Father Pitt

Author: Father Pitt

  • Carl Building, Wilkinsburg

    Shields Building

    The Beezer Brothers designed Wilkinsburg’s miniature skyscraper for real-estate developer and brewer Leopold Vilsack. It was built in 1902.1 It had been announced as the Vilsack Building; Vilsack named it the Carl Building (after his son) while it was still under construction; later it was called the Shields Building. It holds a curious place in the history of public housing: it was converted to apartments for senior citizens in 1975 as the first Section 8 housing project.

    The Beezers’ rendering of the proposed building appeared in the Gazette for April 12, 1902:

    Pittsburgh Gazette, April 12, 1902, p. 8. Thanks to David Schwing for finding this clipping.

    You may notice, if you count carefully, that the building lost a floor between initial design and construction.

    We transcribe the caption under the drawing:

    Wilkinsburg is soon to have a sky-scraper—somewhat of an infant in its class, perhaps, but ’way above any of its neighbors, and abundant evidence of the hustle and pride that characterize the residents of Pittsburgh’s most attractive suburb. The Vilsack office building, for such will be the title of the new structure, will be a thoroughly high-class building, its owner, Leopold Vilsack, having spared no pains or cost in the plans to make it equal in convenience to any of the more pretentious structures downtown. The site for the building is at the southeast corner of Wood and Ross streets, on a lot 33×122 feet, which Mr. Vilsack purchased a few months ago through his agent, James B. Lawler, for $18,000. The building was designed by Beezer Bros. It will be seven stories high and absolutely fireproof in its construction. Architecturally the building will be an exceptionally handsome structure. The first two stories facing in Wood and Ross streets will be built of Indiana limestone and the upper stories of gray pressed brick and terra cotta. Two high-speed elevators will carry the tenants and the building will have a duplicate boiler system to furnish it with power, heat and light. The first floor will be used for storerooms. On the upper floors are about 90 offices, all finished in hard wood and provided with marble floors and wainscoting. A large barber shop and a photograph studio will be among the features. Water will be supplied from an artesian well. The building is to be erected under the immediate direction of Beezer Bros. and will cost at least $150,000. The house on the lot, now occupied by Dr. A. B. Smith, the former owner, will be moved about 150 yards up Ross street on to another lot of Mr. Vilsack’s. Work on the new building will begin May 1 and it is expected it will be finished by January 1.

    It is interesting to note that, if you visit the building today, you will once again find “a large barber shop” among the features.

    Top of the Shields Building
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
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  • At the Top of the Union Trust Building

    Top of the Union Trust Building
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Urban legend says that these structures are chapels where the privileged can repent of their sins, but in fact they house the elevator mechanics and other rooftop necessities.

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  • Streetcars in Allentown

    Two-car train on Warrington Avenue

    All summer long, all the rail routes have been detoured through Allentown. Stop and consider for a moment how thoroughly odd Pittsburgh transit is: do you know of any other subway system that keeps up an alternate route over the top for times when one of the tunnels has to be closed?

    Trolleys on Warrington at Beltzhoover

    The few riders who look up from their phone screens have a chance to notice that Allentown is changing. Over the past few years, the Warrington Avenue business district has been going through a rapid trendification. It’s full of weird little shops too low-budget for the high rents of Lawrenceville.

    Trolley and bus passing

    A bonus bus coming toward you, for the longtime fans.

    Trolley on Warrington at Allen

    While the trolleys are going over the top, they stop at Allen Street in the middle of the Allentown business district.

    “Nothing beats public transit” on a mural

    Many people in Allentown would like to have their Allentown Trolley back permanently. They have been enjoying their summer of streetcars.

    Two-car train
    Nikon COOLPIX P100; Kodak EasyShare Z981.
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  • Nativity of Our Lady Church, Greenfield

    Nativity of Our Lady Church

    The architect of this Byzantine-modern church was Charles J. Pepine, who designed a number of postwar churches in our area.1 It was dedicated in 1949 under the name “Nativity of Our Lady”; later it was known as Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, but it was usually just called St. Mary’s. It closed in 2010. Some attempts were made to turn the building into apartments, but they ran into objections from neighbors and we know not what other troubles; currently the building is vacant, though with building permits dated 2015 and 2019 in the front window.

