Category: Churches

  • South Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilkinsburg

    South Avenue United Methodist Church

    Wilkinsburg’s own Milligan & Miller designed this rambling Gothic church, which is still in use by its original congregation, now South Avenue United Methodist. “One of the most important additions to the structural beauty of the place,” said a 1907 Pittsburg Press feature on Wilkinsburg,1 “will be the new South Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, which is to replace the old burned down last February. It is to cost $125,000 and will be one of the finest church buildings in the community. The construction is under the charge of Architects Milligan & Miller, who designed the plans.”

    South Avenue United Methodist Church
    Entrance
    Lantern

    Impressive stone lanterns flank the front steps.

    Cloister
    Olympus E-20N; Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    An arcaded porch after the manner of a medieval cloister runs along the side.

    1. “Old Town of Aspect All Modern,” Press, July 14, 1907. ↩︎

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  • Nativity of Our Lady Church, Greenfield

    Nativity of Our Lady Church

    The architect of this Byzantine-modern church was Charles J. Pepine, who designed a number of postwar churches in our area.1 It was dedicated in 1949 under the name “Nativity of Our Lady”; later it was known as Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, but it was usually just called St. Mary’s. It closed in 2010. Some attempts were made to turn the building into apartments, but they ran into objections from neighbors and we know not what other troubles; currently the building is vacant, though with building permits dated 2015 and 2019 in the front window.

    Tower

    The distinctive high domes of these towers were not part of the original plan when the new church was first announced in September of 1948, as we can see from this sketch by the architect.

    From the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, September 4, 1948.
    Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Church
    Nativity of Our Lady Church
    Side entrance
    Entrance to the parking lot
    Pillar
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    If there must be parking lots, they should be marked by architectural elements in keeping with their buildings—like these pillars at the parking-lot entrance for St. Mary’s.


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  • Second Presbyterian Church, Wilkinsburg

    Second Presbyterian Church

    This fine corner-tower church, whose cornerstone was laid in 1911, was designed by O. M. Topp and Charles M. Hutchison.1 The plan was probably made in 1906, when a small chapel was put up with the intention of building the larger church when there was enough money. This is one of the very rare cases, incidentally, where the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation is wrong. The PHLF plaque has the church designed by F. Hoffman & Co.; but F. Hoffman & Co., was a Wilkinsburg contractor (probably the one that got the contract for the building), not an architectural firm.

    The congregation is gone, but some attempt is being made to restore the building as a Center for Civic Arts. Old Pa Pitt wishes the Center good fortune, because this fine building deserves to have a future, and Wilkinsburg deserves art. As we can see from this old postcard from the Presbyterian Historical Society collection, the building has hardly been altered at all:

    Old postcard of the church

    The congregation prospered, and in 1928 a large educational wing was built—now abandoned and in bad shape. The architect was Lawrence Wolfe, with O. M. Topp—by then one of the grand old men of Pittsburgh architecture—listed as “associate architect.”2

    Educational wing
    Shield with open book
    Crossed keys
    Educational wing
    Olympus E-20N; Nikon COOLPIX P100.

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  • Oakdale United Presbyterian Church

    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church

    A church in a typical Pittsburgh interpretation of Perpendicular Gothic. The stubby battlemented towers make it look like a chapel built into the wall of a castle; we would guess that the larger one was meant to hold up a spire. The white Kittanning brick gives some of the effect of stone without the expense of stone.

    Entrance
    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church
    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church

    Addendum: The architect was John A. Long; the church was built in about 1911.1

    Oakdale United Presbyterian Church
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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  • First Christian Church, Carnegie

    First Christian Church, Carnegie

    Update: Thanks to our correspondent David Schwing, we know the story of this church better. It was a Shingle-style frame church dedicated at the end of 1896.1 In 1953, it was “Perma-Stoned,”2 so that the end result is an odd mixture of Shingle-style forms—like the flared roof—and 1950s aesthetics.

    The original text of the article follows.


    Father Pitt is not quite sure what to call this style: maybe arts-and-crafts Mediterranean.

    First Christian Church, Carnegie

    The corner-tower entrance is typical of Pittsburgh churches, but the stone porch is not.

    First Christian Church, Carnegie
    First Christian Church, Carnegie
    Tower

    The arches and spindly columns of the belfry are the touch that says “Mediterranean” to old Pa Pitt.

    First Christian Church, Carnegie
    Olympus E20-N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    From this angle we can see that the building has the usual Pittsburgh problems to solve: the lot gains almost two floors’ worth of height from lower to upper corner.


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  • Dormition of the Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church, McKeesport

    Dome of Dormition of the Holy Virgin Church

    The star-spangled blue dome of this church is an almost startling sight rising above the streets of downtown McKeesport. The church, generally known as “St. Mary’s” by locals, was built in 1974 from a design by Sergei Padukow,1 a specialist in Russian churches who adapted very traditional Russian forms to a late-twentieth-century style.

