Father Pitt

Why should the beautiful die?


Sacred Heart Convent, Braddock

Sacred Heart convent

Father Pitt will admit right away that he is not sure this was the convent, and perhaps a well-informed reader could enlighten us. He arrived at his conclusion by elimination. There was a church, a school, a rectory, and a convent in the old Sacred Heart parish before it moved out of Braddock. The school still stands; the church was demolished; the rectory was a house the church bought on Talbot Avenue; and so we are left with this building facing 6th Street, on the grounds of the church, which was probably the convent.

Sacred Heart convent

The style of the building is unusual and interesting, and we suspect it might have been designed by one of the local Mon Valley architects about whom Pa Pitt knows too little.

Entrance with terra cotta

The entrance is surrounded by decorative terra cotta in a good state of preservation.

Cross in terra cotta
Wrought-iron fence with pilaster in background

The wrought-iron fence in front of the building is original, and an exceptionally well-preserved example of its type—though probably not for too much longer.

Sacred Heart convent

Old Pa Pitt would love to know how that room over the entrance looked before it was glass-blocked.

Dormer

The polygonal side and rear dormers are unusual and attractive.

Convent from the rear
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

When the church next to the building was demolished, it left a big flat lot that some daring urban pioneer who bought the building could turn into a splendid formal garden.



2 responses to “Sacred Heart Convent, Braddock”

  1. Shelly

    One website suggests that Joseph E. Fronczak was the architect for the school. Another website lists different architects for the church:
    https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pr_display.cfm/148599
    Source Information AIA/T-Square Yearbook, p. 124 (1905)
    View Athenaeum of Philadelphia catalog record to request.
    Project name: Sketch Decoration for Chancel of Polish Church
    Cited Projects Sacred Heart Polish Church
    Cited Architects, Engineers, and Others
    Comes, John Theodore (1873 – 1922) (Architect)
    D’Ascenzo, Nicola (1871 – 1954) (Stained Glass Artist)
    Location Braddock Borough, Allegheny County, PA
    Property records for 209 6th St. list year built as 1900. Could the school be the “new” school described here? – From The Catholic Bulletin, Volume 35, Number 50, 15 December 1945: https://www.thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=MNB19451215-01.2.14&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———

    1. The Sacred Heart school that Fronczac designed, with the glass-roofed penthouse for nuns, is probably the Sacred Heart School in Shadyside, which does indeed have a penthouse that looks suitable for a convent. You can see it on Google Street View. It now belongs to the DePaul School.

      The Sacred Heart School in Braddock, inscribed SZKOŁA NAJSŁODSZEGO SERCA JEZSUS over the entrance, was on the wrong side of the street when old Pa Pitt visited Braddock recently. The sun was directly behind it. Many of Braddock’s most interesting sights were unphotographable for that reason, which means that Father Pitt will have to make another visit to Braddock soon.

      The old Sacred Heart Church was, as the site you pointed to says, designed by John T. Comès, possibly Pittsburgh’s greatest contribution to ecclesiastical architecture. It burned just before Christmas in 1975, according to the parish history at the Diocese of Pittsburgh site.

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