There are some odd anomalies about this building, and old Pa Pitt can only point them out without explaining them all.
The main house seems to have been built as early as the 1860s; it appears on an 1872 plat map.
The current owners have added a nice bronze plaque saying that it was built in 1902 as the Jordan Hotel, but old maps make it clear that the 1902 portion is a small section in the rear that was probably added when D. C. Jordan bought it.
However, the bricks—now painted white—were grey Kittanning brick, which was not used in the 1860s. The Italianate details of the roofline would lead us to expect Italianate trim around the windows, but it’s not there.
It looks as though the brick shell of the house was rebuilt when Mr. Jordan bought it, without, however, changing the woodwork along the roof.
But it is also possible that the old house was completely replaced with a house that looks uncannily like a house from the 1860s updated for 1902.
That is as much as old Pa Pitt can say about the building, except that he is delighted to see it restored and refurbished for a new life as the Jane Street Café.
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