(soothing music) (lively music) - It was early May in Mystery Manor.

It was a mystery.

- We identified this site as having national significance.

- [John] It was used to entertain, and it was used to host people.

- You should start naming names; the people who came through this house, who learned music, who stayed here.

- [John] People like Cab Calloway, - [Dan] Roberto Clemente, Lena Horne, Ahmad Jamal, - [John] Sarah Vaughan: when she would come into Pittsburgh, she would stay there.

- If the walls of that house could talk, - They would talk all day long.

- Oh boy, (laughs) that would be wonderful, wouldn't it?

Now that would be wonderful.

(melancholy piano music) - [Narrator] Barbara Lee lives in a nursing home now and needs oxygen around the clock.

- My nephew is doing fine, (mumbles) - [Narrator] In her wheelchair, she passes the rooms of others, where inside, memories are fading but not Barbara's, especially her memories of a place just a few miles away: 7101 Apple Street.

- We had a glorious time in that house.

It was gorgeous: stained-glass windows.

- [Narrator] But those windows were broken or stolen long ago.

- [Barbara] And up on the third floor was the ballroom of dancing.

(romantic music) - [Narrator] And all signs of life are long gone.

- It was quite a showpiece, and it could be again.

- [Narrator] Barbara Lee hopes so; she has a special connection to this grand old Victorian which sits on the border of Pittsburgh's Homewood and Lincoln-Lemington neighborhoods.

Many Pittsburghers don't know it, but the National Negro Opera Company started in this house.

Even fewer know the story of the woman who founded it: Barbara's aunt: Mary Cardwell Dawson.

- I was Aunt Mary's secretary, her confidante.

I traveled with her.

(soothing music) - [Narrator] And it was quite a journey for Mary Cardwell Dawson.

During an era when few African-Americans had access to opera and classical music training, this woman would teach and inspire generations.

- Aunt Mary was delightful.

She was quite a musician.

She could do it all.

- [Narrator] Mary Cardwell was raised in Munhall but had to leave the Pittsburgh area to further her dream of a musical education.

- She couldn't get into Pitt, so she had to go to New England to get into a university.

(calming music) - [Narrator] By 1925, Mary had degrees in piano and voice from the New England Conservatory.

She later studied in Chicago, New York, and hoped for a career in opera.

- [Barbara] She was a singer and impresario.

- [Narrator] But America wasn't ready for a Black opera singer.

Mary would have to pass her dream down to others.

- She used to say all the time, "The richest child is poor without a musical education."

(energetic classical chamber music) - [Narrator] So Mary Cardwell Dawson taught.

Her school of music boasted an impressive faculty and trained hundreds of young African-Americans, first on Frankstown Avenue, then later, Apple Street.

Students came from all over western Pennsylvania to learn from Madame Dawson.

She stood barely 5 feet tall in high heels, but had a bigger-than-life reputation.

- Tough: she was a hard taskmaster that everybody would tell you that.

She got the results.

(lively music) - [Narrator] In the 1930s, she formed the Cardwell Dawson Choir, getting rave reviews wherever they performed.

- [Barbara] The critics, they loved her.

When Mary Cardwell Dawson sent out a choir, it was a choir.

- [Narrator] Along with the awards came a prestigious invitation to perform at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and she was elected president of the National Association of Negro Musicians.

- [Barbara] Her reputation was all over the country, you see.

- [Narrator] Talented, smart, and charming, Mary spent years networking, holding fundraisers, selling tickets.

Her devoted husband Walter pitched in, too.

His salary as a master electrician and Mary's drive kept the music going.

(dramatic singing in foreign language) In 1941, Madame Mary Cardwell Dawson took that music to a new level.

She founded the National Negro Opera Company, opening new doors behind this third floor window in Pittsburgh.

- [Barbara] Many of her students went on to really do fine things.

(inspiring music) Ahmad Jamal, now he was one of Aunt Mary's pupils.

Bobby McFerrin, he was the first Black male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera house.

- [Narrator] Madame Dawson worked with pioneering soprano, La Julia Rhea, who was the National Negro Opera Company's first Aida.

Mary mentored Napoleon Reed, a former stockyard worker, who later went on to Broadway.

The opera company expanded, with chapters in Chicago, New York, and Washington.

Here's a photo of Mary with Richard Nixon in 1955.

This is a check to the opera company signed by Eleanor Roosevelt.

And as Mary's national reputation grew, the house on Apple Street remained a beacon in the Black community of Pittsburgh.

(energetic music) - Anything that was going on for the community, it kicked off there.

- There were some great business deals done there; the entertainment there was first class.

- [Narrator] John Brewer is a Pittsburgh historian now piecing together the legacy of this old house, and it's a legacy dating back to 1894.

The first owner on record, George Shaffer.

