monroevillehistorical.org

Bradley House in 1941

Bradley House in 2007

Set on a raised lawn on Saunders Station Road, this house is one of the more distinctive in Monroeville.  It began life as a modest farmhouse, built on a stone foundation about 1860.   The core of the simple farmhouse remains, but over the years the basic design has been elaborated upon by a series of owners.  Additions have included an indoor kitchen, an enclosed porch, and an inviting wrap-around portico.  This neo-classical feature, with its Doric columns and intricate entablature, lends the house a certain stately air.

The property, on the eastern side of Saunders Station Road, was owned by the Simpson family in the years after the Revolutionary War, and in 1825 Joseph Simpson sold his piece to Richard Bradley, who probably built the original farm house in the latter part of the 1800s.  Upon his death the property passed to Charlotte Beatty, and then to her son, James Beatty.

           In 1912, James Beatty lost the land, and through the subsequent sheriff’s sale (which included the house and barn), the property passed to Norris Cameron. In 1914, Cameron sold the land to Robert McElroy, who kept it until 1929, when he sold the land to Howard Walker who lost the farm in the Great Depression.

The house was said to have fallen into disrepair during the depression years, so that by the time the farm was bought by George P. Smith in 1939, the house was in need of extensive repairs.  Mr. Smith was a businessman who owned a successful plastering business in nearby Wilkinsburg.  It was he who oversaw the renovations, including the extensive use of interior plasterwork to create gracefully curved ceilings and plaster Cornish moldings throughout the house.  

The Smiths continued to run the farm, one of many in the area at that time.  In time, George Smith was to sell off much of the 350 acre farm to local developer Tom Mistick for his planned housing tracts.  And in 1953, the Smiths sold the house and the remainder of the farm to Frederick and Ruth Gimpel.  They continued to keep horses on the farm property, and eventually Frederick Gimpel sold the place to Robert and Pamela Price in 1999.  The Prices have continued to improve the house while taking care to be true to its roots and its pleasing, if eclectic, architectural design.