Father Pitt

Author: Father Pitt

Allegheny High School

Allegheny High School, now the Allegheny Traditional Academy, has a complicated architectural history involving two notable architects at three very different times.

From Art work of Pittsburgh, part 3 (Chicago: W. H. Parish, 1893), with thanks to “Camerafiend” for making the picture available.

The original 1893 Allegheny High School on this site was designed by Frederick Osterling in his most florid Richardsonian Romanesque manner. This building no longer exists, but the photograph above gives us a good notion of the impression it made. The huge entrance arch is particularly striking, and particularly Osterling; compare it with the Third Avenue entrance of the Times Building, also by Osterling.

In 1904, the school needed a major addition. Again Osterling was called on, but by this time Richardsonian Romanesque had passed out of fashion, and Osterling’s own tastes had changed. The Allegheny High School Annex still stands, and Osterling pulled off a remarkable feat: he made a building in modified Georgian style that matched current classical tastes while still being a good fit with, and echoing the lines of, the original Romanesque school.

The carved ornaments on the original school were executed by Achille Giammartini, and we would guess that he was brought back for the work on the Annex as well.

A war memorial on the front of the Annex. Twenty-two names are inscribed. Everyone who went to Allegheny High in those years knew someone who was killed in the Great War.

By the 1930s, the school was too small again. The original school was torn down, and Marion Steen, house architect for Pittsburgh Public Schools (and son of the Pittsburgh titan James T. Steen) designed a new Art Deco palace nothing like the remaining Annex. The two buildings do not clash, however, because there are very few vantage points from which we can see both at once.

The auditorium has three exits, each one with one of the three traditional masks of Greek drama above it: Comedy, Meh, and Tragedy.

The pictures of the masks were taken in 2014 with a Kodak EasyShare Z1485.

Nikon COOLPIX P100.

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May 8, 2025
Rhododendron Shelter, Highland Park

Large city parks often have picnic shelters, but it is not common for the shelters to be so elaborate. This one was built in 1902–1903, during the reign of Edward Manning Bigelow, the father of Pittsburgh’s system of boulevards and parks. The architect was young Harry Summers Estep, who would soon earn his place as a prominent architect with the McKeesport Masonic Temple.

Olympus E-20N.

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May 7, 2025
Korean Lilac

A slightly later bloomer than the common dooryard lilac, the compact Korean Lilac (Syringa pubescens subsp. patula) is also more intensely scented.

Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6.

May 6, 2025
Top of Penn Station

Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

The top of Penn Station seen from the Bigelow Boulevard bridge over the Crosstown Boulevard.

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May 6, 2025
Tiny Mushroom on a Twig

The potato bug was encouraged to remain to provide a sense of scale.

Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6.

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May 5, 2025
Storefronts and Apartments by Sylvanus W. McCluskey, Bloomfield

Olympus E-20N.

This building is probably the work of Sylvanus W. McCluskey, a Lawrenceville architect. Our source spells the name “McCloskey,” but that is within the usual limits of Linotypist accuracy. From the Pittsburg Post, October 9, 1900:

Another apartment house is to be built in the Sixteenth Ward. It will stand on a plot at Nos. 4517 and 4519 Liberty street, Bloomfield, and will be owned by Michael McKenna. It will be a three-story brick building with storerooms on the first floor. Architect S. W. McCloskey designed it and has awarded the contract for its erection to Frank McMasters. Work on it will be started at once. The building without the interior finish will cost about $15,000.

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May 5, 2025
Baroque Extravagance on Dinwiddie Street, Hill District

Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

This building on Dinwiddie Street stands at the end of the Fraser rows, but it could hardly be more different in style. From old maps it appears to have been built after 1910, replacing an earlier three-storey house on the same lot. It is hard to pin down the style, but the baroque crest, complete with urns, is an outstanding feature.

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May 5, 2025
Fancy Tulips in the Rain

Nikon COOLPIX P100.

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May 4, 2025
Church of the Epiphany, Lower Hill

Edward Stotz was the architect of the building for Epiphany Church, with considerable interior work done by John T. Comès. It was built in 1903 to replace the old St. Paul’s Cathedral downtown as the downtown parish church after Henry Frick made the Catholic Diocese an offer it couldn’t refuse, and Epiphany served as the temporary cathedral for three years while the new St. Paul’s was going up in Oakland.

When the Lower Hill was demolished for “slum clearance,” Epiphany and its school were the only buildings allowed to survive. Thus Pittsburgh accomplished, here and at Allegheny Center, what Le Corbusier had failed to do in Paris: we created a sterile modern wasteland punctuated by a few ancient landmarks pickled in brine.

These Romanesque columns and arches strongly remind old Pa Pitt of organ pipes.

Christ stands at the peak of the west front.

On Christ’s right hand, St. Peter with his key.

On Christ’s left hand, St. Paul with his book.

An angel with plenty of anti-pigeon armor prays for worshipers as they enter.

The school is built in a simpler Romanesque style that links and subordinates it to the church.

Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

Officially the Lower Hill has ceased to exist. It is counted as part of downtown in the city’s administrative scheme. But it has never been integrated into downtown, and indeed was forcibly cut off from downtown by the Crosstown Boulevard—a bad mistake recently ameliorated somewhat by building a park on top of the boulevard. With the new FNB Financial Center and other developments, there is some hope that this neglected wasteland may become city again. Meanwhile, Epiphany, now part of Divine Mercy Parish, still serves downtown worshipers, and perhaps will be there for new residents as the neighborhood grows and changes.

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May 4, 2025
Two Houses on Brighton Road, Allegheny West

These two houses facing West Park on what used to be Irwin Avenue both have interestingly complex histories. The one above has a detailed history by the late Carol Peterson, so here we will only mention the things that led to its appearance today and encourage you to see the Peterson history for more details. It was built in about 1870 as an Italianate house. In 1890 Augusta and Jacob Kaufmann of the Kaufmann Brothers department store bought the house. It was given a third floor, and the whole house was made over in the Romanesque style with Queen Anne overtones.

The house next door was probably built at about the same time as its neighbor. Without the help of Carol Peterson, we can only report what we observe. It was also built in the Italianate style, and it looks as though the third floor is an addition here as well. But the addition may have been made earlier than the alterations to its neighbor, since the tall windows were done in the same Italianate style as the ones below the third floor. The round bay in front was finished off with a mansard roof, showing the influence of the Second Empire style that was popular here before Romanesque became the big fad.

Kodak EasyShare Z981.

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May 3, 2025