Father Pitt

Category: Churches

  • St. John the Baptist Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church, Marshall-Shadeland

    St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church

    The congregation moved to a generic late-twentieth-century church building in the North Hills this year, finally following most of its members to the suburbs. (The congregation was secure enough to be able to move without taking out a loan, which is good news for them even if it’s bad news for the North Side.) That leaves this building in an uncertain state. Right now it is still being well maintained, but its neighborhood is not yet valuable. Perhaps with the revival of city living, it will be worth doing something with in the next few years.

    Cornerstone with a date of 1937

    The church was built in 1937, when the Depression was still with us and its congregation probably was not rich. The building is a curious construction in a style old Pa Pitt has decided to call “Modular Byzantine.” The parade of identical rectangles across the tall face of the church makes it look as though it was put together by a methodical and meticulous child playing with blocks.

    Corner view of the church, showing slope of lot

    Because of the extreme slope of the lot, the front has to be very tall if there is going to be any back at all. Since the main entrance is on the lower level, we can add this to our list of churches with the sanctuary upstairs.

    Dome with Byzantine cross

    The gold domes are a landmark on this section of California Avenue, and we hope they can be preserved.

  • Beechview Christian Church

    Beechview Christian Church

    The building now belongs to Mercy Intellectual Disabilities Services, which has altered it to suit a radically different purpose. But the outlines of the church are still clear. The architect was T. Ed. Cornelius,1 about whom Father Pitt knows nothing except that he seems to have had a fairly successful career designing middle-class houses and modest churches—this one was budgeted at $25,000 in 1923, which was not a great deal to spend on building a church.

    This is another case where old Pa Pitt went looking for one of his pictures and discovered that he had never published it. The picture was taken in August of 2022, but only recently did Father Pitt discover the name of the architect.

    1. Source: The American Contractor, June 9, 1923: “Church: $25,000. 1 sty. & bas. 60×80. Shiras av. & Broadway. Archt. T. Ed. Cornelius, Magee bldg. Owner The Beechview Christian Church, Shiras av. & Broadway. Brk. Drawing plans.” ↩︎

  • Calvary Christian Church, Marshall-Shadeland

    Calvary Christian Church, Marshall-Shadeland

    Chauncey W. Hodgdon had been practicing architecture for well over four decades when he designed this little church. It was built in about 1924,1 and this is Hodgdon on a small budget. He minimized expensive indulgences like stone trim and large windows, while still giving the congregation the respectable Gothic church it dreamed of. Now the building belongs to New Hope Church, which is keeping it in very good shape.

    New Hope Church
    1. Source: The American Contractor, August 11, 1923: “Church: Shadland [sic] av. & Dickson st. Archt. Chauncey W. Hodgdon, Martin bldg. Owner The Calvary Christ. Church. Rev. F. Fink, 3426 Cass st. Brk. & Stone. Archt. taking bids on super. to close Aug. 20.” ↩︎

  • Episcopal Church of the Messiah, Sheraden

    Episcopal Church of the Messiah

    Very few Shingle-style frame Gothic churches are left in Pittsburgh with their original wood siding: they usually get covered with artificial siding that obscures all the details and character of the building. How long this rare survivor from the 1890s will last is questionable: it belongs to the Pneuma Center for Biblical Guidance now, and it is always a temptation for organizations on a small budget to solve every problem with vinyl. So far the owners have kept the place beautifully.

    Front of the church
    With the attached parsonage

  • Emanuel Evangelical Church, Elliott

    Emanuel Evangelical Church

    If you were on a budget of only $20,000, which was fairly modest for a church, you could still get yourselves some distinguished architects to make the most of your money. Vrydaugh & Wolfe designed some huge millionaires’ mansions and a number of glorious stone churches, but they put their usual care into this little project as well, using inexpensive materials to the best effect.1 It was built as Emanuel Evangelical Church; later it became Emanuel United Methodist Church, and now it is New Destiny Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

    Corner view
    Lorenz Street façade
    Rear corner

    A small addition filled in one corner at some time when the church was a United Methodist congregation.

    Parsonage

    The attached parsonage is small but in perfect taste, neither too ostentatious nor unduly plain.

