PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE • SUNDAY, JANUARY 24, 2021 • WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM
E-7
Learn how to grow great cocktails

al­ter­na­tive to in­va­sive pam­pas grass.

Who can re­sist an ap­ple tree in bloom? Cock­tail af­fi­cio­na­dos make use of ap­ples in hard ci­der and higher al­co­hol bev­er­ages. Be­cause ap­ples are low in sugar, hard ci­der is low in al­co­hol. Ap­ple jack, ap­ple brandy and ap­ple wines and li­queurs can be dis­tilled from ci­der as well.

A well-made cock­tail takes more than al­co­hol. An amaz­ing ar­ray of herbs, spices, fruits, nuts, bark, roots and flow­ers can be used as bo­tan­i­cal mix­ers and gar­nishes to add fla­vor and pa­nache. Le­mon ver­bena, el­der­ber­ries, cur­rants, cher­ries and even pep­pers will work. Imag­ine a gar­den

-fresh lav­en­der mar­tini or an el­der­flower cham­pagne cock­tail!

For more in­for­ma­tion and to reg­is­ter for “Spir­its in the Garden,” go to ex­ten­sion.psu.edu/​spir­its-in-the-gar­den. You might just find your­self plan­ning and plant­ing your gar­den around your fa­vor­ite drink this year.

Mau­reen Karl is a Penn State Master Gardener, a vol­un­teer pro­gram that sup­ports the out­reach mis­sion of Penn State Ex­ten­sion. Have a gar­den­ing ques­tion? Email it, along with pho­tos, to the Garden Hot­line, staffed by the Penn State Ex­ten­sion Master Garden­ers of Al­le­gheny County at al­le­ghe­nymg@psu.edu. They are an­swer­ing emails from home.

COCKTAILS, FROM E-6
Brie Arthur
Sorghum paired with sunflowers makes a dramatic visual screen that is a bird magnet.
Oil City mansion regains its grandeur

When they took over the proj­ect, the house had new win­dows, doors and wir­ing. It wasn’t nec­es­sar­ily the kind of house he would build, he said, but he couldn’t re­sist the chal­lenge of bring­ing it back and em­bel­lish­ing it.

“I have al­ways loved con­struc­tion and build­ing and this was a re­ally, re­ally big proj­ect,” he said.

The fam­ily ini­tially lived on the third floor, which had four bed­rooms, a sit­ting area and a small ef­fi­ciency kitchen. The Smiths bought the house next door and tore it down to pro­vide some breath­ing room.

“That space be­came our court­yard,” he said.

It took nearly three years to ren­o­vate the first two floors. Nine fire­places — two of them mar­ble — add warmth and gran­deur to the 11,200-square-foot home. “It’s re­ally closer to 13,000 square feet if you in­clude the base­ment,” noted Dr. Smith.

It is the at­ten­tion to de­tail that makes the in­te­rior ex­cep­tional.

“I know it looks very for­mal, but it is very com­fort­able,” he said.

His Real­tor noted the dou­ble-height re­cep­tion hall, in­laid hard­wood floors and a stained-glass trip­tych in the first stair­case land­ing. “The for­mal din­ing room has uphol­stered Na­po­leon green silk walls,” said Ms. Shetler-Libent.

“I have well over a mil­lion dol­lars worth of Per­sian rugs in the house and some of them are mu­seum pieces,” Dr. Smith said.

Other high­lights in­clude in­laid floors, a cherry wood-pan­eled li­brary, a glass con­ser­va­tory with ra­di­ant heated floors and a 200-bot­tle wine cel­lar. The house’s stone work was done by carver and ma­son An­gelo Gatto. Noth­ing was over­looked. Ev­ery­thing was ei­ther re­fur­bished, re­gilded

or re­stored.

“I will tell you this, the lon­ger it takes you to do some­thing — at least when

I do it — the more elab­o­rate it be­comes,” con­fessed Dr. Smith. “It kind of con­sumes you.”

Brit­ain’s Queen Anne, the name­sake for the house’s pe­riod style, would be very much at home among its cus­tom-made stained-glass win­dows, dam­ask silk wall­cov­er­ings and ceil­ings painted with clouds and blue skies.

“It is my pas­sion. It is what I en­joy do­ing,” Dr. Smith said. “It’s a per­fect house to live in, all four sto­ries if you count the base­ment.”

