Let’s continue our story about our recent family road trip to Pittsburgh, PA – destination: Annual Pirogi Festival. First stop – Inn on the Mexican War Streets bed and breakfast.
Usually when we travel around, an alternative for us to hotels is bed and breakfasts (BnB). Knock on wood but we usually have really good experiences with BnBs. Great Inn Keepers, yummy breakfasts and clean room and bed – I mean, that’s what makes for good vacations for us.
The appeal with the BnBs, though, especially for me, is the history of the buildings. Sometimes they’d be historical homes or manors, and may or may not have some interesting history to them. Which takes us to the Inn at the Mexican War Streets.
First Impressions
After arriving into Pittsburgh, we followed our google directions to the BnB. Truthfully, in all transparency, we drove through what looked like the ghettos. We passed dilapidated buildings and rundown landscape and if it wasn’t for Google, we’d thought we went the wrong way.
But when we found the Inn on the Mexican War Streets, it was exactly like it was pictured.
The former home of department store baron Russell H. Boggs was built in 1888. In its glory days, according to Karl, the Inn Keeper, Boggs lived there with his wife and adopted daughter. Boggs and his wife also owned the largest department store at that time (name I can’t recall) that employed 1,200 employees. The largest department store in the United States in its time. When Karl and his partner took over the property, they had made it into a fine dining restaurant, tuxedos and ball gowns required for multi-course meals and red carpets. Until that closed up in the early 2000s, settling into what it currently is now, a quiet BnB that reminisces of its glory days.
Emma’s Room
We stayed in Emma’s room. Emma was Bogg’s adopted daughter as he and his wife did not have children of their own. Karl mentioned that Bogg’s was actually gay. Although he had a good marriage with his wife, they lived separate lives. While Karl knew tons about Boggs, he admittedly didn’t know as much about the wife or Emma. But he knew that Emma never got married.
I might be romanticizing our stay there a bit when I say that while we stayed in the Boggs mansion, I couldn’t help but feel pity for the Boggs. No living descendants, no living dynasty, just a legacy of this old manor and the once largest department store that no longer existed.
Karl mentioned that the neighborhood had indeed been a ghetto, but the city was currently going through gentrification and it was safe to walk outside. The mansion sat across the street from the Allegheny Common Park and the National Aviary Museum.
And Karl said that they were getting ready to put it up for sale soon.
Leaving Pittsburgh, PA
We had checked in for a two-night stay, time enough to explore Pittsburgh a bit and go to the Pirogi Festival at Kennywood Park. While Emma’s room was nice and the BnB was overall a lovely place, it really did feel like a monument to ages past. Beautiful sparkling chandeliers, antique furniture, marble fireplaces. I actually imagined that if I tried hard enough, I could hear the echoes of the lives that still lingered in the walls, in those rooms.
I swear it reminded me of Sunset Blvd, when Norma Desmond says her infamous line in the ending scene: I am ready for my close up.
When we finally left it to go home, it was with relief as we drove away because it felt as if we had traveled to the past for a spell.
While it was a nice getaway, Zen Master, Zen Mum and I were definitely ready to go home. We were more than ready to get back to modern day with our eyes on the road, always moving forward.
Coming Up: Sight Visits and the Pittsburgh Pirogi Festival
