Now the Smithfield United Church of Christ, and it has had several other names. This lacy spire has an honored place in history as the first structural use of aluminum. (The aluminum point on the Washington Monument was just a lump of aluminum set on top, not a structure.) The architect Henry Hornbostel’s other experiment in this building, the use of decorative concrete panels on the exterior walls, has not held up as well; for years the rest of the building has been shrouded in netting to prevent bits of concrete from raining on pedestrians. Below is a picture Father Pitt took of the tower in 2000, before the shrouds went up.
St. Ann’s was built in our most Hungarian neighborhood for Hungarian Catholics. The cornerstone was laid in 1919; the congregation worshiped in the basement of the unfinished building for a few years, and finished the church in 1925. The church closed in 1998, and the building was sold; its current owners have kept it from falling down.1 That is as much as old Pa Pitt knows about the church, other than what you see in these pictures.
From the front, the church seems extremely tall, with its sanctuary upstairs from the main entrance. However, Hazelwood is a neighborhood mostly built on a slope, and the altar end of the sanctuary is at ground level. The cross in a circle on the façade was originally a rose window.
A small church that still belongs to Lutherans, now as Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Chapel (a Missouri Synod congregation). It is an exception to the general rule that Lutherans did not build corner-tower auditorium churches; the shape of the tiny lot dictated the shape of the church. The slope dictated that the sanctuary would be on the second floor if you enter from the front, but the ground floor if you enter from the back.
This elegantly proportioned corner-tower church is currently vacant. Doesn’t some artist need a distinctive studio? Think of what you could do with the auditorium and three floors of school next to it!
John L. Beatty, who designed a number of good Gothic churches in our area, was the architect of this grand church for the First United Presbyterian congregation of Crafton.1
The dates of the foundation of the congregation (1908) and the building of the current church (1927).
The congregation had money for two huge windows in the 1960s or 1970s.
“Crafton Church to Build,” Gazette Times, February 15, 1927. “The First United Presbyterian Church of Crafton is having plans prepared for a new church building to seat 500 persons at the corner of Bradford and Haldane streets, Crafton. The Rev. A. W. Caldwell is pastor. John L. Beatty is architect.” ↩︎
Here is something that may be unique in the city of Pittsburgh: a timber-framed temporary Catholic church building that not only still stands but is also still in use as a church, now as part of Blessed Trinity parish. Holy Angels was built in 1903, and, as an article in the Post at the time of the dedication explained, it was not meant to be the church for long.
The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Angels, Hays borough, will be dedicated to-day with appropriate ceremonies. Rt. Rev. Bishop Canevin will have charge of the ceremonies. On his arrival he will be escorted to the church by the societies of the congregation. The celebrant at the high mass will be Father Thomas Devlin, rector of Holy Cross, Pittsburg; Father Charles Hipp, of St. Joseph’s, Allegheny, deacon; Father John Barry, of St. Brigid’s, subdeacon, and Father Hegarty, master of ceremonies. Bishop Canevin will preach in English and Father Stephen J. Schramm, of St. George’s, will speak in German.
In November of 1902 the congregation purchased the old Risher homestead for $14,000, which has been used for a rectory. The church to be dedicated is regarded by the congregation as a temporary place of worship till a larger church building is erected. It will then be used for parochial school purposes.
Rev. David Hegarty, the energetic and beloved rector of Holy Angels, Hays borough, was born in Fayette county, Pa., May 5, 1870. His early schooling was obtained in the public institutions. He entered St. Vincent’s college and seminary at Beatty, Pa., in 1891. On completing his studies he was ordained in the seminary July 7, 1900, by Bishop Phelan. Father Hegarty recently recovered from an almost fatal attack of typhoid fever. The dedication of the new church was deferred until his complete recovery.1
A history page at the diocesan site tells us that the original foundation was wood, but when the church began to sink, the building was raised up and a new concrete-block parish hall built under it.2 Over the years the church has been remodeled and improved, but this temporary wooden building is still standing and still serving worshipers after nearly a century and a quarter.
