Father Pitt

Category: Bellevue

  • Borough Hall, Bellevue

    Borough hall

    E. T. Sanderson, an architect who has not made a big impression on old Pa Pitt so far, designed the Bellevue Borough Hall,1 and it has changed little since it was built in 1910.

    Front elevation of Borough Hall
    Thanks to David Schwing for pointing out this illustration.

    Mr. Sanderson’s prettily rendered front elevation was published in The Builder for July, 1909. From it we can see that the terra-cotta ornamentation was radically simplified between initial design and construction: what would have been an elaborately stacked Renaissance entrance with pilasters and pediment was pared down to a much more modern-looking terra-cotta frame.

    Inscription: Borough Hall

    Terra cotta is very good for decorative inscriptions.

    Date stone: 1910
    Long side of Borough Hall
    Top of the tower

    The tower has some pleasing Arts-and-Crafts woodwork.

    Perspective view of the building from the tower end
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
    1. Proposals, Pittsburgh Post, April 4, 1910, p. 4: “Sealed proposals for a low pressure gravity heating apparatus for the basement and first story of the borough hall, Bellevue, Pa., in accordance with plans and specifications on file at the office of E. T. Sanderson, architect, 704 Empire Bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa.…” ↩︎

    Addendum: We reprint the descriptive text that went with the architect’s drawing above:

    The Proposed Borough Hall

    The proposed borough hall at Bellevue, Pa. was designed by Architect E. T. Sanderson, Pittsburgh. It contains a high basement and two stories. The lower end of the basement is a full story above the ground and contains quarters for the fire department, consisting of a room for the ladder truck and hose wagon and the stables and also a room for apparatus that may be purchased in the future.

    There is also a hose tower for drying the hose and at the top of this tower is the fire bell. On this floor are also located the police department headquarters, with cell room, headquarters room, locker room, etc. The office of the burgess is also located on this floor, as is the heating apparatus.

    On the main floor is the council chamber, which is of ample size with committee rooms adjoining it. here also are the offices of the borough officials and a wide staircase leads from the entrance hall to the auditorium on the floor above. The rear portion of the first floor is given over to rooms for the firemen, consisting of lounging and reading rooms, billiard room, locker room, card room and toilet.

    The upper floor is largely taken up with the assembly hall or auditorium, which contains an ample stage, with dressing rooms at either side. This assembly hall has a seating capacity of about five hundred.

    At the rear of the hall are retiring rooms for men and women and also a large serving room.

    The exterior of the building is of brick and terra cotta with a green tile roof.

    Comments

  • Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Church of the Assumption with fall colors

    Leo McMullen of Comès, Perry & McMullen was the architect of the grandest church in his hometown of Bellevue. We have seen this church in detail before, including the front, the interior, the carvings of Adam and Eve at the entrance, the gargoyles, the curious grotesque brackets, and the stained glass. But a cathedral-sized church like this always has more to show us, and the changing season brings us the added delight of fall color.

    Church of the Assumption
    Cornerstone
    Carved ornament
    Lamb over the entrance
    Niche on the tower
    Carved frieze
    Side entrance
    Capital and base of arch
    Front elevation
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Bellevue Gables, Bellevue

    Glimpse of Bellevue Gables through the trees

    When demand exceeds supply in the housing market, as it did for quite a while after the Second World War, apartment buildings can be plain brick boxes. It is enough to say, “Here is a place to live, and if you pinch your pennies you can probably afford it.” But in the 1930s, it was necessary to give people a good reason to pick your building over any of the other places people could live. Thus apartment buildings tended to sell a fantasy: live here and you will be the kind of aristocrat you always knew you deserved to be.

    Bellevue Gables entrance and terraces

    Bellevue Gables peddles that fantasy and does a good job of it. Especially on the Sprague Avenue side, the stone terraces and lush landscaping make the approach to the entrances feel like walking into one of the Stately Homes of England.

    Bellevue Gables sign and entrance

    Rudolph Berg, Jr., was the owner, the builder, and the architect. He had suffered much in the Depression: when old Pa Pitt went looking for his name in the papers in the 1930s, he had to plow through pages and pages of sheriff’s sales before he came across any construction listings. But by 1939, when Bellevue Gables opened, he seems to have recovered and was ready to get back into the apartment-development business on a grand scale.

