Chatham College Howe-Childs Gate House
Fact Sheet
Title: Greystone, Howe-Childs Gate House, Willow Cottage and Gateway House are all names given to the house.
Structure: 2 1/2-story clapboard Gothic Revival cottage with gingerbread verge boards and numerous bays, bay windows and gables. A verandah stretches across the front ground story and on three facades of the first floor. The structure has deteriorated throughout the last 15 years during which it has stood uninhabited.
Purchase Date: December 6, 2000
Purchase Price: $350,000
Estimated
Project Cost: $1.5 million (includes purchase price)
Gifts
To Date: $740,000 Total
$90,000 Keystone Historic Preservation Grant from the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission
$100,000 from Shirley andAlvin Weinberg
$500,000 Anonymous Donor
$50,000 Anonymous Donor
Location: The house stands adjacent to the Chatham College entrance on the corner of Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh's "Millionaires Row," and historic Woodland Road.
Constructed: 1860 by General Thomas M. Howe, a Pittsburgh industrialist, political leader and Civil War hero
Former Owners: General Thomas M. Howe
Members of Howe and Childs families 1860-1910
Oil Magnate Michael L. Benedum 1910-1959
Chatham College 1959-1985
Greystone Associates 1985-1988
Alvin and Shirley Weinberg 1988-2000
Significance: The oldest frame house in Pittsburgh and the oldest surviving house on Pittsburgh's "Millionaires Row."
Intended Uses: Headquarters for the Chatham College Arboretum
Guest rooms for official college visitors
Campus meeting spaces
Designations: Official Project of Save America's Treasures 2000, a public-private partnership between the White House Millennium Council and National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Pittsburgh Historic Landmark 1986
For more information, contact the Chatham College Office of Communications at (412) 365-1140 or (412) 365-1516.