By William Kibler
If you think the abandoned and burned-out Russo building on Branch Avenue is a white elephant, imagine what Keith Junior High School might have become, had Calibre Residential not turned the massive structure into senior housing, after the Altoona Area School District moved out in 2008.
Advocates for that project, which was completed last year, convinced the Pennsylvania Preservation Board this week in Harrisburg to recommend the Keith building for the National Register of Historic Places.
They should learn soon whether the National Park Service will ratify that recommendation, creating a capstone on the $7.2 million adaptive re-use and permitting release of $1.4 million in historic tax credit funds the developer had been counting on.
"There's a zero percent chance this thing won't get [historic] tax credits," said Chris Kopac, a Calibre principal and co-owner of Keith Hilltop Terrace Apartments with Richard Kalin, a State College attorney. "A 1-in-100,000 chance," Kopac amended.
The ratification is merely "perfunctory," because Calibre complied with all the many "onerous" requirements of the National Park Service to preserve the historical integrity of the building, Kopac said.
"This is just a measure where they stamp it," he said.
Glenn Vernon, one of the architects who prepared the 35-page National Register nomination form, is "confident" of federal ratification, given the state Preservation Board's unanimous decision to recommend the listing and given earlier Park Service approvals of documents of eligibility, plan of work and verification of adherence to the plan.
"The owners did what they had to do," Vernon said.
Still, it's not a "slam dunk," he said.
A Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission staff review of the application and the Preservation Board's review were "gatekeeper" functions, but the NPS decision is the "keeper" function, PHMC spokesman Howard Pollman said.
"They should know by around Christmas," he said.
Calibre has already sold the historical tax credits, which supplemented $6 million in low income housing tax credits through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency that helped pay for the rehabilitation.
Sherwin-Williams Co. of Cleveland bought the historical tax credits, Kopac said.
The company wrote a check last year for $1 million, he stated.
Part of the deal was that Calibre had to use the company's paints for the project, for potential advertising. The company spends many millions on historic credits, Kopac said.
"I think they know what they're doing," he said.
State Sen. John H. Eichelberger Jr. spoke on behalf of the project before the Preservation Board.
"Such a beautiful building," Eichelberger, R-Blair, said. "If that would have sat there in disrepair for years and years ..."
It could have been like Lincoln Elementary School in Tyrone, which eventually needed to be razed.
"It's not an easy thing," Eichelberger said. "Fortunately, it worked out for the best [in Keith's case]."
The Historic Register listing should have happened much sooner, except that the architect Calibre first hired to apply for it died, Vernon said. That architect began work when the building was still a school, so Vernon's firm, Albertin Vernon Architecture of Loganton, hired last year, had to rewrite what he'd done. Some of the records the earlier architect had prepared were also lost, Vernon said.
Because the building is not within a historic district, Vernon had to justify inclusion the register as a standalone structure, which meant meeting a higher standard than for a "contributing" building.
He argued for its inclusion based on the building's representation of the ideals of the "Long Progressive Era" in education, which ended its 63 years in 1930, the year Keith opened.
"[The building] embodies a lot of the characteristics of that period," Vernon said. "Large windows, natural light and fresh air," with a classical design.
The building consisted of three distinct architectural elements dedicated to the three major elements of education, according to the philosophy of the time - academics along the main spine of the E-shaped building and arts and physical education on the two end lines, represented by auditorium and gym.
Keith was also a prominent landmark, near the top of the highest hill in the city, and an important anchor in a residential neighborhood, he said.
Vernon's firm had to create "context" with historical material on other district buildings, to show Keith's significance as "part of the broad pattern of education in Altoona," Vernon said.
He quoted a Mirror story about the building "ablaze with light" at its opening to demonstrate how the new building reflected the city's pride.
The ideals the school embodied then "continue to be evident" now, he said.
While the building is monumental and awe-inspiring - especially from the front, where the ground is lowest and the facade highest - Vernon said he didn't argue for Register inclusion on the basis of architecture, largely because the windows weren't original, which might have made it a difficult sell.
The NPS now has an easement that prevents Calibre from making modifications for five years, Kopac said.
"If I put a window in the left side and NPS finds out and doesn't like it, I lose the whole million dollars [of the historic tax credit]," he said.
After that five years, the company would be free to do what it wants, except that the low-income housing tax credits restriction apply for 30 years, he said.
He and his partner don't plan any changes anyway, wanting to own the building "forever," he said.
The school district administration was key to making the project happen, he said.
They didn't want it to sit empty and didn't want to demolish it, he said.
"I thank [Superintendent] Denny Murray for pushing me," Kopac said. "I tried to bow out of that deal many times."
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