(lively music) Much more, though, is known from 1930 on, when William "Woogie" Harris bought the house.

Harris would partner with another well-connected businessman, Gus Greenlee, using the home to host high society, and with the famous or infamous always coming and going, the house earned the nickname "Mystery Manor."

- [John] It was a mystery; it was an enigma to many people who lived in that area.

It's seated up rather high, so therefore you get the feeling of royalty when you walk around that house.

- [Narrator] Harris and Greenlee were like royalty in the community, and they kept the house humming, with social events, benefits, and parties.

- Woogie Harris and Gus Greenlee were, in fact, the bank of the Black community.

I guess the proper word would be "digitariats."

Woogie Harris was, in fact, a numbers man, as was Gus Greenlee.

They were the driving force behind the clubs.

They were the driving force behind the Negro baseball teams.

- [Narrator] Greenlee's wife, Mamie, opened a top-shelf tea room in the house, and Mystery Manor welcomed people who weren't welcome elsewhere.

- The hotels were segregated.

There were always very prominent people coming in town.

- [Narrator] People like Lena Horne, Joe Lewis, and Roberto Clemente.

- The house became a refuge for African-American artists and for professionals who were not able to get accommodations at the hotels.

There's no other place in this Homewood (mumbles) district that has that kind of richness, that kind of history.

- [Jonnet] As I was just driving by one day, I saw the plaque, got out of my car, read the plaque, and I was amazed that something like this was in Pittsburgh.

(melancholy music) - [Narrator] By now, the surrounding neighborhood was not what it once was.

On Apple Street, owners had come and gone.

The house was empty when Jonnet Solomon bought it from the bank in 2000, along with a friend, Miriam White.

They paid $18,000 with hopes of raising more money to reopen as a community center with another music school and tea room.

- Starting a non-profit, running a non-profit, and it's a huge task.

It's a lot bigger than I thought it was.

- [Narrator] Among the challenges, potential investors had little or no knowledge of the history here.

Previous owners had sectioned the house into apartments, removed the grand staircase, sold most of the original fixtures.

With no money for improvements, high hopes have turned into frustration.

- It's even been suggested that we tear it down and rebuild, but it wouldn't be the same.

It wouldn't be the same.

- [Narrator] Good intentions dissolved by decay and vandalism.

- [Jonnet] People have just basically ripped the house apart.

- It's just a piece that should be preserved.

- And everyone in the world should know that a treasure like this exists in Pittsburgh.

(energetic music) (construction noises) - We have a few more board-ups to do on the lower level.

- Once it's filled-up, (mumbles) - These are kind of unique windows.

- [Narrator] Saving local history is what these people do.

- Hopefully, that's sturdy.

- Dan Holland runs the Young Preservationist Association of Pittsburgh.

- We call ourselves the Young Preservationists to get more young people involved, but all we're trying to do is continue the legacy that the older generation has created.

- [Narrator] On this day, Dan's volunteers are joined by RenewPittsburgh, yet another community group that stepped up when they heard the house was in danger.

- And now our effort is to start to build a coalition to try to bring this property back to what it deserves to be.

- [Narrator] Outside, they've boarded up windows and gotten rid of things that aren't worth saving.

(drawers rustle) - There are some of the details.

- [Narrator] Inside, they take stock of what is.

- In here, some of the original paneling.

And it's a beautiful floor; this is oak.

This plaster is down to the lath, and that can be replastered.

- [Narrator] It can be restored, but not without more help and lots of money, an estimated $2 million.

- That's going to take a little bit of work.

You know, in the grand scheme of things, $2 million for a house that has national significance on a property of roughly 4 to 7 acres of land, it's worth the investment.

I think they're from the top part, from the inside of the I see potential; I see this place restored.

I see people coming in and out of it, using it.

I see a community asset.

I see the pride and hope of Pittsburgh.

- [Narrator] Pride and hope that passed through this house decades ago, with the likes of Mary Cardwell Dawson.

(somber music) When Madame Dawson died in 1962, her National Negro Opera Company died too, but its spirit is very much alive.

- Oh yes, I think there's music coming out of that house.

- It was like unfinished business, you know, the music played on and played on and just waited for someone to pick up the chorus.

(romantic music) - I hear the grand piano going.

- [Narrator] Barbara Lee has kept that music in her memory, kept her Aunt Mary's wedding ring on her finger.

- She left a love of good music, an appreciation of the arts.

A legacy that is worth fighting for.

- [Narrator] It's a fight that Barbara Lee has entrusted to the next generation.

- I sometimes feel just overwhelmed that we have something that's this rich, and many people still don't know about it.

- This house is so important; to lose it would be a huge loss for Pittsburgh.

- I never think that thought; I always think of what can we do to keep this house standing, and it's still here, so it's still possible.

(soothing music)