Carriage House and Summer Kitchen

The carriage house of Harmony Society leader George Rapp stood at the corner of Thirteenth and Church Streets, was converted into a two-story dwelling and rented out in the 1890s, and was returned to a one-story carriage house by architect Charles Stotz in 1962; over time it served as the entrance to the historic site, later as a gift shop after restoration, and now houses vehicles owned by the Harmony Society. The house was also linked to the 1922 drowning of seven-year-old Wayne Lias, who lived nearby on Wagner Avenue with an extended family of ten, was last seen alive at 5:15 p.m. on August 23, 1922 on Thirteenth Street outside his aunt and uncle's home at the carriage house location, and was found dead in the pond at 4 a.m.; his father, Alton Lias, sued the Harmony Society Historical Association and was awarded $1,500 after testimony that gates were usually closed and boys had been chased from the property, while Wayne's mother, Ruby Lias, remained deeply depressed, the family had another son, David, in 1926, and she died in 1929 of mitral stenosis. The summer kitchen, an outbuilding of the George Rapp house, was likely used in warm months to keep the main house cooler during cooking, and Rapp's granddaughter Gertrude used its built-in brick stove to make apple butter, preserves, jellies, quince juice, and medicine; the rest of the building served for wood and tool storage, a workshop, and a chicken coop, and because much of its original architectural integrity had been lost, Charles Stotz demolished and rebuilt it in 1962 except for the two cook pots, chimney, and brick floor. Stotz, known for documenting and preserving Western Pennsylvania architecture, wrote The Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania in 1936 and worked intermittently on restoring Old Economy Village from 1937 to 1965 to reflect Economy as it stood around 1830, while also working on Drake Well, Fort Ligonier, Fort Pitt, Hanna's Town, the Old Stone House, Compass Inn, Johnston Tavern, and the Neill Log House; the architecture firm founded by his father Edward Stotz Sr. continued operating in Pittsburgh as MacLachlan, Cornelius and Filoni Architects & Planners.

Ambridge, Pennsylvania · United States