Why should the beautiful die?
One of the first commissions for the new firm of Longfellow, Alden & Harlow in Pittsburgh was the Duquesne Club, which is still Pittsburgh’s most prestigious club. The brownstone Renaissance palace was put up in 1887–1889 and expanded later. Above, a composite picture made from six individual photographs.
The Duquesne Club seen from Trinity Churchyard.
From the front of Trinity Cathedral.
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1. Is the source or quarry of the Duquesne Club brownstone known? It is not mentioned in the Margaret Henderson Floyd book.
2. Is the exact location of the demolished Vandergrift Building known? In 1894 Longfellow, Alden & Harlow’s office was there, and they designed many other buildings for J. J. Vandergrift too, including the still existing steel-frame Conestoga Building that you highlight. The Floyd book places it somewhere on Fourth Ave.
Father Pitt has sent you a detailed email message; look in your spam folder if you don’t find it. To summarize the answers:
1. The stone for the Duquesne Club was described as “Massachusetts brownstone” when the building was finished. (“It Is Finished,” Commercial Gazette, December 17, 1889.) Father Pitt doesn’t know the specific quarry.
2. The Vandergrift Building was on Fourth Avenue just to the right of the Colonial Trust Company, where the rear of the new Pittsburgh Public Theater is now. You can see the exact location at Pittsburgh Historic Maps.
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