Father Pitt

Why should the beautiful die?


Telephone Exchange, Squirrel Hill

Telephone exchange in Squirrel Hill

A particularly grand example of the Renaissance-palace school of telephone exchanges. Father Pitt believes that all our Renaissance-palace telephone exchanges were probably done by the same architect, and some day he hopes to find out who it was. (Update: It was probably James Windrim, a well-known Philadelphian who had the Bell Telephone franchise in Pennsylvania for many years. He designed the 1923 Bell Telephone Building downtown, and is known to have worked on other telephone exchanges in our area.)

Lunette and inscription
Corner view of the telephone exchange

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