    Open Today: Bellevue Gables, designed for better living.
    Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, May 7, 1939, part 4 page 16.
    Sprague Avenue face
    Sprague Avenue face of Bellevue Gables
    Stone wall
    End of the complex

    The complex is two buildings, one along Sprague Avenue and one along Hawley Avenue.

    End of the Sprague Avenue building
    End of the Sprague Avenue building
    Hawley Avenue side
    Entrance
    Entrance
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
    Comments

  • Odd Fellow–Rebekah Temple, Bellevue

    Odd Fellow–Rebekah Temple

    We give the Odd Fellows credit for their early recognition that women could be odd, too: they were the first fraternal order in the country to have a women’s degree. The Rebekahs have moved out of this little temple, though, and it is about to turn into a beer garden. Bellevue was a dry town until 2015, but since then it has adopted craft beer in a big way.

    Inscription: Odd Fellow–Rebekah Temple

    The inscription includes the three-link Odd Fellows emblem.

  • Bellevue Presbyterian Church

    Front view of Bellevue Presbyterian Church

    There were two large Presbyterian churches around the corner from each other in Bellevue, both called Bellevue Presbyterian. The other one was the United Presbyterian congregation, and old Pa Pitt will pause for a moment to let the laugh track do its job. The church we see here was later called Northminster Presbyterian, and it is now home to the New Life Community Church.

    Oblique view of the church

    Of course, in the glory days of steel and coal, the building was not quite so pale, as we see in this old postcard:

    Postcard of the church with sooty black stones

  • Assumption School, Bellevue

    Assumption School, Bellevue

    Although we don’t find it listed among his works, Father Pitt suspects that this school may have been designed by John T. Comès. The polychrome brickwork and crenellations remind us of some of his more famous churches, and the fact that the parish hired his disciple Leo McMullen to design the main church after Comès was dead may be suggestive. If anyone at the parish knows who designed this building, Father Pitt would greatly appreciate a comment.

    Obviously the parish was getting ready for a festival when old Pa Pitt stopped by a few weeks ago.

    Front of Assumption School

  • Bellevue Methodist Protestant Church

    Bellevue Methodist Protestant Church

    This elaborately stony Gothic church is small but rich; it seems to represent an American Christian’s fantasy of the Middle Ages. It is no longer active as a church, but the building is kept in good shape by the current occupants, “The Center of Bellevue.” The gargoyles on the tower are distinctive and impressive.

    Gargoyle
    Bellevue Methodist Protestant Church
    Inscription
    Bellevue Methodist Protestant Church

    This was the Methodist Protestant church, as the inscription informs us. Bellevue’s Methodist Episcopal congregation built just across the border in West Bellevue, now Avalon, where the congregation still meets in what has become known as the Greenstone Church.

  • Bellevue Christian Church

    Bellevue Christian Church

    Here is a little Arts-and-Crafts Romanesque church that had money at the wrong time. The modern addition (probably 1960s or early 1970s) is not sympathetic to the church behind it. The elaborate modernist window in the front probably replaced an earlier decorative window; perhaps the church had a fire. If a member of the congregation has any information, old Pa Pitt would be grateful for it.

    Bellevue Christian Church

  • Stained Glass in the Church of the Assumption

    Stained glass, Church of the Assumption

    The drama of salvation plays out in glass in the Church of the Assumption, with each pair of windows illustrating events from the Old and New Testaments related by a common theme. We have only a few of the windows here; it would be worth spending an hour or two to examine all of them. Above left: King Achab sends Micheas to prison; the Agony in the Garden; King Joram rejects the prophecy of Eliseus. Above right: Abner is slain treacherously by Joab; Judas betrays Christ with a kiss; Tryphon deceives Jonathan with gifts.

    Stained glass

    Left: Joseph is sold by his brethren; Judas conspires with the priest and magistrates; Absalom entices the men of Israel. Right: Melchisedech meets Abram; the Last Supper; the manna from heaven.

    Stained glass

    Left: Esau sells his birthright to Jacob; the Temptation of Christ; the tempting of Adam and Eve. Right: Moses heals Miriam; Mary Magdalene at the feet of Christ; the repentance of David.

    Stained glass

    Left: Enoch is borne to heaven; the Ascension; Elias is raised into heaven. Right: Moses receives the tables of the Law; the descent of the Holy Ghost as fire from heaven; the sacrifice of Elias.

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.

  • Adam and Eve on the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Adam

    To enter the Church of the Assumption, you pass through an arch held up by Adam and Eve just after the Fall.

    Eve

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.