Uniontown home has interesting history
John F. Brothers | 蘑菇视频
This house at 60 Stockton Ave., Uniontown, was built in 1919 and has 6,000 square feet with a finished third-floor office and a partially finished basement.
Old barrel and bottles were found in an old vault in a house at 60 Stockton Ave., Uniontown. They were leftover from prohibition days
When the house at 60 Stockton Ave., Uniontown, was built, computers were science fiction.
Now, they are part of the fabric of the home that has graced a city lot for more than nine decades.
Dr. Richard Kaplan owns the home. He operates a physical medicine and rehabilitation practice in Uniontown and is selling it because he has remarried.
However, despite its age, the house is more than up to date, combining the latest in technology with some exceptional features, one of which dates to the era of Prohibition, a national ban on the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol that was in place from 1920 to 1933.
As for its heritage, the house at 60 Stockton, Kaplan said, 鈥渨as built in 1919. The builder soon sold it (in 1923) to Dr. McHugh, a prominent surgeon in Uniontown who died in 1971. Dr. McHugh蘑菇视频 widow then lived in the home until she died in the early 1990s. I then bought the home with my former wife in 1995,鈥� Kaplan said.
He described the home as an Arts and Crafts style bungalow.
鈥淚t has six bedrooms, three full bathrooms, one half-bath and one quarter-bath. The house has about 6,000 square-feet, including a finished third floor office (with custom built-in bookshelves) and a partially finished basement.
鈥淭here is also a separate carriage house/garage with a partially finished children蘑菇视频 playroom upstairs. It has been updated to include central air conditioning and backup furnace,鈥� he added.
Kaplan, who grew up in New York but has been in Uniontown since 1995 when he set up his practice, also discussed some of the home蘑菇视频 amenities and features.
It has a year-round heated pool with two computer-controlled heating sources, a slide and underwater music.
鈥淭he pool is outdoors, but in the winter there is an inflatable bubble (like some health clubs use for tennis courts) and walkway to the rear entrance of the house. So it becomes essentially a winter indoor pool,鈥� Kaplan said.
鈥淭he remainder of the home is also computer-controlled for heating/air conditioning, lighting and temperature monitoring,鈥� Kaplan said.
In addition, it has a security system.
鈥淪o it has modern features to blend with history,鈥� Kaplan said.
Among its historic features, Kaplan said, the home has 鈥渓ots of custom work including hardwood floors, pocket doors, built-in cabinets with carving and stained glass.鈥�
In the heyday of the industry Fayette County was best known for, the heat source for the home was coal. However, bringing it up to more modern times, today蘑菇视频 source of heat is a high-efficiency natural gas furnace.
Revealing some of its functions from its early days, the house also has a 鈥渨orking historic chef蘑菇视频 call button in the dining room and a non-working historic intercom. It has custom plaster walls and more windows than one could count,鈥� Kaplan said.
And, one more bit of history: There is a walk-in vault in the basement that was used during Prohibition for a moonshine operation.
鈥淭he moonshine operation is still there,鈥� Kaplan said.
鈥淚t appears to be a rebottling operation where moonshine was obtained in big barrels and refilled into whiskey bottles. Equipment and a makeshift alarm system are still there. The room takes up about half the size of the front porch, under which it is located,鈥� Kaplan said.
The ban was mandated by the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Volstead Act set down rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited.
However, private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not made illegal. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment, on Dec. 5, 1933.
The movement creating Prohibition was led by rural protestants in both political parties and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League.
For more information about the home, call SWC Properties, 57 S. Beeson Boulevard, Uniontown at 724-425-7300.
Jim Pletcher writes a weekly real-estate story for the 蘑菇视频 from a variety of angles. If you have an interesting story about buying or selling a home in Fayette County and would like a story written about it, please contact 蘑菇视频 Executive Editor Mark O鈥橩eefe at 724-439-7569.