On September 17, 1862, Catherine Burkhart, a 15-year-old girl who lived in the home with her mother, was killed in an explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal, where she worked assembling munitions for the Union Army.

At the time, the property owners, investors in a limited partnership, hoped to find "the right buyer who will treat it with the respect it deserves."

In 2008, Lawrenceville United executive director Tony Ceoffe described the dilapidated structure as a "terrible eyesore" and went on to say that neighbors were claiming it attracted vagrants and drug users.

[4] The Log House Committee of the Lawrenceville Stakeholders, led by a local architect, made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase and restore the property.

Modifications made to the house since its construction, including 1830s cuts through the original logs to create windows, would have complicated any efforts to fully restore the building.

Observers, including Carol Peterson, Pittsburgh's pre-eminent house historian, believed that the modifications had their own historical significance and should have been preserved in any restoration effort.