Father Pitt

Category: Churches

  • Valley Presbyterian Church, Imperial

    Valley Presbyterian Church

    This charming Arts-and-Crafts Gothic church is the most distinguished building in the little hamlet of Imperial. It was built, according to the date stone, in 1911 for a congregation that had been founded in 1840, and the large cemetery behind the church has tombstones going back to that foundation.

    Date stone: 1840 and 1911
    Valley Presbyterian Church
    Tower

    The outstanding feature of the church is its belfry, with simple and massive woodwork that echoes the Gothic arches below, but also flares out into bell shapes, like a Sunday-school-supplement illustration of the bells within.

    Belfry
    Belfry
    Rear of the church
    Kodak EasyShare Z981; Kodak EasyShare Z1285.

    A postwar Sunday-school wing in the rear is built from nearly matching brick.

  • First Baptist Church, Coraopolis

    First Baptist Church, Coraopolis

    Though the renovations with modern materials—understandable for a congregation on a tight budget—have not always been sympathetic, this is still a valuable relic of the era of Victorian frame Gothic churches. As Pittsburgh and its suburbs prospered in the twentieth century, most of those churches were replaces with bigger and brickier structures, so although these churches were once all over western Pennsylvania, remnants like this are fairly rare. This one no longer serves the Baptist congregation (or the Anglican congregation that inhabited it more recently), but some maintenance work seems to be going on.

    Belfry

    The distinctive wooden belfry is still in good shape, though missing a few pieces of trim and wanting a bit of paint. The trim is simple and could be replicated in somebody’s garage woodshop.

    Belfry
    First Baptist Church
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • St. Stephen’s Church, Sewickley

    St. Stephen’s Church

    A very stony Anglican church that has kept its rich black coat of soot.

    Tower
    Gargoyle facing right

    Gargoyles guard the building from the top of the tower.

    Gargoyle facing left
    Tower
    West Front
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Second Presbyterian Church, Coraopolis

    Second Presbyterian Church

    Now the Church of God, this is a modest church in an abstract version of Perpendicular Gothic, with castle-like battlemented towers fore and aft. The stained glass has been removed, possibly because it was too decrepit to restore, or possibly to satisfy the iconoclastic tendencies of American Evangelicalism.

    Tower
    Front of the church
    Coraopolis Church of God
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • Mother of Sorrows Church, Norwood

    Mother of Sorrows Church

    Mother of Sorrows Church was sold to a nondenominational congregation some time ago, and when Father Pitt took these pictures some maintenance work was being done, so we hope the building will stand for a long time to come. But old Pa Pitt misses the original parish for one very selfish reason: every year it had a festival, and every year it advertised the festival with banners stretched across Island Avenue at the bottom of the hill proclaiming in big, cheery letters, “MOTHER OF SORROWS FESTIVAL!” If Father Pitt had known the parish was closing, he would have bought those banners and donated them to the History Center.

    Cornerstone: Mother of Sorrows Church, 1925 A. D.
    Mother of Sorrows, perspective view
    Mother of Sorrows, side view showing round apse

    Note the round apse in the rear.

    Mother of Sorrows with rectory

    The rectory was built from matching Kittanning brick; a later extension just about doubled the size of it.

    Rectory
    Connection between church and rectory

    The rectory was connected to the church by this little infill decorated with patterned brickwork.

    Tower dome

    The tower terminates in a cross-topped dome teetering on the brink of Art Deco.

    Mother of Sorrows Church
    Volutes
    Rose ornament
    Lantern
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • St. Francis de Sales Church, McKees Rocks

    St. Francis de Sales Church, McKees Rocks

    The dome is the star of this extraordinary building, which was put up in 1899–1900 and is now slowly crumbling. The school behind it, heavily altered, is in use as a personal-care home; the church would be hard to find a use for even in a prosperous neighborhood. It ought to be preserved, but its most likely fate is to continue to crumble until it finally becomes too dangerous to leave standing. The architect was Marius Rousseau, who carried out the wishes of Father Charles J. Coyne for a church like a Roman basilica.1

    Dome of St. Francis de Sales
    Dome
    Dome from the back streets
    Side of the church
    Side entrance
    Side entrance
    West front
    Rear of the church
    A different side entrance
    Side entrance
    Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
    1. “A Unique Church Edifice,” Pittsburg Press, November 26, 1899, p. 18. —Our article here has been revised; originally we did not know the architect, and we had dated the church four years too late. ↩︎

  • Neville Island Presbyterian Church

    Neville Island Presbyterian Church

    This article has been rewritten from its original version, which said that Father Pitt knew nothing about the church. After that, information trickled in.

    This church was built in 1916 or so; the architect was Chauncey W. Hodgdon.1 The congregation informed the Presbytery that it would close the church in 2022, according to a Pittsburgh Presbytery newsletter [PDF], but the grounds are still mowed and the building is in good shape. Its most prominent feature is its tower with eye-catchingly prickly battlements.

    Neville Island Presbyterian Church
    Oblique view of the front of the church
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285.
    1. Source: American Contractor, March 11, 1916, p. 53. “Church: $20,000. 1 sty. & bas. 60×80. Neville Island. Archt. Chauncey Hodgdon, Penn building. Owner Neville Island Presby. Church, Dr. Wm. P. Shrom Thorn, Run rd. Plans in progress. Will take bids soon. Brk. veneer on hollow tile.” ↩︎

  • McKees Rocks Presbyterian Church

    McKees Rocks Presbyterian Church

    Now Christ Community Church, this is a typical smaller Gothic church with a corner tower. The stone has not been cleaned of its decades of soot, making this one of our dwindling number of remaining black-stone churches.

    Corner tower

    Addendum: The architect was O. M. Topp; the church was built in about 1907.1

    Rear of the church
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens.

    A matching Sunday-school wing includes a round-backed auditorium.

    1. Source: “Building Operations,” Pittsburg Press, October 24, 1906, p. 20. “The contract has been awarded by Architect O. M. Topp to Charles S. Smith for the erection of the Presbyterian church building at McKees Rocks, which is to cost $25,000.” ↩︎

  • Steeple of Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside

    Steeple of Third Presbyterian Church
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Seen from Ewers Way.

  • First Baptist Church of McKees Rocks, West Park

    First Baptist Church, perspective view

    A small and beautiful Arts and Crafts interpretation of Gothic, with most of its original details intact, including the shingled gables, the wooden belfry, and the canopy over the tower entrance. The attached parsonage is later, but at least it nearly matches the brick.

    In spite of the name, the church is on the Stowe Township side of the municipal border that runs diagonally through the neighborhood of West Park.

    First Baptist Church
    First Baptist Church