He has plans for an el­e­va­tor that he will give to the new own­ers.

Dr. Smith said the house is just 5 min­utes away from UPMC’s new hos­pi­tal. “There is great health­care here and a traf­fic jam here is if you have to sit through a red light more than once,” he said, laugh­ing.

So why are they sell­ing? The Smiths are ready for a new ad­ven­ture.

His dream of be­ing a cat­tle farmer did not die when he bought this house.

“It is time to down­size. I would like to get a small moun­tain farm for the pas­to­rial life­style.

“I’m re­ally a coun­try boy,” he in­sisted.

Pa­tri­cia She­ri­dan: pshe­ri­dan@post-ga­zette.com.

MANSION, FROM E-6
Stair­case land­ing’s stained-glass win­dows sport flo­ral mo­tif.
Bryan Reid/Reid Realty Imaging
The kitchen has a farmhouse sink topped by stained-glass windows.
Real estate transfers

Al­le­gheny County

PITTSBURGH


2nd Ward

Smith­field Oliver Phase 2 Part­ners L.P. to Scott and Su­san Lam­mie, Un­known Ad­dress, $759,000.

4th Ward

Rizwan Ja­bir trustee to Hsaio Hsien Hu and Chi­afei Liu, 144 N Dith­ridge St. Unit 214, $198,000.

6th Ward

Brad­ley Frost to Mark Doyal and Jon­a­than Fobear, 174 38th St., $635,000. Estate of Lois Boyle to 1301 Grand­view 1 LLC, 276 38th St., $140,000. Neilly Fam­ily LLC to 2700 Penn Ave Part­ners LLC, in­dus­trial site, 2700 Penn Ave., $450,000. Neilly Fam­ily LLC to 2709 Penn Avenue Part­ners LL, com­mer­cial prop­erty, 2707-2709 Penn Ave., $350,000.

7th Ward

Brigette Koreny to Na­tional Res­i­den­tial Nom­i­nee Ser­vices In, 5 Ba­yard Road Unit 816, $175,000. San­dra Al­ley to APB Prop­er­ties LLC, 5255 Ells­worth Ave., $632,500. Char­les De­poy to Ash­ley Anne Dunn, 5611 Elmer St. APT 302, $230,000. Paul Wang to Vi­vant Prop­er­ties LLC, 325 N Neville St., $710,000. Rod­ney McClen­don to Anish Gho­d­adra and Suman­tha Bhatt, 128 Reizen­stein Way, $900,000. Rushi Dave to Ryan Edward Fitz­ger­ald, 333 S High­land Ave. Apt 701, $304,750. Show Sung to Cos­tello Prop­er­ties LLC, 615 Sum­mer­lea St., $900,000.

8th Ward

Ger­al­dine Hoel to Hadar Dora Glazer, 365 S Wine­bid­dle St., $260,000.

9th Ward

Estate of Mary Ha­ba­jec to PD In­vest­ments LLC, 4737 But­ler St., $140,000. Wil­liam Bris­ton to Ben­ja­min Bris­ton and Chloe Page, 232 Fisk St., $112,500. Kath­leen Maz­zotta to Hub­pitch LLC, 295 Main St., $215,000.

10th Ward

Brian Ewing to Trey David Gant­ner and Alayna Ni­cole Tur­coni, 5216 Car­ne­gie St., $260,000. John Reese Jr. to Aspen As­soc. LLC, 5012 Dear­born St., $160,000. Ei­leen Min­erd to Cul­len Cap­i­tal LLC, 5224 Dres­den Way, $79,000. Wil­liam Klimov­ich to An­drew Witchey, 1133 Fair­field St., $272,900.

11th Ward

Sara Can­non to Brent and Hay­ley Rip­per­ger, 719 Mel­lon St., $295,000. Yvette Gant to PD In­vest­ments LLC, 512 N. Aiken Ave., $65,000. East Lib­erty Devel­op­ment Inc. to All­wyn Lamb, 5822 Rippey St., $492,500. Lashawn Lewis Mills to Shaun Mont­gom­ery and Paris Cole, 5639 Rural St., $150,000.

12th Ward

Estate of Aaron Evans to Boss Beech 1984 LLC, 6927 Ben­nett St., $12,882.

