{"nrhp_refnum":"84003084","name":"Houses at 2501-2531 Charles Street","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2501-2531 Charles St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.46163473200005,"lon":-80.01847166699997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-03-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A row of 25 two-and-a-half-story brick Mansard-roofed houses at 2501-2531 Charles Street in the Pleasant Valley area of Pittsburgh's Northside, the former City of Allegheny. The row was erected in 1887.","why_significant":"The houses were built as speculative rental housing by William A. Stone and are described as among the largest groups of rental housing under common ownership in the old City of Allegheny. Their development is tied to the Federal Street and Pleasant Valley Street Railway, and Stone's involvement in the railway and the housing helped launch his political career, which led to the governorship.","narrative":"Built in 1887 in the Pleasant Valley ravine of the old City of Allegheny, this row of 25 two-story brick houses with Mansard roofs was developed by William A. Stone as speculative rental housing. Each house is 13 feet wide and 35 feet deep, with two rooms per floor and a room under the roof. The facade features shingled gables, twin sash windows, and corbelled brick cornices that vary along the row. The houses were built alongside a horse-drawn street railway, the Federal Street and Pleasant Valley Street Railway, which later became the city's first electric line. The row is regarded as one of the largest concentrations of rental housing under common ownership in the old city. It also reflects late nineteenth-century speculative building and the link between street railways and residential development. Stone, a lawyer and railway investor who later served in Congress and as Governor of Pennsylvania, gained the money and prominence for his political career partly through this work.","period_of_significance":"1887","architect_builder":"William A. Stone, Developer","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The rows were acquired and rehabilitated in the early 1970s; the rehabilitation was largely cosmetic and did not alter the plan or much of the architectural detail.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.22917-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003084.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003084/e1e33149cd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003084/e1e33149cd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Lee Paxton","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Housesat2501-2531CharlesStreet.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Lee Paxton</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Housesat2501-2531CharlesStreet.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997690","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houses_at_2501%E2%80%932531_Charles_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5915943"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/houses-at-2501-2531-charles-street-84003084/"}