Father Pitt

Why should the beautiful die?


Double Houses on Shady Drive, Mount Lebanon

700 Block of Shady Drive East

A long stretch of Shady Drive is lined on the southwest side with two rows of double houses, identical except that one row is built of sand-colored brick and the other of sooty dark red brick. Individually the buildings are attractive examples of the typical small Pittsburgh terrace with Mission-style details; as a whole row, they add up to something more impressive. Light snow was falling when we took these pictures a few days ago.

738 and 736
700 block
700 block in dark brick
774 and 772
742 and 740

Some of the houses have had their front yards scooped out to make driveways, and a few have added garages in the basement.

746 and 744

We may take it as admitted that the overhangs that decorate the upstairs windows have no practical use at all, since in half the buildings they hang over the bedroom windows and in the other half those are left naked, with an overhang over the small windows that probably look out from the bathrooms. The decorative crests similarly alternate.

700

The alternating placement of the overhangs and the crests of the buildings actually creates a more regular rhythm in the row, taking into account the spaces between the buildings.

Sand-colored row
Dark red row
Sand-colored row
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.


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