August Wilson's Boyhood Home To Be Renovated Into An Arts Center

With Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in town shooting FENCES, the first of HBO's series of film adaptations of all ten of August Wilson's American Century Cycle plays, this is an exciting time for Pittsburgh's Hill District.

Along with Gene Kelly and Andy Warhol, the playwright's home town can certainly boast a trio of artistic giants, but, as explained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's senior theatre critic, Christopher Rawson, August Wilson stands out because of the way Pittsburgh's gritty streets shaped his life, and its people, places and conflicts filled his art.

With the exception of MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, set in a Chicago recording studio, all of Wilson's plays are set in the Hill District where he grew up as Freddy Kittel, son of Frederick August Kittel and Daisy Wilson. He changed his name at age 20.

"For years," Rawson explains, "the house at 1727 Bedford Ave. in the Hill District has sat as a rebuke to Pittsburgh - derelict, crumbling, the windows rotting. Visiting theater artists and other pilgrims have been shocked at Pittsburgh's seeming indifference to the birthplace and childhood home of a great American."

The critic is part of the movement to correct this civic slight as a board member of the Daisy Wilson Artist Community, a not-for-profit that is rebuilding the August Wilson House, which, while the young boy lived there, was fronted on street level by Bella's Market, a small mom-and-pop store. The building will be transformed into studio space for the fine arts, music and literature hosting seminars, readings, receptions, exhibits and performances. The bedrooms will serve as residence for visiting artist (literary, musical or visual), chosen in collaboration with Pittsburgh universities.

The plan is consistent with the playwright's desire that if the building was to be preserved, he wouldn't want it to be just as a memorial. He wanted it to be useful.

The building is owned by Wilson's nephew, Paul Ellis, a lawyer who steered the house through the slow process of having it designated a historic landmark.

Reconstruction has been organized by preservationist and architect Rob Pfaffmann.

Fundraising plans were somewhat hampered by the existence of downtown Pittsburgh's August Wilson Center. "We're already giving to August Wilson," said some prospective donors.

"With all due respect to that center for African-American culture,' Rawson says, "which we have warmly supported, it has no more to do with the life of August Wilson than other buildings do with the famous names they bear - the Kennedy Center, say, or Lincoln Center. In contrast, the August Wilson House is at the very heart of its namesake's remarkable life story."

In May, renovations will begin by restoring the exterior to its appearance when Wilson lived there, from 1945-58. Severely deteriorated masonry will be restored brick by brick. Restoration of the interior will occur in phases.

Naturally, the spaces will be intimate, as the building will remain a house. But once again it will be a house that will nurture literature, music and the fine arts on the personal scale that August Wilson first encountered them.

Click here for the full article and visit daisywilson.org.