Category: Banksville

  • The Oldest Church in Beechview Was in Banksville

    Former St. Catherine’s Church

    The current St. Catherine of Siena Church, today part of St. Teresa of Kolkata parish, inhabits a big warehouse-like building from the 1960s on Broadway in Beechview. But St. Catherine’s parish predates Beechview itself. It was originally in the heart of the village of Banksville, where it inhabited this frame building that still stands today, after many subsequent adventures.

    Old church in Beechview

    City planning maps like to draw neighborhood boundaries down the middle of major streets. This often leads to absurd divisions where the spine street of a neighborhood is marked as the neighborhood boundary, putting half the neighborhood in a different neighborhood—as in Garfield and Arlington, for example. Banksville is another example: the neighborhood boundary goes right through the center of the old town of Banksville, putting the eastern half of it in Beechview, including this church. But when it was built, this church was in the heart of Banksville, right across Bank Street (later Gorn Avenue and now the driveway for this building) from the Banksville post office, the site of which is also in Beechview according to city planning maps.

  • Ice Cascade in Banksville

    Icicles

    Every year this cliff face in Banksville grows a beautiful cascade of icicles, and old Pa Pitt has taken pictures of it more than once. Here it is again, and no excuse is necessary.

    Ice cascade
  • Wall of Ice in Banksville

    Wall of ice

    Every year the cliff behind Banksville Plaza grows a spectacular crop of icicles that merge into a wall of ice.

  • Wall of Ice

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

    Banksville Plaza is cut into a rocky hill, creating a sheer cliff face behind the shopping center. In the winter, ice coats the cliff face, creating this fascinating vertical landscape.

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERACamera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
  • Wall of Ice in Banksville

    Every year, this cliff behind a shopping center in Banksville grows a curtain of icicles. The unusually warm weather this year has made the curtain thinner and pointier.