Jacob Weinman Mansion

After moving from the log cabin on what is now Weinman Street, Jacob Weinman moved to this beautiful residence on Franklin Ave in 1889. Weinman operated a coal mine in the area and worked his way up from a small log cabin to this mansion.

The Weinman Mansion was comprised of eleven rooms and a garage house on the property. The foundation of the house was built from stones taken from other properties of Mr. Weinman. The ceilings were approximately twelve feet in height. The mantels on the first floor were all of a very heavy black slate.

In the dining room there was a large window fronting on Franklin Avenue. The glass of this window was a yellowish or topaz color and very finely etched. The double front doors had panes of red glass which are also etched.

The stairway to the second floor was all black walnut, and the center hall was paneled to the second floor with carved wood panels which Mr. Weinman had purchased from a steamboat on the Monongahela River running from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. The stairway was eventually demolished.

The front porch extended from the entrance on Franklin Avenue around the house on Coal Street to the rear of the building, but it was also demolished.

At the rear of the property, there was a carriage house in which the driving horses were kept and, of course, the carriages and two sleighs with quarters for the driver and coachman on the second floor of the building. The carriage house was eventually torn down.

This property was sewered to the Nine Mile Run down to what is now Mill Street. Mr. Weinman claimed that his was the first house in Wilkinsburg to have a private bath therein and sewered as above stated.

Mrs. Anna Barbara Weinman, the wife of Jacob Weinman Sr., died therein in June of 1925, and Mr. Weinman died in the premises in July of 1926.

The house was later sold to Wolfe Funeral Home and a daycare currently occupies the site where you can still get an idea of what the original structure looked like.

Source:
Cratty, J. W. (1970). N/A. Meeting of the Historical Society, 1–3. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vBGv_8vE_5BEWkjKzVUm5YnVcrWVSmxF/view?usp=sharing