Cardello Electric Supply and Lighting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Posted by: sherpes
N 40° 26.988 W 080° 01.662
17T E 582448 N 4478136
Headquarters of a electric and lighting supply company
Waymark Code: WM4RA0
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 09/23/2008
Views: 15
Office building with the West End Bridge as background.
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The Cardello Building dates back to the Civil War. The building is the original 1864 site of the Excelsior Coffin and Casket Works, in what was then the City of Allegheny. The firm became the National Casket Company by the turn of the century, and the building served as its headquarters, factory, and warehouse. National Casket was one of the first manufacturers of mass-produced caskets. At the height of its business in the early 1900s, National Casket shipped more than 52,000 caskets worldwide each year, making it the largest coffin manufacturer in the country.
National Casket moved its operations to Kentucky in the mid-sixties, and the building was used principally as a warehouse. Cardello Electric first leased space in the building in 1968, and by 1983, they purchased this neighborhood landmark and architectural treasure.
The building still bore the features of its Industrial Age heritage: kilns, ovens, conveyers, presses, and water towers. Removing the casket-manufacturing equipment involved three years of demolition and labor. To help defray the costs of this patient process of renovation, the Cardello family leased portions of the building as short-term storage space. Once completing that task, the work of converting this massive warehouse space into offices began.
History was not sacrificed, however, for the sake of modernization. The Cardello Building combines state-of-the-art facilities with a number of industrial-era architectural features. The large wood beamed ceilings and exposed brick walls are still visible throughout the building. Manufacturing artifacts, such as unique hardware, fire doors, and iron gates have been carefully preserved. This design of blended eras, combined with the Cardello Building's many tenant amenities, has made it a unique, urban office setting, and the only one of its kind in Pittsburgh