Father Pitt

Author: Father Pitt

  • Lion on the Colonial Trust Building

    Another Fourth Avenue lion ornament, on a building that was a later work of Frederick Osterling.

  • Cherry Blossoms

  • Court Place in Chinatown

    Pittsburgh’s Chinatown was tiny but packed. Much of it was destroyed in the building of the Boulevard of the Allies after the First World War, but it remained a Chinese enclave for another decade or so, and Chinese businesses rebuilt along the stump of Second Avenue beside the Boulevard ramp.

    The Chinatown Inn is the only business remaining from the old days of Chinatown. Another Chinese restaurant is a modern addition. The rest of the two blocks remaining in Chinatown is mostly given over to lawyers’ offices.

    Addendum: The Chinatown Inn occupies the On Leong & Merchants Association building, designed by architect Sidney F. Heckert.

  • One Oxford Centre

    One Oxford Centre is a cluster of octagons put up during the 1980s construction boom downtown. In fact it was to have an even taller partner next to it, but that never materialized before the boom went bust. The architects were the firm of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, now known as HOK, currently the biggest architectural firm in the United States.

  • 311 and 321 First Avenue

    These two buildings are nearly identical, but differ in their decorative details. The cherubs on the pilaster capitals of number 321 are especially notable.

  • Narcissus After the Shower

  • Fancy Daffodils

  • Persian Speedwell

    These gorgeous sky-blue flowers would be garden treasures if they were a little bigger. They are tiny enough that many of us hardly even notice them in our lawns and sidewalk cracks. Veronica persica is a European import, like almost all our lawn weeds.

  • Grape Hyacinths

  • Lion on the Commercial National Bank Building

    No street in Pittsburgh, and possibly in the country, is denser with lions than Fourth Avenue. These little lions decorate the Commercial National Bank building by Alden & Harlow, one of the small but richly ornate banks that filled in the gaps between the famous bank towers.