Amid setbacks, hopes are high for the National Opera House in Homewood

The City of Pittsburgh and local nonprofits, including AARP and Pittsburgh Opera, gathered on Feb. 3 to celebrate ongoing efforts to restore the former home of the National Negro Opera Company. Art and artifacts celebrating the company and the legacy of its founder, Mary Cardwell Dawson, were unveiled and will remain on display at the City-County Building and online throughout February in commemoration of Black History Month.

Now stewarded by the Pittsburgh-based National Opera House nonprofit, the structure at 7101 Apple St. in Homewood that once served as NNOC’s headquarters has been stabilized but still needs significant repairs to reopen.

“AARP listed us as the No. 1 site to see before it’s gone,” NOH executive director Jonnet Solomon told Pittsburgh City Paper. Solomon and her late friend Miriam White purchased the house in 2000. She said the most urgent matter for the nonprofit is replacing the house’s roof. The building had been previously named one of the “most endangered” historic sites nationwide.

“Stabilization doesn’t last forever. It gets stabilized and then immediately, with weather, it starts deteriorating,” Solomon said. “And so, with the event at the City-County building, we’re saying this is a perfect time to get the building restored.”

The restoration process has faced a variety of roadblocks. Following the “endangered” designation by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, confusion about the house’s history led Solomon to withdraw a state-reviewed application for National Register of Historic Places status. The application was pulled for revisions, including a better accounting of the house’s relationship to the locally famous Harris family, who owned the house and rented space to Dawson during the NNOC’s formative years.

The withdrawal affected the NOH’s ability to receive different streams of grant funding and damaged some local relationships. Estimates to restore the house have also risen as the scope of the work becomes clear.

Solomon acknowledges the setbacks but remains focused on completing the project, which she expects will cost about $10 million.

“Yes, it took away millions of dollars in funding at the time,” Solomon says of the decision to pull the NRHP application, “but at the end of the day, when anyone looks in the archives of this project, every step of it will be done correctly.”

NOH has, in recent years, taken pains to connect with the Harris family and others familiar with the mansion’s history. With a clearer timeframe and renewed sense of purpose, the organization is now focused on making a case that the house is worth saving.

“When you fuse the stories, the history, the impact, the memories, the love, the joy, all of the things that come with that building, it changes your perspective on a particular structure,” NOH board president Khalif Ali told the City-County Building crowd on Feb. 3. “So we’re very happy to be here to honor the memory, the legacy, all of the experiences and the impact of the National Negro Opera House.”

By all indications, the city supports the efforts. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, through acting communications director Cydney Cooper, honored the efforts of Solomon, Ali, and others by proclaiming Feb. 3, 2025 National Negro Opera Company and National Opera House Day. The event also featured a performance by a steel-pan jazz band led by drummer Roger Humphries and a performance by Pittsburgh Opera resident artist Lauryn Davis.

“As we all know, February is Black History Month,” Cooper told the audience. “Mary [Cardwell Dawson] saw an opportunity. She saw the need to create opportunities for African American opera singers at a time when our talents and gifts weren’t valued or recognized, and, at a time of discriminatory housing, the National Negro Opera Company provided a safe space for African American artists.”

Amid applause, WAMO DJ KiKi Brown, who emceed the event, reminded the audience not to view the City-County Building exhibit as a one-off. “The celebration gets a little louder today, starting today, but let’s not allow the applause and the appreciation to go down to a whisper,” she said. “Let’s continue to apply this amazing effort to continue to bring legacy and life to Pittsburgh. It started here. We need to keep it here.”

Solomon is hopeful that the artifacts on display, which include framed programs from NNOC performances and photographs of concerts and the house, give locals a sense of urgency about restoring it to its glory when the Apple St. home teemed with activity and hosted the likes of Duke Ellington and Roberto Clemente.

“I would like people to take away the importance of preservation,” she told CP. “That’s the key thing and the importance of contributing — to make sure things are preserved in the right way so that history is told in a way that connects everyone.”

“I want people to see [that], when you tell a full story and you connect all of us, then it allows all of us to see ourselves in the past.”

David S. Rotenstein contributed additional reporting to this story.

This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2025.