One of a small number of Gothic Revival houses on Pittsburgh’s North Side, 1410 Pennsylvania Avenue was constructed between 1865 and 1867. Some Gothic Revival elements of the house include the cross-gabled roof, steep gables and pointed window openings with drip mold window hoods.
In April 1867 the house sold to Robert Lea for $10,200. Lea was a prominent machinist and engine builder near the Point in downtown Pittsburgh. He and his wife Jane, lived at 1410 Pennsylvania Avenue until their deaths in the 1890s.
In 1900, their son Robert purchased the interest of the other Lea heirs and commissioned construction of a three-story addition with a mansard roof and Gothic Revival window openings to match the original appearance of the house. They had much of the interior of the house updated at that time and were also responsible for the addition of the house’s present porch.
Robert and Blanche Lea sold 1410 Pennsylvania Avenue in 1905. Subsequent owners began to use 1410 Pennsylvania Avenue as a rental property in the 1920s. The house deteriorated from that time on until it was rehabilitated in the late 1970s and 1980s.