418 Maple Street, Pittsburgh
House history report · prepared for the owners · every name, date and record below is invented to show the shape of a real report.
In one paragraph
418 Maple Street was built in 1911–12 for Josef and Anna Kovach, a Hungarian-born steel-mill roller and his wife, on a lot they bought from the Maple Land Company when the street was still being laid out. The Kovach family stayed 34 years. Walter and Irene Doyle bought it in 1946 and raised three children there; the house passed to their daughter in 1984 and stayed in that family until you bought it in 2024. In 113 years it has had four families and, as far as the records show, has always been one house.
Owners
| Year | Owner | Record |
|---|---|---|
| 1911 | Maple Land Company → Josef & Anna Kovach | Deed book 1702, p. 311 (lot only) |
| 1946 | Kovach estate → Walter & Irene Doyle | Deed book 2890, p. 44 |
| 1984 | Irene Doyle → Margaret Doyle Hale | Deed book 6911, p. 201 |
| 2024 | Margaret Hale → you | Your own deed |
Who lived here
1920 census
Josef Kovach, 42, roller in a steel mill, born Hungary, arrived 1903, naturalised; Anna, 39, born Hungary; children Mary 16, Stephen 14, Elizabeth 11, John 7 and Helen 3, all born in Pennsylvania. The house is owned, with a mortgage.
1930 census
Josef, Anna, Stephen (now 24, a machinist), John and Helen. A lodger, Michael Toth, 29, a labourer, is also listed. The house is valued at $6,500.
1940 census
Anna Kovach, widowed, 59, with Helen, 23, a stenographer. Owned, valued at $4,000.
1950 census
Walter Doyle, 36, a streetcar motorman; Irene, 33; children Patricia 8, Thomas 5 and Margaret 1.
The street and the house on the maps
1905 plat
The block is drawn as open land of the Maple Land Company, subdivided into 40 ft lots; lot 18 is yours.
1927 fire-insurance map
A two-storey brick dwelling with a wooden front porch and a rear frame porch, a one-car frame garage on the alley. The neighbours on both sides are also brick; two houses across the street are frame.
1951 aerial photograph
The garage is gone; the rear porch is enclosed.
In the city directories
1913: Kovach Josef, roller, h 418 Maple. 1919: Kovach Josef, roller Carnegie Steel, h 418 Maple. 1935: Kovach Anna (wid Josef), h 418 Maple; Kovach Stephen, mach, same. 1948: Doyle Walter J (Irene), motorman Pgh Rys, h 418 Maple. 1962: Doyle Walter J, retired.
In the newspapers
14 June 1952
A wedding notice: Patricia Doyle married Robert Keane “at the home of the bride's parents, 418 Maple Street”, with a reception in the garden.
3 March 1968
A small item on the street's new sewer line names the Doyles among residents who petitioned the council.
Not found
The original building permit (the city's permits before 1920 are not online; the city archive may hold a paper copy). Any photograph of the house before the 1951 aerial. The Kovach family's 1912 mortgage (the lender's name is on the deed; the mortgage book is not indexed online). Josef Kovach's death (between the 1930 and 1940 censuses; the state index for those years is not free online).
Records read
County deed index and deed books (online index); federal census 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950 (free images); city directories 1913–1962 (free library scans); fire-insurance map 1927 (free national library scan); 1905 plat (county map collection); 1951 aerial (state archive); two newspaper archives (free, national and local). In a real report each line carries the link or the book and page.