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William E. Snaman started big and continued big. “Born in Old Allegheny, he opened his first structural engineering office at the age of 20 in the Empire Building, where he remained for 35 years,” his obituary in the Post-Gazette said (“Snaman, 77, Store Builder, Architect, Dies,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 17, 1953).
He was born in Allegheny in 1879 and lived on the North Side all his life. His mortal remains are still there, because when he died in 1953 he was buried in the Union Dale Cemetery.
Snaman seems to have been a man of many talents. He designed everything from small private houses to immense warehouses—Father Pitt knows of two big department-store warehouses designed by Snaman, one for Rosenbaum’s and another for Frank & Seder. He also patented a number of inventions. As an artist, he had good taste but seldom stepped far outside the bounds of the expected—a recipe for success in conservative Pittsburgh.
A biography of Snaman appeared in a 1905 roundup of architects in the Press (“Able Architects the Authors of City’s Architectural Beauty,” Pittsburg Press, April 29, 1905), from which we reprint it here.
William Edward Snaman is one of the best-known architects in Greater Pittsburg, having been engaged in that profession for the past nine years. When 21 years of age Mr. Snaman scored his mark in the architectural world and attracted the attention of some of the most skilled architects and contractors in this section. He had scarcely reached his majority when he supervised the erection and drew the plans for the large insane asylum of the city of Pittsburg at Claremont, which was considered an immense project at that time. One of the features of Mr. Snaman’s work is drawing plans for apartments. In fact, Mr. Snaman is the creator of many of the up-to-date apartments in this community, and his reputation as a designer for this sort of structures is widespread. He has the praiseworthy distinction of having erected the first apartment house over three stories high in this city, and since then the demand fer this kind of home has increased in popularity in such proportions as to become a fad.
Some of his achievements are the construction of the Elks’ Temple, in Allegheny, and scores of other buildings. He has built about 250 buildings, ranging from cottages to colossal structures, and every one is a work of art, so to say. His specialty is the building of club houses, school buildings and apartments, and some of his work has been of the daring variety. Palatial residences and public schools have been designed by Mr. Snaman in such an able manner as to be highly commented on by men high up in the profession. Mr. Snaman was born in 1879, and has resided in Allegheny all his life time. He is a member of the B. P. O. Elks, Lodge 339.
When Snaman died, his obituaries remembered him as an architect of department stores above all else. In addition to his Pittsburgh projects, his obituary in the Post-Gazette tells us, he worked on “many department stores in Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland and Detroit.”
He died in 1953 at his home on East Street in a neighborhood that has been completely obliterated by progress.
Here are some of the buildings we attribute to William E. Snaman:
Howard, Delaware, and Norfolk Apartments (Eaglemoor Apartments), Highland Avenue at Bryant Street, Highland Park (1901)
E. D. Yost house, 303 Kearsarge Street, Mount Washington (1911)
First National Bank Building, 9th and Barnes Streets, New Kensington (1913)
Addition to Simonds Mfg. Co factory, Liberty Avenue & 25th Street, Strip (1913)
Addition to house at 1525 Termon Avenue, 1525 Termon Avenue, Brighton Heights (1914)
L. H. Smith House, 4265 Andover Terrace, Schenley Heights (1914)
Charles C. Cohne House, 216 Tennyson Avenue, Schenley Farms (1914)
Neeld House remodeling, 2812 Neeld Avenue, Beechview (1914)
Store and apartments, West Liberty Avenue at Tennessee Avenue, Dormont (1915)
House at 214 Tennyson Avenue, Schenley Farms (about 1915)
Garage at 214 Tennyson Avenue, Schenley Farms (1916)
Frank & Seder Warehouse, 1815 Boulevard of the Allies, Bluff (1923)
Rosenbaum’s warehouse, Beaver Avenue at North Avenue, Chateau (1924)
Dr. C. J. Styer House, 156 Marshall Avenue, Observatory Hill (1924)
Donahoe Building, 234 Forbes Avenue, Downtown