Repurposed residence
Betsie Trew, president and chief executive officer of Washington County Community Foundation, right, discusses the reuse of the nonprofit’s historic Samuel Brownlee House in North Strabane Township with Washington County Historical Society representatives Katie West and Clay Kilgore.
Mike Komondor of Monongahela, an employee of Johnston Remodeling of Washington, helps to renovate the historic Samuel Brownlee House as headquarters of Washington County Community Foundation.
Clay Kilgore, executive director of Washington County Historical Society, and the society’s curator, Katie West, center, discuss using the first floor of the Samuel Brownlee House as a museum with Betsie Trew, president and chief executive officer of Washington County Community Foundation.
EIGHTY FOUR – Betsie Trew had an instinct she was driving to the right place the moment she saw old-growth oak trees lining the driveway to an historic house in North Strabane Township.
An oak tree is the logo at the foundation Trew runs, a nonprofit that received the stately Samuel Brownlee House as a donation for its new headquarters.
“I thought, ‘This building is calling for me,'” said Trew, president and chief executive officer of Washington County Community Foundation. “It’s made for us.”
The foundation, currently based in Washington, was given the property valued at $400,000 by William and Saundra Stout, who used it until 2010 as home to Atlas Railroad Co. The two-story brick house along Route 519 near Brownlee Road sat vacant after the Stouts sold the company in 2010.
Samuel Brownlee, a prominent farmer, constructed the Greek Revival-style house in 1848 after his family emigrated to Washington County from Scotland. It was listed in 1972 on the National Register of Historic Places.
The foundation will locate its offices on the second floor, while the Washington County Historical Society will set up a museum on the ground floor.
The main focus of the exhibit space will not focus on a single family, but will deal with the upper-class Scotch-Irish farming families that were part of the county’s early history, said Clay Kilgore, executive director of the historical society.
“We’re absolutely thrilled,” Kilgore said.
He said the Brownlee House will allow the society to display items that have remained in storage for years because of limited space in its home, the LeMoyne House in Washington.
“It’s going to make the historical society more visible. It’s gives people a reason to come here,” he said.
Trew said the foundation, which raises endowments for grants and scholarships, is expecting “significant growth” after relocating to the house.
She said the Erie Community Foundation’s endowments rose from $20 million to $200 million after it moved into a donated mansion on Millionaire’s Row in that city.
“It elevates our stature in the community. It’s all about the image,” Trew said.
The foundation will invest $1 million in several phases to rehabilitate the house, and raise another $1 million for an endowment for its upkeep, she said.
It hopes to relocate its offices to the house by the end of the year. The museum should open there by mid-2015.