    Tower

    The distinctive high domes of these towers were not part of the original plan when the new church was first announced in September of 1948, as we can see from this sketch by the architect.

    From the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, September 4, 1948.
    Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Church
    Nativity of Our Lady Church
    Side entrance
    Entrance to the parking lot
    Pillar
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    If there must be parking lots, they should be marked by architectural elements in keeping with their buildings—like these pillars at the parking-lot entrance for St. Mary’s.

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  • Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple

    Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    Built in 1916, the Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple was designed by Alden & Harlow. Mr. Alden had already been dead for eight years, but his famous name was kept at the head of the firm; Howard K. Jones, whose name was not added to the firm (as “Alden, Harlow & Jones”) until 1927, was doing much of the design work by 1916, and may have had a large hand in this building.

    It’s a curious structure, two-thirds basement. Often lodge halls were put on upper floors to provide rentable storefronts on the ground floor that would pay for the building, but that is obviously not the case here. Perhaps the reason may be sought in pure symbolism. Whatever goes on in this building (which the uninitiated are not permitted to know) is so lofty that even the members must ascend through two and a half levels of basement before they can reach the main event.

    A full-page photograph in the Architectural Record from 1925 shows us that the front of the building has not changed in any noticeable way, except for the new doors and windows:

    1925 photo of the Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple.
    From the Architectural Record, September, 1925.

    Unlike some other landmark buildings in Wilkinsburg, this one has been preserved by new occupants, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque, who clearly love the building and keep it in sparkling condition. Even the inscription and the cartouche have been attractively covered, not obliterated, by the Muslim community.

    Wilkinsburg Masonic Temple
    Olympus E-20N.
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  • Courthouse Lion

    Courthouse Lion
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Of all the hundreds of lions on buildings downtown, the Romanesque lions that guard the county courthouse are the most distinctive. They used to be at street level, but the lowering of the Hump, the awkward hill that used to make navigating downtown even more difficult than it is now, left them stranded far above pedestrians’ heads.

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  • Entrance to the Jones & Laughlin Headquarters Building

    Entrance to the Jones & Laughlin Headquarters Building
    Samsung Digimax V4.

    MacClure & Spahr designed the headquarters for Jones & Laughlin, which is now the John P. Robin Civic Building. The entrance is lavishly decorated. The angle below shows off two of the most impressive lanterns in the city.

    Entrance to the John P. Robin Civic Building
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    More pictures of the Jones & Laughlin Headquarters Building: front of the building, from the southeast, and the construction of the second stage of the building.

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  • Early Scheibler in Park Place

    226 East End Avenue
    Olympus E-20N.

    Built in 1903, this apartment building on East End Avenue was one of the early works of our future prophetic modernist Frederick Scheibler, while he was still in his classical phase. It is listed as No. 16, “Apartment building for Robinson and Bruckman,” in the Catalogue of the Works of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr., in The Progressive Architecture of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr., by Martin Aurand (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994).

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  • Modern Apartments on Neville Street, Oakland

    Mark Twain Apartments

    In the boom years after the Second World War, new housing couldn’t be built fast enough to satisfy the demand. Architects were busy, and modernism was the rage. The Mark Twain and the Stephen Foster brought clean modern lines to Neville Street and doubtless filled up as soon as they were opened to eager renters.

    Stephen Foster Apartments
    Mark Twain and Stephen Foster
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.
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  • Rebuilding the Diamond in 2010

    The Diamond under construction in 2010

    The Diamond or Market Square is our most fussed-with public space. Here we see it being completely reconfigured fifteen years ago, and that reconfiguration is now being completely reconfigured. This view of Pittsburgh has changed more than most in the past decade and a half; two landmark skyscrapers, the Tower at PNC Plaza and Tower Two-Sixty, have risen on spots once occupied by low buildings in the background.

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