Father Pitt

Category: Bellevue

  • Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Bellevue, in 1958

    A beautifully composed picture of the interior of Emmanuel’s taken in February of 1958 by an unknown wedding photographer. The church is now a nondenominational church called Christ the King (which sounds like a very Lutheran name), and the congregation keeps it up beautifully, as we can see in the rest of these pictures. Old Pa Pitt must apologize for the lighting: the sun was from exactly the wrong direction.

    This church is obviously the work of an architect of no little skill, and Father Pitt would be delighted if someone could identify who it was. —Update: Father Pitt identifies Allison & Allison as the architects. Source: Philadelphia Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide, April 22, 1908: “At Pittsburg, architects Allison & Allison, Westinghouse Building, are receiving bids for the erection of a Lutheran church at Bellevue, Pa. The cost will be $15,000. Rev. Hankey is in charge.”

    Emmanuel Lutheran Church
    Emmanuel Lutheran Church
    Blessing and honor and glory and power

    Here is a map with a pointer at the church.

  • Church of the Epiphany, Bellevue/Avalon

    Church of the Epiphany

    This church sits right across the line from Bellevue in Avalon, but it is often listed as the Church of the Epiphany of Bellevue. It was built in 1912–1913, and the architects were Vrydaugh and Wolfe, who also designed Warwick House and (as Vrydaugh and Shepherd with T. B. Wolfe) Calvary Methodist in Allegheny West. This is one of our increasingly rare black-stone churches; every stone church in Pittsburgh used to look like this.

    California Avenue front
    Sign

    Though it is no longer active as a church, everything but the sign seems well kept and loved.

    Home Avenue side

    Addendum: Just this month (August 2023), this building was awarded a plaque by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.

  • Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

    This splendid church was designed by Bellevue’s own Leo A. McMullen, an architect and organist who is almost forgotten today, but whose works were highly regarded in his time. The American Institute of Architects counted him as one of “six architects who shaped Pittsburgh,” according to his obituary in 1963.

    The four evangelists—Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke, in that order—are lined up on the façade, each holding open a book that displays the first words of his Gospel.

    Church of the Assumption
    Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.