionals looking for apartment leases to families looking for homes to grow in.
Many of the older Victorians that were split into rental units over the years are now being converted back into single-family homes, says DiLeo. This brings more ownership to the area—and, consequently, more investment in the revitalization, and pride in it.
In the first quarter of 2009, eight homes were sold in Friendship, and the second quarter saw the sale of another 14 homes, says DiLeo.
Of this year's participating homeowners, some have been in the neighborhood since the mid-'90s, and others are fresher transplants. Dutch MacDonald, who has been in Friendship with his family since 1992, is looking forward to sharing their home's newly renovated kitchen, which won a Superior Interiors Design Award from Pittsburgh Magazine in 2008. The architect, formerly of EDGE studio, said Friendship is the perfect neighborhood in which to raise their two sons, especially with the 2006 addition of Pittsburgh Montessori, a PreK-8 magnet school on S. Graham Street.
Tickets for Sunday's tour, which runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., are $15 in advance and $18 the day of the event.
Writer: Caralyn Green
Sources: Sarah DiLeo, Friendship Development Associates; Dutch MacDonald, homeowner
Photograph courtesy Friendship Development Associates