B.F.Jones

So here's a post close to my heart and upbringing and a sort of weird coincidence. When I was a little boy we lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh that had a wonderful library called B.F. Jones memorial library. Housed in a beautiful Beaux Arts building from the heyday of the small mill towns in the teens or 20s surrounding Pittsburgh built by the industrial robber barons, the rooms are large and airy. The windows are beautifully large bronze windows and the ceilings are coffered and intricate and also in bronze; the walls are covered in beautiful marbles which keep it cool year round without air-conditioning. The main spaces inside the door are seperated by large ornate bronze screens or fences copied from one in a European cathedral (so the story goes). The original childen's library was off of these large grand spaces and was a small cozy wood paneled room with a big fireplace and stained glass windows - one of the granddaughters of the original BJ Jones had a children's hour and would read books here (cute little old lady). I would always imagine this is my house, which rooms would serve which purposes (and had it figured out pretty well!)Years later I would meet her in college when I was an usher for our theater department and she had season tickets. This heiress's life mission was this library and children's education in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. The entire basement of this large magnificent building was devoted to childen's books - it was entirely marble clad as well and had a fountain (to a small boy you can imagine how cool that was). This was my favorite place to visit as a child and was among the first stirrings in me from a tender age to love beauty of spaces and in particular this type of Beaux Arts architecture which is still so important to me.So years later while also in college, I had a favorite house that was seemingly abandoned for years. I would drive BLOCKS out of my way to pass it and make sure no one had vandalized it or hadn't torn it down and one day -slowly - someone started to restore it.

I was simultaneously excited but disappointed that it wasn't me. Unfortuantely I don't have pictures of it in its current glory -but I have these shots of it under construction. It was a lovely chateauesque townhouse on a double lot with lots of windows and just beautifully done. Not too big, not too small - with a walled courtyard between the carriage house and the house in the rear.

Guess who's house this was....just guess.........

B.F. Jones 1st house before he built the huge mansion next to it (that you can see in red stone behind it) which is now part of the Local community college campus.

Small world, isn't it; everything is connected! Thank you B.F. Jones!