Update: A kind correspondent corrects us: these are postmodern Victorian buildings designed by Gunther J. Kaier Architects, which earned the company that built them an award for fitting them so neatly into the streetscape. Father Pitt keeps the original text of the article below to point out how delightful it is to be wrong sometimes.
These two Italianate buildings are alike in their decorative detailing, and at first glance we might take them for identical twins (discounting the altered ground floors). The one on the right, however, is wider by a small but significant amount. They were built in the 1880s, to judge by old maps, and they appear to have been separately owned from the beginning. The one on the left belonged to S. Bornshire in 1890, and still belonged to S. Bornshire thirty-three years later in 1923.
One response to “Pair of Victorian Commercial Buildings on Carson Street, South Side”
Surprisingly, this is actually a faux-Victorian building from 1985 (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press/139014155/). The previous buildings on the site are visible in this photo from 1967: https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A201001.1.2.054.PF