If you are looking for a distinguished church building, here is one for sale, and in very good shape. It was built in 1906 as Zion Evangelical Church; the architect was Chauncey W. Hodgdon.1 For many years it was the Albright Methodist Church.
The building had more than one narrow escape from death. It was owned by the Methodists who also had the cathedral-sized First United Methodist Church right next to it; since this church was redundant, they proposed to sell it to a developer who would demolish it and build something profitable. When a city historic designation made that more difficult, the church sat abandoned and decaying for several more years, exchanging the fast death of redevelopment for the slow death of neglect. But about three years ago it was restored, including cleaning off the decades of accumulated soot.
This was the tower when old Pa Pitt passed by in 2008; he published this picture under the heading “The Vanishing Black Stones of Pittsburgh.” We may add this building to the list of previously black buildings whose blackness has vanished.
Or at least mostly vanished.
In the background we can see the massive lantern of First Methodist.
- According to a city architectural survey from a few years ago. “This now-closed church has been for sale for several years now in an area where development pressures are significant. There was a fight in 2016 over possible city designation as historic, which was granted. The register had the address as 5445 Centre Ave. but the legal address is 486 S. Graham St.” ↩︎
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