    1. The budget may have ended up being less than $20,000. As originally conceived, it would have been a stone-veneer building; perhaps the bricks were a later decision to shave some money off the cost. From the Construction Record, February 3, 1912: “Plans are being prepared by Architect Vrydaugh & Wolf, 347 Fifth avenue, for a one-story stone veneer church building for the Emanuel Evangelical Congregation, Crucible and Lorenza [sic] avenues. The building will be 85×100 feet and will cost $20,000.” ↩︎

  • Trinity German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Franklin Park

    Trinity German Evangelical Lutheran Church

    This little country church is now surrounded by suburbs, though there are still farms nearby. The date stone on the front of the building tells us it was built in 1868.

    Deutsche Evangelisch Lutherische Dreisallinkeits Kirche 1868
    Cupola
    From the side
    From the rear
    Cupola again
    Front of the church
    Trinity Lutheran Church, Franklin Park

  • Presbyterian Church, West End

    Tudor front of the church

    It seems to old Pa Pitt that the whole history of the West End is epitomized in this building.

    There was a Presbyterian church on this spot more than 150 years ago, marked “Un. Presb. Ch.” on an 1872 map. It was just around the corner from another kind of Presbyterian church (which is now a garage); even today Wikipedia lists more than 45 kinds of Presbyterians in the United States, and that is after a number of mergers and consolidations. In 1890 this is marked “A. F. Pres. Ch.,” and again in about 1903; but on a 1905 map it is marked “United Presbyterian Church,” and that is as much as Father Pitt can do to sort out the history of the congregation.

    At about the time of the First World War, the church had a little burst of prosperity and added this fashionable Tudor front.

    Oblique view of the church

    Later, the congregation fizzled out, and the building was heavily altered and taken over by Ceramiche Tile. Now Ceramiche is moving to the western suburbs, and this building is up for sale.

    The result is a building that—like much of the rest of the West End—is hard to sort out from both an architectural and a historical point of view. But the stone-and-half-timber front is an attractive ornament to Main Street, and we hope the building will find a sympathetic new owner.

  • Carved Ornaments on Bellefield Presbyterian Church

    Stone head from the side

    Originally the First United Presbyterian Church, this congregation merged with the Bellefield Presbyterian Church down the street, which sold its building (of which only the tower remains) and moved here, with the compensation that this church was renamed Bellefield Presbyterian. The building, designed by William Boyd and built in 1896, is festooned with a riot of carved Romanesque ornaments.

    Bellefield Presbyterian Church
    Door
    Ornaments around the door
    Cherub
    A different cherub
    Yet another cherub
    Cherub again

    Each one of these cherubs has a different face and different ornamental carving surrounding it.

    Capitals
    Different capitals
    Knotwork
    Frieze
    Angled frieze
    Winged cherub head
    Another face
    Bellefield Presbyterian Church

  • Bellevue Presbyterian Church

    Front view of Bellevue Presbyterian Church

    There were two large Presbyterian churches around the corner from each other in Bellevue, both called Bellevue Presbyterian. The other one was the United Presbyterian congregation, and old Pa Pitt will pause for a moment to let the laugh track do its job. The church we see here was later called Northminster Presbyterian, and it is now home to the New Life Community Church.

    Oblique view of the church

    Of course, in the glory days of steel and coal, the building was not quite so pale, as we see in this old postcard:

    Postcard of the church with sooty black stones

  • Church of St. Stephen Proto-Martyr, Hazelwood

    Statue of St. Stephen
    Date stone

    The Baroque style is unusual, but St. Stephen’s is a Frederick Sauer church through and through, starting with that yellow Kittanning brick he favored. We’ll have to wait till the leaves drop to get a view of the front, but since the building is slowly crumbling, it’s good to get the details as soon as we can.

    Front of the church obscured by trees
    Chimney and tower
    Elizabeth Street side of St. Stephen’s
    Main entrance
    Main entrance.

    Update: An Iranian correspondent who does not seem to be a spammer has left a remark that Google Translate renders as “We have a similar example in Iran from Sar Setun.” Although it would not have occurred to him before, Father Pitt now notices how much this ornate entrance porch resembles certain examples of Islamic architecture.

    Left entrance
    Left entrance.
    JMJ shield over the left entrance
    Right entrance
    Right entrance.
    MR shield
    Capitals with crosses
    Column swags
    Mark and John
    The Evangelists Mark and John.
    Luke and Matthew
    The Evangelists Luke and Matthew.
    Pilaster decoration
    Capital with cherub
    Capital with cherub
    Tower
    Tower
    Side window
    One of the side windows.