The Boggs Mansion was built in 1888 by H.H. Richardson, who designed the Allegheny County Courthouse. The mansion was built for Russell Boggs in 1888 and cost $88,000 to make (which averages out to around $3 million now. The mansion is home to about eight guest rooms and nine bathrooms.
Boggs made his money as the owner of a Northside department store and his mansion was his townhouse. His larger home is in what is today Sewickley Heights and was called Hollenberg. The mansion has since been restored to be a bed and breakfast for guests to experience the high life back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Boggs died at the home following a polo injury.
The mansion was actually set to be demolished until Jeff Stasko and Karl Kargle bought it in 1998 for $100,000. Since then, they managed to restore it to its original glory but are now set to retire and have the home up for sale.The asking price? A cool $2.5 million. There are multiple one-of-a-kind items in the home, including a European fireplace made of blood marble, which was usually reserved for royal tombs. There’s also rumored to be a painting underneath white-painted beams in the ceiling. All that’s needed to uncover it is the work of a professional to come in and strip off the paint to unveil what could potentially be a valuable item.
At one point Staskoand Kargle operated a restaurant in the mansion for a year, but ended up having to close it as it was too much work. They hope whoever buys the hotel will reopen it at some point, as a commercial kitchen is within the home.
The home is now formally known as “The Inn on the Mexican War Streets.”
I loved that store and preferred going there rather than the department stores across the river in Pittsburgh. I went with my step grandmother, Emms Garvin Bicker who was the niece of Boggs.
Emma Garvin Bicker