Father Pitt

The dome is the star of this extraordinary building, which was put up in 1899–1900 and is now slowly crumbling. The school behind it, heavily altered, is in use as a personal-care home; the church would be hard to find a use for even in a prosperous neighborhood. It ought to be preserved, but its most likely fate is to continue to crumble until it finally becomes too dangerous to leave standing. The architect was Marius Rousseau, who carried out the wishes of Father Charles J. Coyne for a church like a Roman basilica.¹

1. “A Unique Church Edifice,” Pittsburg Press, November 26, 1899, p. 18. —Our article here has been revised; originally we did not know the architect, and we had dated the church four years too late. ↩︎