Beloved former restaurant on the auction block
County residents of a certain age who love home cooking will recall the unusual pink buildings on Route 528 in Connoquenessing Township signaling their arrival at The Homestead Restaurant.
That once-popular eatery along with its outbuildings and the property's varied contents will go up for auction March 21 after sitting empty for many years.
The original owner, Gertrude Klingensmith, 98, recalls buying the property when it came up for sale during her career as a real estate agent.
“It was $8,000 for six acres, a house, barn, pig pen and chicken coup, so I grabbed it,” Klingensmith said. “Then I thought to myself, 'What am I going to do?'”
That was in 1969, and Klingensmith decided to make the main house into a restaurant that served home cooking.
She was in it virtually alone, as her husband was in ill health at the time.
“He didn't want any part of it,” Klingensmith said.
So she began the task of outfitting the restaurant by approaching the closing Don Ho's restaurant in Pittsburgh.
“I got most of my stuff for The Homestead from Don Ho's for almost nothing,” Klingensmith said. “The fryer, the big oven on four legs and 50 chairs.”
She had some of the farm's buildings torn down and borrowed $30,000 to add a banquet room.
Klingensmith hired Henrietta O'Neil to whip up the sweet and savory dishes her restaurant was famous for and employed one of her eight siblings as a pot washer.
“Mrs. O'Neil was the cook at the Armco Country Club,” Klingensmith said. “She quit that job to come work for me and be the head cook.”
The restaurant with the 10-cent cup of homemade vegetable soup soon took off, allowing Klingensmith to pay off the loan for the banquet room in two years.
“On a Sunday, I would serve 900 people dinner,” she said. “I only served lunch when tour buses would come through. That was maybe once per week.”
Roast turkey dinners every Wednesday, homemade mashed potatoes, a top-notch salad bar and specials, including shrimp and lobster, kept The Homestead full for the decade Klingensmith owned it.
Mrs. O'Neil's pies were known far and wide, and many customers from Pittsburgh and beyond would make the trip to rural Butler County to enjoy a meal and a slice of coconut cream or other pie.
“People would order their pie before their dinner to make sure they got a piece,” Klingensmith said. “It sold out every night.”
Most of the wait staff she hired upon opening the doors remained with her until she sold the restaurant.
“It was a good, homey business because everyone there was friendly,” Klingensmith said.
She said the restaurant has allowed her to live comfortably in the 51 years since she has owned it.“It was a very successful business,” Klingensmith said. “It made my retirement.”She is aware that the restaurant, which closed in the early 2000s and saw a few other owners, will be auctioned next week.“I had a twinge of sorrow,” Klingensmith said. “It's been so long. I imagine they're going to tear everything down.”She still has one table and a few chairs from the restaurant that fed thousands of satisfied customers and provided her with a decade of fun and hard work.“Looking back, it was such a good business,” Klingensmith said.Roger Croll, owner of Croll's Mills Auctions in Slippery Rock, said the property was auctioned once before and many of the restaurant-related items were sold then.“As of right now, there's a couple stainless steel tables, an old pizza oven and a few tables and chairs,” Croll said.He explained that the current owner, the Brandon family, intended to restructure the restaurant into apartments and started to put in a few walls before the owner became ill and the family decided to move forward with the auction.Croll said an auction can occasionally bring more money for a property and its contents than selling it outright. “Auctioning former merchandise is the best way to sell anything because it creates a spirit of competition between buyers,” he said.A handful of tractors, an old truck, hay-baling equipment, a manure spreader, feed grinder, commercial refrigerator and even the fuselage of a small airplane are among the items to be auctioned.After the separate items are sold to the highest bidders, the former restaurant and outbuildings will be auctioned in one lot, Croll said.Croll envisions another, more modern restaurant on the property.“A facelift to the building and a little bit of elbow grease, and it's tailor-made to be one of those farm-to-table restaurants,” he said.He stressed that the auction is not a tax or sheriff's sale, but a method of sale decided upon by the owners.The action begins at 10 a.m. March 21.
