Stanley L. Klos November 5, 2001 Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Carnegie man documents history's heroes

By Erik Siemers
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, November 5, 2001

George Washington is there. So are Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin and Sigmund Freud.

Walt Disney just joined them. So did Samuel Francis Smith, who wrote the poem that became the song "America."

Those historical figures are among the cast of characters whose signatures are scratched onto documents scattered across Stan Klos' Carnegie office.

Klos, 47, of Upper St. Clair has amassed a collection of more than 1,000 historic documents. He acts as a document dealer in his business, Gallery of Fame.

Stan Klos owns one of the few wet-ink transfers made from the original Declaration of Independence. His hobby of collecting historic documents has grown into a business, Gallery of Fame.
Steven Adams/Tribune-Review

But the one-time pro basketball player turned realtor says amassing our forefathers' signatures isn't a full-time job. "It's a hobby," he said.

It's apparently one at which he's quite good. Among the items in his possession:

· Three land deeds that transferred the western quarter of Pennsylvania from the Native American chiefs to Pennsylvania's commissioners in 1794.

· A wet-ink copy of the Declaration of Independence. There were 201 copies made in 1823 of the original document and only 31 are known to be in existence still.

· A 1790 letter to New York Gov. George Clinton, informing him of some of the country's first legislative actions including the first census, the first immigration laws, and the country's first budget. The letter is signed by Thomas Jefferson.

· A letter from George Washington dated Feb. 12, 1798, written to his nephew, Robert Lewis, while Washington was battling financial problems. He was forced to sell or lease many of his land investments to keep Mt. Vernon, Klos said.

A native of New York City, Klos said he was always fascinated by what he learned from historical figures.

"The way people in Pittsburgh gravitate toward sports, I gravitated toward history's heroes," said Klos, the former owner of Re/Max Pennsylvania, who now restores historic buildings for a living.

This coming from a man who in 1978 turned down a contract to play basketball for the Detroit Pistons, opting instead to play in Italy.

Klos' interest in documents came about accidentally.

While living in New Jersey in the early '80s, Klos saw historic homes transformed into convenience stores because they couldn't meet state regulations.

With the help of local historic preservationists, Klos was able to bypass the regulations, and in 1983 he bought and restored the Imlay Mansion, built in 1790 by shipbuilder John Imlay.

While rummaging through the mansion's attic, Klos found piles of dusty ledgers uncovering Imlay's prestigious customer list, including the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry.

"I said to myself, `Can you own Ben Franklin documents? Can you own Patrick Henry documents?" Klos said. "The answer was yes."

Klos procures most of his treasures from document dealers and major auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's. After buying them, he has the documents authenticated by experts trained to know how individual historic figures signed their names.

He bought his first document - an Abraham Lincoln - in 1988 at an auction in New Jersey for $3,000.

Today, a walk around his Carnegie office is like watching the contents of a history book come alive.

On one wall he points to a rare handbill, made in 1787 by Philadelphia printer Robert Smith, that was one of the earliest printings of the U.S. Constitution.

From a nearby table, Klos pulls out an official book of the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 agreement that became the official peace settlement for World War I.

Each country involved in the treaty received one copy, Klos said. He owns Portugal's piece of history.

"People don't even know you can own them," Klos said.

Most people, he said, stand in line for hours at museums in Washington, D.C., to look at a document behind glass similar to ones he owns.

Still, perceptions of the documents are changing. Klos now is working with a law firm interested in purchasing documents signed by John Jay, John Marshall and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

"They're thinking, `Why do we need to decorate our offices with a second-rate painting when we can get a John Marshall document.'"

Erik Siemers can be reached at esiemers@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5609.

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