Father Pitt

Author: Father Pitt

  • It’s Forsythia Season

  • Phalaenopses at Phipps

    A massed planting of Phalaenopsis orchids at Phipps Conservatory.

  • Crocuses After the Rain

  • Daffodils After the Rain

  • Neomoorea irrorata

    A beautiful species of orchid from Colombia, not often seen in greenhouses. This one was blooming a week ago in the Orchid Room in Phipps Conservatory. Phipps will be closed for a while, but old Pa Pitt is doing his best to bring us some cheerful color.

  • Slipper Orchids in Phipps Conservatory

    Like most public institutions, Phipps Conservatory is closed for the next two weeks at least. While we wait patiently for life to return to normal, old Pa Pitt will be reaching down into his immense stash of unpublished pictures to bring us some cheery color. These three slipper orchids were blooming just a few days ago in the Orchid Room. Above: Paphiopedilum Golden Acres.

    Phragmipedium After Glo ‘John’s Happy Birthday.’

    Paphiopedilum Via Casa Grande x Chans Temple.

  • The Times Building

    Frederick Osterling found a niche for a while making Richardsonian Romanesque buildings in a city that couldn’t get enough of Richardsonian Romanesque once it got a look at Richardson’s courthouse. Osterling attacked the style with more enthusiasm than most, and his works are certainly more than just Richardson knockoffs. The rich detail of the Times Building (1892) is a good example of his work.

    The picture above was put together from ten individual photographs. Considering the narrow street, it is a very accurate rendering of the façade; but old Pa Pitt apologizes for a bit of fuzziness near the top. Below, the two grand arches of the Fourth Avenue entrance, with their wealth of intricate carved detail. [Addendum: The carving was almost certainly by Achille Giammartini, who also worked with Osterling on the Marine Bank and the Bell Telephone Building.]

    The Times Building runs all the way through from Fourth Avenue back to Third Avenue, and the Third Avenue entrance arch is certainly impressive.

  • Purple Dead-Nettle in Late Winter

    Purple Dead-Nettle (Lamium purpureum) growing from the stone wall under a railroad overpass at the back of the South Side Flats. In this sheltered position, it was already blooming in early March.

  • Bronze Doors on the Carnegie Institute Building

    It took tons of beautifully cast bronze to make the grand entrances on the original Carnegie Institute building, as opposed to the modern entrance in the Scaife Galleries addition, which takes a bunch of glass doors ordered from a catalogue.

  • Mount Lebanon Cemetery Office

    This fine vernacular-Gothic house serves as the gatehouse and office for the Mount Lebanon Cemetery, which was founded in 1901. It’s charmingly out of place in its neighborhood, which is a later development where most of the houses date from after the First World War.