13th Ward

Nina Wil­son to Joann Har­grove, 7042 Ben­nett St., $110,000. Nancy Carter to Nel­son Paul Realty LLC, 7050 Mon­ti­cello St., $6,000.

14th Ward

Howard Bal­sam to Tung Phan and Tu Thi Quynh Le, 5450 Bea­con St., $577,000. Stu­art McLean to 1341 Beech­wood LLC, 1341 Beech­wood Blvd., $1,200,000. Estate of Lloyd Se­i­a­vitch to Daniel and Ter­rina La­val­lee, 5707 Melvin St., $330,000. Estate of Gisela Kress to Francene Op­pen­heimer, 5600 Mun­hall Road Unit 704, $241,500. Joseph Guiney Jr. to Wil­liam Robert Thorn­ton, 519 Saline St., $31,495. Ann Ni­cole Uland to Rich­ard Paul and Nancy Bar­nett Aran­son, 6404 Wilkins Ave., $588,000.

15th Ward

Rich­ard Scrima Jr. to 5034 Second Avenue As­soc. LLC, com­mer­cial prop­erty, 5035 Second Ave., $340,000. Mi­chael Toupin to Vic­to­ria Cos­tikyan, 29 Almeda St., $165,000. Alex Ku­lik to Brooks Weaver, 4131 Bee­h­ner Road, $160,000. Law­rence Pear­son to Aaron Ray King, 5111 Blair St., $20,000. Frank Ogrosky to RTH In­vest­ment LLC, 5265 Dyke St., $18,500. Estate of Ray­mond Meril Scott to David and Na­dezhda Kholodenko, 621 Ha­zel­wood Ave., $56,000. Win­ning Sky LLC to 2020 Prospect Inc., 420 Man­sion St., $62,000. Cas­san­dra Brandy trustee to Mas­tri­ano Prop­er­ties LLC, 9 Syl­van Ave., $20,000.

16th Ward

Court­ney Kuza to Amanda Ugo­letti, 202 Fern­leaf St., $72,500. Atal­lah Khalil to Tupta Real Estate LLC, 2410-1/​2 Le­ti­coe St., $85,000. Tho­mas Fuchel Jr. to Kevin Brown, 2914 Mary St., $306,000. Stan­ley Koko­cin­ski to 123 Norte LLC, 2114 Norte Way, $8,000.

17th Ward

In­ves­tors Deal LLC to Maxim Ivanov, com­mer­cial prop­erty, 301 E Car­son St., $206,000. James So­bier­alski to TCYPA LLC, 145 Pius St., $230,000. CSDC Ex­cur­sions LLC to Dy­lan Logan Tho­mas, 1926 Sid­ney St., $283,750.

18th Ward

Stan­ley Mi­chaels to Ricco Weir Jr. and Tracey Weir, 315 Cedar­hurst St., $16,000. Estate of Paula Mar­ga­ret Sow­der to Wil­son Home Hold­ings LLC, 449 Rux­ton St., $37,900. An­drew Hughes to Damian Link, 336 Tar­ra­gonna St., $189,900.

19th Ward

Molly Mur­rer to Santino Platt and Rich­ard Platt Jr., 239 Au­gusta St., $388,500. An­drew Jon Robin­son to Cae­sar Mak­houl, 614 Bel­laire Ave., $180,000. C Can­tor Fam­ily Partn. L.P. to PGH VIN LLC, prop­erty, 21 Boggs Ave., $50,000. Jos­peh Schultz to David De­leon, 640 Boggs Ave., $139,900. Amber Lynn Cousar to Mi­chael Ben­ja­min Si­mon and Me­red­ith Elaine Harf, 1714 Fal­low­field Ave., $156,050. Dana Ger­mi­naro to Dana Sieg­ler and Ga­bri­elle Rae Brinksy, 1233 For­tuna Ave., $128,000. Regis Far­rell to An­thony and Julie Seman, car deal­er­ship or park­ing ga­rage or car wash, 1000 Grand­view Ave. G75, $6,000. KPR Devel­op­ment Hold­ings LLC to JJT Ren­tals LLC, 17 Lelia St., $87,500. M & Y Pitts­burgh Rooms LLC to Emily McLaugh­lin, 238 Plym­outh St., $176,796.

20th Ward

Pedro Alvil­lar to Jorge Or­tiz, 1220 Gel­ston St., $144,500. Gemma Disalvo to Key­way Homes West LLC, 1423 Tyn­dall St., $45,000. Peter Brad­ley Rupp to Tyler Char­les Green, 1816 Wood­cove Pl, $177,500.