    Dormition of the Holy Virgin

    The serviceable canopy over the side entrance replaced a much more characteristic original, as we see in this 1970s photograph.

    1970s photo of the side of the church, showing former canopy
    From “Our Eastern Domes, Fantastic, Bright…,” by James D. Van Trump. PHLF; reprinted from Carnegie Magazine.

    A comparison with this illustration of “a characteristic church” in Moscow (from from John L. Stoddard’s Lectures, 1898) shows us how neatly Padukow adapted traditional Russian forms to a modern idiom.

    A Characteristic Church, from John L. Stoddard’s Lectures
    Cornerstone with date 1974
    Front of the church
    Entrance
    Dormition of the Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church
    Sony Alpha 3000; Fujifilm Finepix HS10.

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  • Evangelical Congregational Church, McKeesport

    Evangelical Congregational Church

    New England Colonial style with an outsized octagonal tower that certainly commands attention.

    Evangelical Congregational Church
    Entrance
    Tower and spire of the Evangelical Congregational Church
    Evangelical Congregational Church
    Sony Alpha 3000.

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  • Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church, Carnegie

    Tower and Dome of Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church

    An Orthodox church founded by members of Sts. Peter & Paul next door who fell on the Orthodox side rather than the Byzantine Catholic side—though Sts. Peter & Paul would swing Orthodox years later. The blue domes, next to the gold domes of Sts. Peter & Paul, are one of the most striking features of the view of Carnegie from the Parkway.

    Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church

    We believe that the architect was Daniel A. Crone, notable for the Kaiser Torah synagogue and the old Tree of Life, later the Public Theater, demolished a few years ago. In August of 1919, he was taking bids “for a Greek Catholic Church for St. Mary’s Greek Catholic Church, Carnegie, Pennsylvania.”1 Russian Orthodox churches were often described as “Greek Catholic” in those days, and this one is dedicated to the Intercession of the Holy Virgin and built in 1920, so the attribution is very likely.

    Front of the church
    Domes of Holy Virgin Church
    Olympus E-20N.

    We also have pictures of Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church in the winter, when the leaves are off the trees.


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  • Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Carnegie

    Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church

    The mad genius, con man, and would-be dictator Titus de Bobula designed this church, which was built in 1906. Today and tomorrow the congregation is holding its annual Ukrainian food festival, which seems like a good time to celebrate the church and its ancillary buildings with a longer look than we’ve taken in the past.

    Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church

    The church has a complicated history, which you can read about on the parish site. We summarize it here. The congregation began as “St. Peter & St. Paul Russian Greek Catholic Church,” but what did “Greek Catholic” mean? The church was originally Byzantine Catholic, and just a few years after it was founded some members with Orthodox sympathies founded Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Church, whose blue domes you see just down the street. Then the church separated from the Roman church and briefly became Orthodox; then for quite some time it was independent; then its priest put it back in the Byzantine Catholic orbit; then there were lawsuits; and finally, in 1951, the church became Ukrainian Orthodox, as it still is. (The Byzantine Catholics founded their own church, which still flourishes as Holy Trinity on Washington Avenue.)

    Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church
    Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church
    Saints Peter and Paul
    Date stone with date 1961

    This date stone seems to mark extensive renovations in 1961.

    Cornerstone

    The original 1906 cornerstone is engraved in Titus de Bobula’s own distinctive Art Nouveau lettering—the same instantly recognizable lettering he used to sign his architectural renderings. On the other exposed side of the stone, we get to see his style applied to the Cyrillic alphabet.

    Cornerstone
    Domes
    Detail of the front
    Corner with urn
    Domes
    Apse
    Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church and hall

    Next to the church is the parish hall and school, which was designed by Harry H. Lefkowitz in 1928. Lefkowitz caught some of De Bobula’s quirks—note the tall, narrow blind side arches and the stonework over the central arch, for example—and created a building that fits with the church without being simply an imitation.

    Hall and school
    Hall and school
    Hall and school
    Hall and school
    Rectory

    Finally, the rectory is a simple house, but built of the same brick and with quoins proportioned to echo the brickwork of the church next to it.

    One more look at the church
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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  • First Methodist Episcopal Church, Carnegie

    Carnegie Methodist Episcopal Church

    Built in about 1893, this church was designed by James N. Campbell, who gave it his usual outsized corner tower with enormous open arches for the belfry. It was later known as Carnegie United Methodist Church, which left it a few years ago. But it appears to have been adopted as a community center by the prospering Attawheed Islamic Center next door in the old Presbyterian church, which the new owners obviously treasure and pour a lot of labor into, so we hope the future of the building is secure.

    Tower
    Carnegie Methodist Episcopal Church
    Rear of the church
    Closer view of the rear
    Olympus E-20N; Canon PowerShot SX150IS; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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