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Posted on 06/04/2023 2:05:43 PM PDT by Vigilanteman
When Carl Kosak returned from work to his home in Greensburg’s Academy Hill neighborhood, he got something to eat and then headed down to the basement.
That’s where he assumed his second identity — one long hidden from co-workers, neighbors and friends — as acclaimed mystery writer K.C. Constantine.
“My father had a desk at the bottom of the basement stairs, and that’s where he wrote,” said Kosak’s only son, Chris Kosak of Moraga, Calif. “He wrote every single day — some days maybe that was only one sentence — but he put himself in that chair at that desk and he wrote.”
Karl Kosak died at 88 on March 23. He was preceded in death by his wife, Linda Tweedy Kosak, in 2018.
The Kosak home at 231 Center Ave. is listed for sale for $184,500 with Keller Williams Realty.
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
Legend has it that they we installed, often with a nearby shower, so the man of the house could come home from a day at the mills or mines and clean up before heading upstairs.
My house has such an installation from the day it was built in the late 1960s but has since been given a measure of privacy with a makeshift wall.
Any other parts of the country familiar with this charming tradition?
I hate painted brick on the fireplace.
Yep, that is the purpose.
He was an excellent writer. Mysteries in a dying industrial town with hunkies,polacks, wops and “Iron City Steve”, the town drunk.
This is the first one I read by him.
If he had it do again, I wonder if he would be quite so concerned with maintaining his anonymity.
Oh, is that what it’s called? Ours was walled-off, too.
Ping...
Bkmk
People here do value their privacy as a result of that geography.
He probably paid quite a price for that privacy.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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We live in a coal mine patch town not too far from Greensburg. Our house is a 200 year old farmhouse that was later occupied by the mine foreman. We did not have a Pittsburgh toilet in our basement - other houses around us did - but we did have a sink in an odd place at the top of our basement stairs. We figured it was for the foreman to get cleaned up before entering the main house.
Also, my son lives in South Greensburg - about four miles from the Kosak home.
The asking price for this house is actually fairly average for our area. Prepandemic, it was probably at least 30% cheaper but home prices have shot up around here thanks to demand from people wanting to get further away from Pittsburgh.
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