Five months after it gained historic status from the city, the former home of the National Negro Opera Company in Homewood has been condemned.

The owners recently alerted Dan Holland, president of the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh, who rallied volunteers from his and other community groups to stabilize the ramshackle building. Renew Pittsburgh and Operation Better Block will contribute volunteers a week from Saturday.

The Young Preservationists nominated the Queen Ann-style building at 7101 Apple St., for historic status, which is meant to build a case for a property's revival. But the house, built in 1894, has deteriorated into a public hazard.

Historic status does not exempt a building from condemnation. Property owners have 30 days from the posting date to begin abating hazards or risk being taken to court.

Kevin Acklin, executive director of Renew Pittsburgh, said he and Mr. Holland were planning a big repair effort next spring but the posting constituted an emergency.

"We're reacting quickly to board windows, secure the doors and post notices," said Mr. Acklin, whose all-volunteer group recently stabilized August Wilson's boyhood home in the Hill District. "A guy from the Bureau of Building Inspection told us that if we did that, the city wouldn't take any action."

A spokesman from the bureau could not be reached for comment, and neither could the owner.

The house was a base for the nation's first black opera company, whose founder, Mary Cardwell Dawson, also lived there briefly. She began the company in Pittsburgh in 1941. Two years later, she started its sister company in Washington, D.C., and the two functioned concurrently until her death in 1962.

"The condition is one of worst I've seen in Homewood," said Khalif Ali, a community organizer for Operation Better Block, who will gather volunteers to join the stabilization crew next Saturday. "Considering its significance to Homewood and the nation in general, it's a tragedy."

Mr. Acklin said he has already measured the windows to know how much wood to buy. "We're happy to be part of this," he said. "We like to be nimble."