Father Pitt

Update: Thanks to our correspondent David Schwing, we know the story of this church better. It was a Shingle-style frame church dedicated at the end of 1896.¹ In 1953, it was “Perma-Stoned,”² so that the end result is an odd mixture of Shingle-style forms—like the flared roof—and 1950s aesthetics.

The original text of the article follows.

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Father Pitt is not quite sure what to call this style: maybe arts-and-crafts Mediterranean.

The corner-tower entrance is typical of Pittsburgh churches, but the stone porch is not.

The arches and spindly columns of the belfry are the touch that says “Mediterranean” to old Pa Pitt.

From this angle we can see that the building has the usual Pittsburgh problems to solve: the lot gains almost two floors’ worth of height from lower to upper corner.

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1. “Church Dedication,” Gazette Times, December 7, 1896. ↩︎
2. “Local Church Perma-Stoned,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 15, 1953. ↩︎