H. Childs Hodgens was the architect of this church, which was built in 1911.1 It has not been M. P. for a good while; currently it is shared by the House of Prayer for All Slavic Christian Church and the Congregation Yeshua Ben David.
Source: The Construction Record, September 30, 1911: “Foundations are in for the $15,000 brick and stone church, to be erected on William Pitt Boulevard and Lilac street, Squirrel Hill, for the Squirrel Hill Methodist Protestant Congregation, from plans drawn by Architect H. C. Hodgens, Vandergrift building.” William Pitt Boulevard is now Beechwood Boulevard. ↩︎
A good example of the kind of arts-and-crafts Gothic that was popular for churches in the first quarter of the twentieth century, usually defined by broad Perpendicular Gothic windows, corner towers, and simple but elegantly crafted woodwork. The architect was S. A. Hamel, about whom old Pa Pitt knows little so far other than that he designed some churches south of the rivers and lived on Giffin Avenue, just two blocks away from this church. Mr. Hamel was associated with a real-estate broker named James A. Griffith, who sold this lot to the church and probably recommended the architect. It seems the congregation was not disappointed: the same congregation still owns the building, and a picture published when the church was dedicated in early 1919, though the scan is poor, is clear enough to show us that almost nothing has been altered.
The congregation was originally German Baptist. The earlier home of the congregation, when it was known as the First German Baptist Church, is also still standing on the South Side; it now belongs to the Holy Assumption of St. Mary Orthodox congregation.
When ground was broken for this building, an article in the Press related the history of the congregation.
Ground Broken for New Temple Baptist Church
Ground has been broken for the new Temple Baptist church, to be erected at Brownsville rd. and Onyx st., Mt. Oliver, at a cost of $50,000. The plans, drawn by Architect S. A. Hamel, call for a handsome structure of rough brick of odd coloring, creating a beautiful effect, and the congregation, which now is holding services at Birmingham and Hays aves., Carrick, anticipates being in its new home before the end of the year.
The Temple Baptist congregation is the oldest German Baptist congregation in Pittsburg and vicinity, and formerly was known as the First German Baptist, the word German now having been dropped from its title.
Formerly services were held in the old church at South Nineteenth st. and Carey ay., where, for 60 years the congregation worshiped, but recently the property was sold to the Greek Orthodox congregation. A chapel that had been maintained by the Baptist congregation at Hays and Phillips aves., Carrick, also has been disposed of and now is being used by the Carrick Red Cross. Since Rev. A. P. Mihm, the pastor, assumed charge three years ago, the membership has enjoyed a steady and substantial growth.
In honor of Reformation Day, here is a Lutheran church. O. M. Topp, for a generation the favorite choice of Lutherans, designed this neat Gothic church, which was built in 1929, as we see from the cornerstone.1 But, oddly, the cornerstone says that the church is the Sunday school.
That’s because things didn’t go exactly as planned. This was meant to become the Sunday-school wing, temporarily serving as the sanctuary until the much larger church was built. But then the Depression came, and then the war, and the big church was never built. Instead, when the congregation was finally ready to expand in 1960, it was decided to keep this building as the sanctuary, and a large modern Sunday-school wing was built beside it.
The architect’s drawing shows us that nothing on the outside has changed except for the encrustation of newer building to the left.
This church was built in 1927, but it is very similar to churches built half a century before that. Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists enthusiastically adopted the Akron Plan at the turn of the twentieth century, building square auditorium-style churches, often with big corner towers. The auditorium plan made sense in a church where the emphasis was on preaching. Lutherans, Catholics, and Episcopalians stuck to the traditional center-aisle church plan, because their emphasis was on liturgy.
The architect was John A. Long,1 who by this time was one of the old reliables in Pittsburgh. The church is no longer Lutheran, but it is neatly kept by the current occupants, the Agapé Life Church.
