Father Pitt

Category: Churches

  • Defying the Storm

    Spires of the Tabernacle of the Union Baptist Church, South Side

    Spires of the Tabernacle of the Union Baptist Church, South Side, Pittsburgh, highlighted in evening sun against a stormy sky.

  • Tower of St. Bernard’s, Mount Lebanon

    Tower of St. Bernard’s Church

  • South Side Presbyterian Church

    South Side Presbyterian Church

    This church at the corner of Sarah and 20th Streets is a good example of a curious phenomenon in old city churches: the sanctuary is on the second floor, with the first floor devoted to meeting halls, classrooms, and offices. This is a common adaptation to very small lots in very crowded neighborhoods like the South Side. Note the difference in brick color along the side wall: the front of the church, with its impressive tower, was a later addition to a more ordinary-looking Presbyterian meeting house.

  • Parsonage, First Trinity Lutheran Church

    Parsonage, First Trinity Lutheran Church

  • First Ruthenian Church, South Side

    First Ruthenian Church

    This church was built as the First Ruthenian Church (a Presbyterian church for Ruthenian immigrants), and later became a Byzantine Rite church. Now, like many other things on the South Side, it’s a bar.

    Addendum: The architect was Chauncey W. Hodgdon, whose churches were usually in the Gothic style, but who adopted a mixture of classical and Byzantine for this very unusual congregation.1

    1. Source: “More Work for Builders Made by the Architects,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, September 15, 1912, p. 36: “Bids will close early in the week on the erection of a one-story brick and stone church building, to be built on the Southside for the Ruthenian Church, of the Presbytery of Pittsburgh. Architect C. W. Hodgdon prepared the plans for the structure, which will be 32×66 feet, costing $25,000.” ↩︎

  • Tower of Bellefield Presbyterian Church

    Tower of Bellefield Presbyterian Church and Bellefield Towers

    The church was pulled down to make way for an office block, but the tower was left to preside over its old corner.

  • First Trinity Church, Shadyside

    First Trinity Church

    A fine Gothic building with a prominent tower in the west front, this church sits right on the border between Shadyside and Oakland—it would be in Oakland if it were on the other side of the street. The view is marred by utility cables, which is true of most things in most American cities. Europeans put those things under the ground; Americans seldom even notice what an aesthetic blight they are, not to mention how often storms bring them down.

  • East End Baptist Church

    East End Baptist Church

    This was built for the Second United Presbyterian Church, but the Baptists moved in in 1933 (according to the History of the Churches of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association). It is now the Union Project, an arts center and events hall.

  • Old Church in the West End

    Now a sports bar, so it has been converted to a different religion.

    An update: This was St. George’s Episcopal Church, built some time in the 1890s or very early 1900s.

  • St. Bernard’s from Mt. Lebanon Cemetery

    A winter view of St. Bernard’s from Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, featuring a fine silhouette of a tree. Below, more church and less tree.