21st Ward

Manchester Citi­zens Corp. to Ben­ja­min Sekinger, prop­erty, 1708 Ful­ton St., $35,000. James Hoy to An­gela Biondi,

car deal­er­ship or park­ing ga­rage or car wash, 1517 Man­hat­tan St., $175,000.

22nd Ward

Mi­chael Tho­mas to Kris­to­pher Graham, 1116 Sher­man Ave., $238,500.

26th Ward

Sih Proj­ects LLC to Robin Lynn Young, 50 E Mar­shall Ave., $203,000. 2019 Cas­tle LLC to JV Kids LLC, 58 Wat­son Blvd., $12,500.

27th Ward

Seth Daniel Rei­ch­art to Ur­ban Im­pact Foun­da­tion, 3507 Flem­ing Ave., $60,000. AT ST 2 LLC Ser­ies 1 to George and Mar­isha Wadsworth, 106 Rich­barn Road, $243,000. Browne Prop­er­ties LLC to Luff­haus Prop­er­ties LTD, 2900 Shade­land Ave., $70,000. Ter­rance Hoff Jr. to Sarah McCabe, 3779 Wapello St., $175,000.

28th Ward

Mark Mel­ago to Sha Dar­jee, 1760 Chess­land St., $238,900. Eleanor Ruth Price to Don­ald Joseph Lankey, 117 Clearview Ave., $105,000. Stan­ley Mi­chaels to 2053 Ma­zette Land Trust, 2053 Ma­zette Pl, $22,000. Estate of Stan­ley Mi­chaels to 2140 Ma­zette Land Trust, 2140 Ma­zette Pl, $22,000. James Scott to Edward Paul and Shana Leann Azeem, 1314 Straka St., $146,000. Wilm­ing­ton Sav­ings Fund So­ci­ety FSB trustee to LaShawn De­n­ise Wil­liams and Jac­que­line McKen­zie, 1515 Sum­mer­dale St., $35,000.

29th Ward

Evan­gel­i­cal Lu­theran Church The Re­deemer to 5 Stars In­ves­ments LLC, com­mer­cial prop­erty, 1624 Browns­ville Road, $175,000. John Cresto Jr. to PGH In­ves­tors Group LLC, 107 Pop­lar­grove St., $100,000. Wil­liam Edwards to Kevin Scott and Rebecca Jane How­ell, 103 W. Wood­ford Ave., $75,000.

30th Ward

Mi­chael Grusch to Taelor Hol­mes, 243 Alice St., $125,000. Kevin Kuczma to Lloyd and Jen­ni­fer Har­vey, 239 Baus­man St., $13,500.

31st Ward

Nicho­las Hills to Linda Marie Vin­cent, 5157 Glen­hurst Road, $123,000. Wil­liam Em­bry to Ci­ty­life East LLC, 4700 Lougean Ave., $42,500. Jen­ni­fer Pa­puga to Jo­anna Marie Knerr, 4809 Lougean Ave., $119,900.

32nd Ward

Nathan Rager to Derek Sny­der, 1549 Green­crest Drive, $135,000. Jay­mie Jedlick to RP2ALL LLC, 2044 Ja­cob St., $120,000. Husam Bo­liha trustee to Oliver and Layla Lovelock, 2047 Ja­cob St., $70,350.

Aleppo

Wayne Becke­meyer to Gary Adam Bu­curen, 104 Lit­tle Hol­low Drive, $189,900. Estate of Ju­dith Weitz to Rocco Aloe and Jan­ice Kaza­las, 507 Se­wickley Heights Drive, $187,900.

Avalon

Julie Shura to Alen and Adis Tur­cin­hod­zic, 923 Cal­i­for­nia Ave. APT 406, $66,000.

Bald­win Bor­ough

Ja­cob Schrecen­gost to Emily Raeder, 5637 Sixth St., $135,000. Patrick Noone to Nanda Rai, 1353 Cathell Road, $192,000. Jef­frey Ar­nold to Nicho­las Ian Dev­ault, 3905 Fred­er­ick St., $206,000. Estate of John Pri­ore to Samuel and Col­leen Gre­gory, 416 Por­tia Drive,

SEE DEEDS, PAGE E-8