Over 20 years ago, an accountant named Jonnet Solomon was driving through Pittsburgh when she came across an abandoned home. After stopping to take a closer look at the home, she discovered a historical plaque outside.
Solomon decided to research the house in Homewood, where it is located, but she did not get very far. The locals knew nothing about the house, so in 2000 she purchased it to preserve it and eventually share its history.
The house was home to the National Negro Opera Company, founded in 1941 by Mary Cardwell Dawson. In the 1920s, a wealthy black businessman named William A. “Woogie” Harris owned the property. Even though he did not live in the house, he wanted it to be a space where Black Americans could live, gather, and stay.
Mary Cardwell Dawson was a classically trained opera singer who utilized the home. She successfully ran a music school and taught lessons from Harris’ home. Dawson rented the third floor of the house, which would become the headquarters for the National Negro Opera Company.
Despite the community not supporting the preservation of the home in 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the house one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. In 2021 multiple foundations and individual donors awarded the house with grants, playing a significant role in the progress of the house’s restoration.
Original post by Tim O’Donnell/National Trust for Historic Preservation
Read more here: https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-fight-to-save-the-national-negro-opera-company-house#.YgwLK-7MIq0
