Father Pitt

Category: Bridgeville

  • Universal Steel Company Office, Bridgeville

    Universal Steel Company office

    Charles J. Palmgreen was the architect of this fine Jacobean structure, which looks so much like a school that old Pa Pitt spent an hour trying to figure out which school it was before finally finding a picture of it in the Pittsburgh Press for March 23, 1927, which identified the building.

    “The office of the Universal Steel Co. on Station st., the most impressive office building in Bridgeville.”
    Universal Steel Company office
    Universal Steel Company office
    Terra cotta from the Corning Terra Cotta Company

    The terra-cotta decorations were supplied by the Corning Terra Cotta Company of Corning, New York, which we know from a booklet published by the company that listed dozens of buildings, including their architects, which is where we got the attribution to Mr. Palmgreen.

    Universal Steel Company office
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  • American Legion Post No. 54, Bridgeville

    American Legion post

    The honest Depression-era simplicity of this building, dated 1931 by the stone beside the front steps, is very attractive. The windows have been replaced; but they have not been blocked in, which sets this apart from almost every other men’s club in southwestern Pennsylvania. Perhaps the explanation lies in the fact that there is a large and mostly windowless basement with separate entrances.

    American Legion post
    American Legion post
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  • Old St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Bridgeville

    Old St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church

    The St. George congregation moved out of this little backstreet church a few years ago, building a much larger and more splendid church, with gilded domes and everything, just south of Bridgeville. A nondenominational congregation has taken it over and keeps the building in good shape. All the stained glass was removed when the building changed hands—except for Father Pitt’s favorite window, which was removed by the Antiochians themselves a few years before they left. It was in the lunette above the front door: a staring eye in glass, with the legend The eye of God is upon you.

    Old St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church
    Old St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church
    Old St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church
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  • Bridgeville Station

    Bridgeville Station

    Now the Kathleen Banks Building of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society.

    Kathleen Banks Building