Father Pitt

Author: Father Pitt

  • Shields Chapel and Mausoleum, Edgeworth

    Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
    Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

    The Shields Chapel was built in 1868 as a Presbyterian church donated by Eliza Leet Shields, extremely rich person, on the grounds of her estate. After sitting vacant for a long time, it is now occupied by the second congregation of Grace Anglican Church.

    Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

    Next to the church is what appears to be another church, immemorially ancient; but it is actually the Shields family mausoleum, built in 1893. Apparently no mere cemetery was classy enough for the Shields family. This is an enormous mausoleum, as big as a church, and in fact Grace Anglican’s congregation met in it before the Shields Chapel became available. There is space for thirty-six permanent residents here, of which number eighteen have already moved in.

    Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.

  • Poinsettias at the Phipps Winter Flower Show

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    Breeders have been working on our friend the poinsettia. There is no need to be content with plain old red when you can have gnarled pink or candy-striped.

    For extra credit, if you visit Phipps during the show (which continues through January 11), point out to your friends the other exceedingly dissimilar species of Euphorbia, the genus that includes poinsettias, that are planted along with the poinsettias as a sort of botanical in-joke.

    Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

  • Avalon United Presbyterian Church

    Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

    This splendid building was put up in about 1906 (Update: It was in the planning stages at the end of 1906; see the end of this article.) It has not been used as a church for about a quarter-century, but it is still kept scrupulously beautiful by the current owners. Compare Father Pitt’s photograph above with the old postcard below, printed when the church was very new (to judge by the utter lack of bushes or other landscaping).

    The style is interesting: old Pa Pitt might almost call it Richardsonian Gothic. It has the heaviness of the Romanesque style that Richardson was famous for, but with pointed arches—only just barely pointed, however, as if they are a little embarrassed about being caught in their Gothicness.

    Addendum: The architects were Allison & Allison. Source: The American Architect and Building News, December 1, 1906: “Avalon, Pa.—Architects Allison & Allison, Westinghouse Building, Pittsburg, have prepared plans for a stone church for the U. P. congregation, Avalon. Address the architects.” Now a private home, but beautifully kept.

  • Schenley Park Café and Visitor Center

    Schenley Park visitors’ center

    Father Pitt believes that buildings in public parks should all look like this: neat and attractive, with some suggestion that they might have been built by gnomes. It was built in 1910 from a design by Rutan and Russell. In the foreground we see one of the splendid dolphin drinking fountains designed for Pittsburgh’s parks by Frank Vittor.

    Update: In an earlier version of this article, the building was attributed to Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the successors to H. H. Richardson. Father Pitt has long forgotten where he got that information, but it was wrong; Rutan had left that firm twenty years before this building went up, and partnered with Russell in 1896.

    Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

  • Phipps at Dusk

    The exterior of the Victoria Room, late on a midwinter afternoon.

    Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

  • Winter Flower Show at Phipps

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

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    The Winter Flower Show continues through January 11.

  • Laughlin Memorial Library, Ambridge

    This splendid library was built in 1929 from a design by Eric Fisher Wood, who is perhaps most famous for collaborating with Henry Hornbostel on the extravagant memorial to America’s great president Warren G. Harding.

  • The Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge

    Seen here from 11th Street in Ambridge. The bridge opened in 1926; and, considering the location, it will not greatly surprise you to learn that it was put up by the American Bridge Company.

  • Harmonist Church, Old Economy Village

    Still an active church, now as a Lutheran congregation, which would have annoyed George Rapp to no end, since he escaped from Lutheran persecution in Germany. This church was probably designed by George Rapp himself; it was built with bricks made by the Harmonists on site, and it was finished in 1831. The clock tower is delightful and distinctive, but the clock has stopped.

  • Old Economy Village

    The Harmony Society was founded by George Rapp, a German peasant who declared himself a prophet. The Harmonists were persecuted by Lutherans in Württemberg as threats to social order, so Rapp led his followers to America, where they soon proved that they were actually quite good at social order. They settled first in Harmony, and then moved for ten years to New Harmony in Indiana. In 1824, they ended up in Economy, now the northern end of Ambridge. In each settlement, they lived comfortable and virtuous lives, and—perhaps more admirable in American citizens—they made good money in business. They prized celibacy as a superior state, however, and the community eventually withered away.

    Old Economy Village is something like the Williamsburg of Western Pennsylvania. The streets are full of simple and well-built brick houses, the smell of boxwood is in the air, and there is a notable absence of ugly overhead wires.

    The George Rapp house. The Harmonists were a society of equals, but George Rapp was considerably more equal than the others.

    The cemetery. There are no gravestones in a Harmonist graveyard; such ostentation is unnecessary, since Christ will know his own.