A long-shuttered Catholic grade school in Turtle Creek is back in use, this time as 26 affordable apartments for young adults aging out of foster care.
The Allegheny County Housing Authority marked the opening with a ribbon-cutting for the Calvin Anderson Schoolhouse Apartments at St. Colman, named for former Pittsburgh Steeler Calvin Anderson, whose family supported the project. KidsVoice, an advocacy organization that works with youths in the foster system, said stable housing gives young adults a foundation to address healthcare, court issues, and other needs.
One resident, Laeonta Davis, said secure housing supports her plans to keep studying at Carlow University while working nearby, with a goal of becoming a social worker.
For the project team, the mission went beyond housing units. The old St. Colman’s is a Gothic Revival building with pointed arches, detailed masonry, a steep tile roof, and a distinctive cupola, said Rob Sleighter, president of Sleighter Design, the lead design firm on the conversion. He said the roof was leaking badly, and storms kept driving interior damage, putting the building’s future at risk.
That timeline matters to mason contractors who take on adaptive reuse work. When water intrusion keeps advancing, preservation work turns into emergency stabilization fast, and every season of exposure adds to the scope inside and out.
Funding included $2.4 million from Allegheny County and $2.6 million in pandemic relief funds through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, along with other public and private sources. A prior WESA analysis found more than a dozen former Pittsburgh Public Schools now operating as apartments, showing how school conversions have become a real lane in the region’s housing and preservation work, even with the higher cost and complexity that come with long-vacant buildings.
Read the full, original article from 90.5 WESA here.