Father Pitt

Category: Bridgeville

  • Three Houses on Station Street, Bridgeville

    245 Station Street

    Three fine houses in three different styles. We begin with a house in the fairy-tale style of the 1920s and 1930s, whose steeply pitched roof, open arch on the side of the house, and Jacobean entrance combine to give it a storybook picturesqueness.

    245 Station Street
    245 Station Street
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    A dignified version of Queen Anne style; some alterations have changed the original character a bit, but the house still leaves a strong impression of comfortable prosperity.

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    It is a little hard to tell what this house was originally; it may have begun as a Queen Anne house similar to the previous one, but it seems to have been accumulating expensive renovations over the years, so that today it is an eclectic but tasteful mixture.

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  • Facing Banks in Bridgeville

    Bridgeville Trust Company

    George S. Orth, who lived in Bridgeville, designed this building,1 which was put up in two stages, beginning in 1903 or 1904, for the Bridgeville Trust Company. If you look very carefully, you can see the seam in the middle of the long side along Station Street, marking the line between the original square building on the corner and the later addition behind it. At some time in the middle twentieth century, the ground floor was entirely redesigned to look more like a modern bank, so that only on the second floor is Orth’s work visible today. The building was still a bank (a branch of PNC) until just a few years ago.

    Bridgeville Trust Company
    First National Bank of Bridgeville

    Across the street, the First National Bank of Bridgeville was going up at the same time. James E. Allison was the architect of this one.2 Soon—probably while this building was still going up—he would take his brother David on as a partner in the firm of Allison & Allison. In 1910 they moved to Los Angeles, and they flourished there as architects of some of the most notable buildings in the city.

    First National Bank
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    1. Philadelphia Real Estate Record & Builder’s Guide, September 30, 1903, p. 341 (641; pages are misnumbered): “Architects G. S. Orth & Bros., Stevenson Building, have completed revised plans for the erection of a two-story brick bank and office building to be erected for the Bridgeville Trust Company, of Bridgeville, Pa. The cost will be about $20,000.” ↩︎
    2. Record & Guide, November 18, 1903, p. 763. “At Bridgeville, Allegheny county, the First National Bank will erect a building two stories high, of stone and brick, all modern conveniences. The plans have been prepared by J. E. Allison, Westinghouse Building, Pittsburg, Pa.” The building ended up with three floors, but Hopkins maps show the First National Bank at this location. ↩︎
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  • 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