Father Pitt

Why should the beautiful die?


McBride Building

McBride Building
Because it’s impossible to get a picture of the whole building like this without standing very close in Pittsburgh’s narrow streets, the perspective of this picture has been adjusted on two planes to look more natural. You can see the seam if you enlarge the picture to 100%, so go ahead and do that if you’re curious.

Built in 1901 for the W. W. McBride Paper Company, this near-skyscraper was designed by Frederick Sauer.1 A few alterations have been made, but the building still stands much as Sauer designed it.

Front of the building

A casual look at the building gives the impression that it has a stone base, but the effect comes from using white face brick for the lower two floors—with inset ridges to imitate cut stone—and Sauer’s favorite buff brick for the rest.

Mitchell’s on the ground floor claims to have been established in 1906, so it has been going since shortly after the building opened.

McBride Building with W. W. McBride ghost signs
Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

By 1923 this was known as the Bowman Building, but W. W. McBride ghost signs are still visible on the northern side.

  1. Source: Record & Guide, February 27, 1901, p. 136. “Plans are in course of preparation by F. C. Sauer, Hamilton Building, for a seven-story brick warehouse to be erected for W. W. McBride, at Third avenue and Ross street.” ↩︎


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