Alpha Terrace Historic District

On N. Beatty Street in Pittsburgh, two facing rows of brick rowhouses with stone facades were built as speculative housing in 1889 and 1894. The east row has thirteen two-story Queen Anne houses, and the west row has twelve three-story houses that combine Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne elements. Each row has individually varied bays, turrets, mansard roofs and stained or leaded glass, yet the two rows are formally related. Murphy and Hamilton are recorded as the builders on the 1893 and 1894 permits. The land had belonged to the Winebiddle and Negley families and was subdivided in 1885. The district is considered an unusually unified example of Victorian rowhouse design in a city where long, planned rows were rare. Its picturesque facades, which resemble free-standing houses, are seen as a unique product of Victorian-era Pittsburgh.