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A building long regarded as one of Downtown's leading eyesores was the product of one of Pittsburgh's most celebrated architects.

The Penn-McKee Hotel --- largely vacant since 1985 and slated for demolition at taxpayer expense --- was designed by Benno Janssen, better known as the architect of Pittsburgh's Mellon Institute, William Penn Hotel and Washington Crossing Bridge, and Ligonier's Rolling Rock Farms.

That Janssen's firm designed the Penn-McKee was all but forgotten until this reporter stumbled across a Daily News clipping from 1925 in the archives of the McKeesport Heritage Center.

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A visit to Carnegie Mellon University's architecture archives, which holds Janssen's original drawings and blueprints, confirmed that the Penn-McKee was the work of the 1922 partnership between Missouri-born, Paris-trained Janssen and William York Cocken.

Together, Janssen and Cocken were commissioned in 1925 by McKeesport's Community Hotel Corp. to design what the Daily News called "a community giant ... a peaceful shrine of domesticity combined with the gay and restful recreational delights of a social center."

Born in St. Louis, Janssen studied architecture at the University of Kansas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in France. In 1905, he returned to the United States to work for a Pittsburgh architect, setting up his own firm a year later.

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His most famous work might be Mellon Institute, the monolithic research laboratory on Forbes Avenue in Oakland. Constructed during the depths of the Great Depression, that building's design was inspired by classic Greek architecture. Its four sides are lined with 62 four-story columns, each hewn from a single piece of stone.

Other buildings designed by Janssen include the Longue Vue Club in Verona, the Keystone Athletic Club (now part of Point Park University) and several homes for prominent Pittsburghers, including department store mogul Edgar Kaufmann.

Upon Janssen's death in 1964, Pittsburgh historian Jamie Van Trump --- one of the founders of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation --- called Janssen an artist "of considerable talent if not of genius" and "the most facile and talented of Pittsburgh's eclectic architects" of the early 20th century.

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Unmentioned in Van Trump's review of Janssen's works was McKeesport's Penn-McKee, possibly because of its modest scale, possibly because its distance from Pittsburgh's more fashionable neighborhoods left it "out of sight, out of mind."

But the Penn-McKee --- though fading in the 1960s --- remained a point of pride for McKeesporters, who boasted of the prominent guests that had visited, including former President Harry Truman.

Famously, in April 1947, freshmen congressmen John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon debated the Taft-Hartley Act in the Penn-McKee ballroom, in the first-known public appearance together by the future political rivals.

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McKeesport also gave generously to fund the Penn-McKee's construction. It was built by the Community Hotel Corp., which was chartered in 1924 with the help of the McKeesport Chamber of Commerce.

The corporation sold 5,000 shares of stock at $100 each to local residents and business owners to raise money for the hotel's construction.

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Major contributors to the hotel's construction included banker R.F. Dulany, real-estate developer Gilbert F. Myer, and furniture-store owner R.E. Stone.

Stone's firm supplied furniture and carpets for the hotel's 99 rooms, while Helmstadter's Department Store supplied dishes, glassware and bedding, and K.J. Stickrath plumbing installed the boiler, kitchen and laundry equipment.

The general contractors were McKeesport's Blair & Mack Co., while the name "Penn-McKee" was chosen in a contest. More than 1,500 people entered.

Although many people suggested "Penn-McKee," the winner was the first one to submit the name. Callie M. Frye of Grant Street won the grand prize of $25.

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"The Penn-McKee means that McKeesport will leap from a backward community ... and take its place with other progressive cities whose attractiveness has never failed to be enhanced by the erection of a modern hotel," editorialized the Daily News on March 20, 1926 under the headline "Penn-McKee Hotel Will Be Credit to City and Owners."

"Only geological changes of the years can destroy it," the newspaper said. "The destructive force of fire cannot make any in-roads, for it is fire-proof throughout."

But more destructive than geology were changing times and a series of changing owners.

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By the 1970s, guests found the hotel's rooms too small and too old fashioned, and the Penn-McKee's distance from the Pennsylvania Turnpike or other major highways left it hard pressed for business.

Community College of Allegheny County rented many of the rooms, then vacated the hotel when South Campus in West Mifflin was completed.

The money-losing Community Hotel Corp. sold the Penn-McKee to former city councilman Michael Newman, who had been embroiled in several scandals, including a federal wiretapping investigation.

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At one time, Newman planned to turn the Penn-McKee into part of an outdoor shopping plaza by demolishing the neighboring Famous Department Store, which he also owned.

That proposal went up in smoke in 1976, along with the Famous, in the multi-million dollar fire that devastated the city's business district.

The once-grand Penn-McKee became a flophouse patronized by alcoholics, the elderly and prostitutes, whose activities led to a raid by city and county police in the fall of 1980.

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In 1981, Newman sold the hotel to the non-profit Winter's Haven Inc., which envisioned turning the Penn-McKee into an assisted living facility. Unable to afford renovations and unwilling to seek public help, Winter's Haven closed the doors in 1985.

Storefronts used by AMVETS Post 8 and former state Rep. Emil Mrkonic remained occupied for a few more years, until a series of deliberately set fires forced the complete closure of the building.

The Penn-McKee is currently owned by a defunct corporation called See Bee Inc., which purchased the property in 1987. The firm's registered address is a Pittsburgh law office, but tax bills are sent to Edward L. Kemp Co. of 10th Ward.

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According to court records, thousands of dollars in unpaid school, city and county property taxes are owed by See Bee on the Penn-McKee.

In June 2008, White Oak evangelist Jim Armstrong told the Almanac that his ministry, Voice of the Bride, had purchased the hotel. But no deed transfer was ever recorded, according to county officials, and the liens remain unsatisfied.

In the meantime, the elements have taken their toll on the Penn-McKee, which has numerous broken or open windows. Part of a decorative brick wall has collapsed into Haber Alley, behind the building.

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Declaring the Penn-McKee a health and safety hazard, officials last year condemned the property for at least the second time and put it onto the city's demolition list.

Mayor Jim Brewster has estimated that demolishing the hotel will cost in excess of $150,000.

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Full Disclosure: The author is a member of the board of directors of McKeesport Heritage Center, which is exploring the possibility of trying to preserve commercial buildings in the city for re-use. Articles at www.tubecityonline.com do not reflect the views of McKeesport Heritage Center, its directors, staff or volunteers.