Hist0ric District

Thornburg Land Company

The Thornburg Land Company had two principal officers - Frank Thornburg (President) and his cousin David Thornburg (Secretary). The goal of the company was to develop the family farmland into a beautiful suburb near the city of Pittsburgh. Frank relocated from Iowa in 1899 to partner with David who had been raised on the farm and lived in Pittsburgh. Newspaper advertisements began in October 1899, house construction began in early 1900, and the company was officially chartered in July 1900.

Borough development began on Princeton Road and worked its way up to Lehigh and Stanford Roads. There were 66 houses built through 1910 with four destroyed by fire. After the Thornburg Land Company filed for bankruptcy in January 1911, construction stopped for many years.

For most houses, the Thornburg Land Company built according to Frank Thornburg’s design themes and sold the lots with finished houses. The lots sold from $600 up to $2,000. Over time, especially when upper Hamilton Road was developed in 1908 and 1909, buyers would purchase a lot and use their own house plans, but those houses were still influenced by Frank to be unique and Craftsman in style. The requirement that houses cost at least $2,500 in 1900 was quickly increased; most houses were purchased for $6,000 - $10,000, with a few larger houses going for prices near $20,000. To relate those prices to today, $10,000 in 1905 would be about $350,000.

The first owners/residents were executives from steel, coal, and railroad companies, small business owners, insurance and real estate agents, bankers, and lawyers. It was common for relatives and servants to live with families. This is when the trend of families living in different Thornburg houses began and continues today.

There were three primary architects of the historic houses: Samuel McClarren (second cousin to Frank and David Thornburg), Edward Butz, and Charles Willoughby. Most architects were identified from newspaper articles and advertisements that detailed the styles, named streets, and new house owners, or from Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation research as part of the National Register of Historic Places designation. Profiles of these architects and their other remarkable buildings in Pittsburgh are available in the Thornburg Library.