Father Pitt

This grand Byzantine church, built in 1923, is set on a steep slope on an implausibly tiny street. Its congregation is still going: for cultural and administrative reasons, Eastern churches tend to continue long after their Western neighbors have thrown in the towel. The church itself was modeled after the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, which also served as the model for St. John the Baptist in Munhall; but the architect of this one, W. Ward Williams,¹ took his model more literally than Titus de Bobula did. Curiously enough the church in Ukraine has the same kind of slope to deal with, as we see in this picture by Raimond Spekking:

The pediment is strictly classical, Doric rather than the Corinthian of its model, with the inscription “Russian Greek Catholic Church of SS. Peter and Paul.”

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1. Source: Proposals, Pittsburg Press, May 26, 1922, p. 38. “Proposals are invited from building contractors for the erection of a fireproof church building to be erected for SS. Peter and Paul Greek Catholic church. George st., Braddock, Pa. Bids are to be made on forms as furnished by the Architect, W. Ward Williams…” In the original version of the article, we did not know the architect, but a lucky item buried in a correspondence from David Schwing sent us on a long chase, and we finally cornered Mr. Williams. ↩︎