Pittsburgh has been the birthplace of many entertainment legends and firsts. The city has decided it is time to recognize an important trailblazer, the National Negro Opera Company.
The company, its founder and the nonprofit working to save the house where it began will be celebrated in a display in the City-County Building, Downtown, during Black History Month.
The display and online content begin with a reception Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. Company founder Mary Cardwell Dawson and the National Opera House, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring, preserving and maintaining the historic Pittsburgh home that once served as company’s first headquarters, will be showcased in the exhibit curated by city staff and Jonnet Solomon, the nonprofit’s executive director. The house is located on 7101 Apple St. in Homewood.
KiKi Jones of WAMO-FM will serve as emcee for the reception, which will include remarks by city officials and the National Opera House board chair, entertainment and refreshments.
Dawson founded the company, the first permanent Black opera company in the United States, in 1941 after presenting “Aida” at the National Association of Negro Musicians convention earlier that year. She was also the first woman to run an opera company, making history that way as well, according to the National Opera House website.

“Dawson was committed to improving opportunities for African American musicians, particularly in the opera world, where Black artists faced significant discrimination,” a city news release stated. “Her vision for the NNOC was to create a space where African Americans could perform opera at the highest level and gain the same recognition and opportunities as their white counterparts. She believed that opera was a powerful medium through which African American culture could be showcased and celebrated.”
The North Carolina native who moved to Munhall with her family as a young girl had dreamed of becoming an opera singer after graduating from college, but she returned home in 1927 after realizing no opportunities existed for Black opera singers, according to a timeline on the National Opera House website. She founded the Cardwell Dawson School of Music in Homewood and taught many students, including the late jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, for years. They presented concerts and recitals throughout the city and region.
Pittsburgh’s first Black millionaire, William “Woogie” Harris, who had purchased the Apple Street house in 1930, rented the third floor to her and her company. The Queen Anne-style mansion had been built in 1894. He used the wealth gained co-running a city numbers syndicate, and the house served as a rest haven for visiting musicians, renowned sports figures and other Black celebrities visiting the city, according to a NEXT Pittsburgh article on it and Solomon.
As an educator, Dawson “trained countless young talents to sing opera and brought the splendor of opera to African American audiences across the nation with the establishment of guilds in Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, D.C., Newark, and New York,” the North Carolina Music Hall wrote when it inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2024. In 1961, Dawson was appointed to the National Music Committee by President John F. Kennedy. The company closed in 1962 after Dawson’s death because of financial instability.
Solomon is grateful for the recognition of Dawson and the house where the company began.
“This is a testament. We took a woman who was erased from the world and now is restored into history,” she said. “Now is a perfect time to focus on the house.”
Harris lived in the house with his wife, Ada, and after their deaths, the house fell into disrepair. Advocates rallied to save it, and it earned a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker in 1994.

Solomon purchased the home in 2000 with Homewood salon owner Miriam White, whom she met by chance. Solomon had seen the plaque and first learned about its history from her.
Together they founded the nonprofit, and the city recognized those efforts. “Founded by Miriam White and Jonnet Solomon, the National Opera House has established a mission to restore and maintain the historic house. This preservation continues a legacy of creative excellence that nurtures talent and widens access to opportunities,” the release stated.
Solomon has spent 25 years trying to secure funding to restore it despite not having any relationship or experience with opera. But she did grow up in a musical household.
An accountant, entrepreneur and mother of a daughter, Solomon moved to Pittsburgh where her father, Phil Solomon, started the first Steelpan Manufacturing company in America. She has performed, educated and advocated for music with her father and her family ever since, according to the news release.
White and Solomon brainstormed about how to save the structure, which was designated as a Pittsburgh City Historic Landmark in 2008, according to White’s 2009 obituary.
Solomon has continued their work to restore the legacy of Dawson, the Harris family and the house to “its rightful place in history,” which has meant constant fundraising and promoting the nonprofit.
The late Pittsburgh historian John Brewer, who knew and documented the Harris family history, including acclaimed photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris,” told her years ago that “People can’t care about this house if they don’t care about the people.”
That has been her guiding star ever since as she set out to learn more and collect as many stories as she could about all involved.
To preserve the history, she digitized all the photos of Dawson, the company and house she could find, and turned over historical material she found to the Library of Congress and other museums and places. Furniture and other house items have been in storage here since the house purchase.
Her efforts received a major boost in 2020 when the National Trust for Historic Preservation included it on its annual list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places.
Since then her nonprofit received support from the Pittsburgh Opera, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, Allegheny Foundation, former President George W. and Laura Bush, the Burke Family Foundation, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, A.W. Mellon Foundation and others, according to a number of articles. That helped stabilize the house, Solomon said, work involving structural and roof repairs.
The next phase, restoring it, will take an estimated $7 million and about two years, according to the nonprofit’s website.
Solomon’s overall goal for the exhibit is to convey everything Dawson brought to the house. That includes classical jazz, something she developed with Jamal, as well as operatic music. “It is different worlds,” she said. “How did she do this? [We’re] trying to curate that feeling of classical music and some jazz, while still looking to the future.”

The Harris’ Homewood house itself, sometimes called Mystery Manor, was a remarkable place that changed the world, Solomon said, worthy of inclusion in the exhibit. She marvels at how the Black celebrities, musicians, sports figures, boxers and others found their way there.
“[They] had amazing conversations and went back into the world. It was just so secret. I am impressed that people found the house. … People from New York, people from the South, knew to come to the house,” she said.
It was difficult for Solomon, who worked with acting program manager Brandon D’Alimonte and program coordinator Logan O’Hara from the city’s special events office, to decide what to include. The decision ended up based on “Let’s decide how we want people to walk away, what images in their head.”
She’s appreciative of the care taken as well as the attention as the opening approaches. “The city wants to remind people that Pittsburgh was and still is a magnificent place,” Solomon said. “People should be really proud of the things we imported into the world, like classical jazz. Exporting entertainment is a feat.”
Following Dawson’s induction into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, Solomon said she heard from about 300 people, and she hopes that continues and aids her efforts.
“To me it’s one of the most important restoration projects in the world,” she said. “I brought this on myself. It’s just finishing something that I started. I didn’t understand anything that I was getting myself into [back in 2000]. I feel that it is worth finishing.”
The exhibit is sponsored AARP Pennsylvania, WAMO and KDKA Radio. More information is available at www.pittsburghpa.gov/Recreation-Events/Special-Events/Black-History-Month.

Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.