Father Pitt

Category: Carnegie

  • Congregation Ahavath Achim, Carnegie

    Congregation Ahavath Achim

    Ahavath Achim (“Brotherly Love”) is an independent Jewish congregation that describes itself as “traditional, but egalitarian,” meaning that women and men participate equally in traditional Hebrew services. The synagogue was founded in 1903, and the modest and tidy little building blends two styles so successfully that drivers on busy Chestnut Street probably don’t notice the blending. When you stop and look, though, you can see that the foyer is a modernist addition on an early-twentieth-century synagogue. The bricks are matched, however, and the sharply drawn lines of the addition seem to fit well with the early-modern rectangularity of the main building.

    Inscription: “Ahavath Achim Congregation”
    Front with foyer
    Foyer
    Congregation Ahavath Achim
    Star of David
    Congregation Ahavath Achim
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Church of the Atonement, Carnegie

    Church of the Atonement
    Utility cables were removed from this picture, because Father Pitt could not remove them from the street.

    With almost complete confidence, old Pa Pitt attributes this Episcopal church to Ingham & Boyd. It speaks the same dialect of Gothic as some of their other churches, and they are known to have designed the parish house that was built just before the church. However, Father Pitt has not yet found the documentary evidence that would remove the “almost” from his statement.

    Cornerstone of the Church of the Atonement

    The cornerstone was laid on October 5, 1930. At the same time, one stone taken from the foundation of Old St. Luke’s in nearby Woodville was also laid in the foundation of this church, to tie it to the pre-Revolutionary tradition of Episcopalianism in Allegheny County.1

    Door of the Church of the Atonement
    Foliage ornament
    Lantern
    Cross on the roof
    Church of the Atonement
    Parish house
    Olympus E-20N.

    This parish house is known from several listings to have been the work of Ingham & Boyd,2 and it was built just a little before the church itself. The architects looked to vernacular Western Pennsylvania farmhouses for their inspiration. We do not know what inspired the designer of the modern vestibule.

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  • Old Post Office, Carnegie

    Old post office in Carnegie
    Olympus E-20N.

    Oscar Wenderoth was director of the Office of the Supervising Architect, which was responsible for designing federal buildings all over the country. Even though he was in office for only about three years, from 1912 to 1915, those were very productive years, and the nation is littered with post offices that bear his name. This one is typical of the buildings put up under his supervision—respectably classical, with big arched windows to let light pour into the main lobby. The post office has moved into a much duller building down the street, but as the Carnegie Coffee Company this building is beautifully kept and a lively gathering place for the town.

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  • Harding School, Carnegie

    Inscription: Harding School

    In 1922, President Harding was popular—just about as popular as any president since Washington had ever been. He was a little less popular a few years later, after he had died and members of his circle who had not shot themselves began serving prison terms. But the name seems not to have been enough of an embarrassment to change the inscription on the school. It retains that inscription in its new life as a retirement home more than a century later.

    Harding School

    The first school on this site was the old Chartiers Public School (we assume the date 1878 refers to the building of that school). In 1922, this much larger building went up around the old school—for it appears that the original school may still exist, invisible under a layer of 1922 construction.

    Entrance to the Harding School

    The architect of the new school was Frank M. Crooks, the M. standing for McCandless, who was a lifelong resident of the little town of McDonald west of Carnegie.

    Door, Harding School
    Harding School
    Harding School
    Olympus E-20N; Samsung A15 5G.
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  • Deutche Vereinigte Evangelische-Protestantische Johannes Kirche, Carnegie

    Deutche Vereinigte Evangelische-Protestantische Johannes Kirche

    This old church was built in 1872, just a few years after the Civil War. It is now (according to neighbors) used for storage of lumber and building materials. Because money is not spent on extensive alterations, storage is, from a preservation point of view, one of the best uses that can be found for a church. Several Southern churches from the 1600s were preserved because they were turned into barns in the late 1700s, when the future Bible Belt was the most irreligious section of the country.

    Deutche Vereinigte Evangelische-Protestantische Johannes Kirche
    Inscription

    Inscription: “St. John’s German United Evangelical Protestant Church, A. D. 1872.”

    Ornament
    Deutche Vereinigte Evangelische-Protestantische Johannes Kirche
    Olympus E-20N; Samsung A15 5G.
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  • Chartiers Creek, Carnegie

    Chartiers Creek and Main Street bridge, Carnegie

    Chartiers Creek, as it runs through the middle of Carnegie, is a placid minor river—most of the time. Every once in a while it becomes a raging demon and floods most of the town. Here we see the Main Street bridge, with the Husler Building at right.

    Main Street bridge and Husler Building
    Olympus E-20N.
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  • A Stroll on East Main Street in Carnegie

    2 East Main Street

    Main Street in Carnegie has a good assortment of styles from mid-Victorian on. Here we walk up the eastern half of the street, taking in a few of the buildings we haven’t separately noted.

    17 East Main Street
    21–33 East Main Street
    25 East Main Street
    27 East Main Street
    31 and 33
    31 and 33
    38–34
    144
    Brown’s Block
    230 East Main Street
    Corba Funeral Home
    Corba Funeral Home
    Pediment
    337 East Main Street
    Olympus E-20N; Nikon COOLPIX P100; Sony Alpha 3000.
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  • Dual Presbyterians in Carnegie

    First Presbyterian Church, Carnegie

    This church, formerly First Presbyterian of Carnegie, now belongs to the Attawheed Islamic Center, which keeps the building up beautifully and lavishes a lot of attention on the landscaping. We can see from an old postcard from the Presbyterian Historical Society collection (undated, but probably about 1900) that this side of the building has hardly changed at all—except for the improvement in the landscaping. Even the stained glass is intact, since it is not representational and therefore causes no offense to Islamic principles.

    Old postcard of First Presbyterian Church
    Rear of the church

    At least two layers of educational buildings are behind the church.

    Diagonally across Washington Avenue is another Presbyterian church…

    First United Presbyterian Church

    …but this one was First United Presbyterian. The United Presbyterians were a Pittsburgh-based denomination that finally merged with those other Presbyterians in 1958. The building now is used as a banquet hall.

    First United Presbyterian Church
    Towers
    First United Presbyterian Church
    Rear of the church
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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  • World War I Monument, Carnegie

    War Memorial

    Dedicated in 1931 to veterans of the Great War, this monument, with a new inscription, was rededicated to all who have served their country.

    World War I monument in Carnegie
    World War I memorial
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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  • Thompson Building, Carnegie

    Thompson Building, Carnegie

    Since we were talking about acute angles, here is a “flatiron” building at the acute angle of the intersection of Main Street and Washington Avenue in Carnegie. Pittsburgh and its surroundings are full of these triangular buildings, because Pittsburgh topography makes it very difficult to lay streets out in a simple grid.

    Thompson Building
    Sony Alpha 3000.
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