Category: Homewood

  • A Whole Street of Scheibler Rowhouses in Brushton

    Inglenook Place rowhouses

    Inglenook Place is something unique: a whole street where all the houses were designed by our noted early modernist Frederick Scheibler. There are two qualifications to be made here: first, one house on the corner of Oakmont Street, addressed to Inglenook Place, is not a Scheibler house; and second, there are two more blocks of Inglenook Place on the map, but they are a stairway with no houses addressed to it.

    Inglenook Place rowhouses

    Here we see, at the end of the row, the one oddball house on the street.

    Inglenook Place rowhouses

    These houses are two of Scheibler’s simplest designs, obviously meant to be built as cheaply as possible; but his modernist instinct is on full display in them. The larger group was built in 1907, all in this straightforward design; a second, smaller group was built in 1909 in a different though also simple design.

    Later houses

    This is slightly less straightforward in that Scheibler has played with the rhythm of four houses in a row by putting the upstairs windows in three groups of 1, 4, 1.

    Pair of houses, one abandoned

    Unfortunately, the neighborhood fell on hard times, and about a third of the houses are abandoned and will probably vanish eventually. When that happens, we’ll lose one more unique streetscape, in spite of the valiant efforts of neighborhood advocates.

    Keep “Our” Block Clean

    This sign is so ancient that it dates from a time when it was normal to do lettering by hand on public signs. A designer of today would be baffled if you said you didn’t want every occurrence of the letter E to look the same: how would you even do that?

    Abandoned house being reclaimed by jungle
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    Comments
  • Abandoned Apartment Building in Brushton

    Abandoned apartment building on Frankstown Avenue in Brushton

    This building was owned by and probably built by E. E. Soxman, a contractor who lived nearby. That is as much as old Pa Pitt has been able to discover about it, except for what we can tell by looking at it.

    Abandoned apartment building on Frankstown Avenue in Brushton

    One thing we can tell is that it was built with storefronts, which were later bricked in for more apartments. The bricking-in was done fairly early, though, because the three-over-one windows are typical of the 1920s.

    Front door of an abandoned apartment building on Frankstown Avenue in Brushton

    The rest of the building has preserved most of its details—“preserved” in the sense that they are still visible, although they have decayed enough that, in the unlikely event that someone decided to refurbish this building, many of those original details would probably have to be replaced.

    Roof over the front door
    Front door
    Windows
    Window

    Old Pa Pitt’s best guess is that the filled-in arch was originally art glass.


    Comments
  • Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church (Christ Missionary Baptist Church), Brushton

    Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church

    This charming little church was built in 1912; and, having said that, old Pa Pitt has exhausted his knowledge on the subject. It now belongs to the Christ Missionary Baptist Church, which has kept it in beautiful and nearly original condition, as we can see from this photograph taken just before the dedication in December of 1912.

    Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Brushton, which is to be dedicated tomorrow
    “New Church to Be Dedicated,” Gazette Times, December 7, 1912, p. 2.
    Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church
    Cornerstone
    Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church
    Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church

    Comments
  • Second Italian United Presbyterian Church, Brushton

    Second Italian United Presbyterian Church

    This little church was designed by the Hunting-Davis Company, a firm usually associated with warehouses and industrial buildings, for an Italian mission of the United Presbyterian Church.1 It is kept standing as a community center.

    Front of the Promise Center
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
    1. The Construction Record, February 14, 1914: “Architects Hunting-Davis Company, Century building, have preliminary plans in progress for a one-story brick and concrete Italian mission, to be erected on Hamilton avenue, near Hale street, for the Brushton Italian Mission. Cost $12,000.” ↩︎

    Comments
  • Meado’cots, Brushton

    Meado’cots

    We last saw Meado’cots, the unique terrace designed by Frederick Scheibler and built in 1914, about a year and a half ago. Here it is again, with no other excuse than that we happened to be in the neighborhood when the sun was shining on the front.

    Meado’cots
    Meado’cots
    Meado’cots
    Meado’cots
    Meado’cots
    Meado’cots
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Comments
  • Nellie Mae Apartments, Homewood

    Nellie Mae Apartments
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    A little modernistic apartment building whose details have been marred somewhat—the stock “picture windows” do it no favors. But enough remains that we can imagine the clean late-moderne look the architect was going for.


    Comments
  • Belmar Christian Church (Baptist Temple Church), Homewood

    Belmar Christian Church

    Edwin V. Denick was the architect of this neat little corner-tower church, which was built in 1905.1 The current congregation, the Baptist Temple Church, keeps it scrupulously tidy. “We do what we can,” one member modestly told old Pa Pitt—modestly because the man had just spent hours cleaning inside.

    Parsonage and church

    Old maps show that the attached parsonage was built later than the church, but it was matched very well to the style and material of the main building.

    Parsonage
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Comments
  • Old Service Station, Brushton

    Old service station in Brushton

    For some reason prewar service stations fascinate old Pa Pitt, so he will continue to collect them even if no one else is interested. This one was probably built in the late 1920s or early 1930s. It is a sturdy little building with well-preserved details, and you could buy it right now.

    Old service station in Brushton

    We file this under “Homewood” because city planning maps do not recognize Brushton as a separate neighborhood.

    Old service station in Brushton
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Comments
  • Pittsburgh Railways Car Barn in Homewood

    Car barn

    As you walk or drive down Frankstown Avenue, you might wonder what this oddly imposing building that walls in one side of the street was in its prime. The answer is that it was part of an enormous Pittsburgh Railways car barn, where streetcars went home to rest after a hard day at work. In the heyday of streetcars there were four long blocks of car barn and yard here, but this is what’s left. Since the streetcars left, it has been many things, including a bowling alley, and the otherwise forbidding wall has been festooned with colorful murals by local artists.

    Trolley barn in Homewood
    Car barn
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    Comments
  • A Few Buildings on Frankstown Avenue, Homewood

    Apartment building with storefronts

    Homewood is showing considerable signs of revitalization, but there are still long stretches of what used to be the commercial district that are nearly deserted. Here is a block of Frankstown Avenue that seems typical of the area: about a third of the buildings demolished, a third abandoned, and a third still inhabited and straggling along. We begin with an apartment building with two storefronts that has been kept standing by low-budget renovations.

    Front elevation of the apartment building
    Side of the building
    WEMCO

    The private club “WEMCO” seems to be thriving, and the small apartment building that goes with it is not only well maintained but also kept scrupulously tidy.

    WEMCO
    Front elevation
    Two abandoned commercial buildings

    Two abandoned buildings that will probably be taken down sooner or later. Because they have been abandoned, they preserve details that might otherwise have been replaced by cheap renovations.

    Commercial building with big arch at left entrance

    Here is an interesting answer to the question of how to make attractive dwellings over a storefront. The grand arched entrance to the apartments sets them apart from the business downstairs and makes them feel like a real home, not a temporary way station.

    Duplex
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

    This duplex with inset balconies looked a lot better before the lower balcony or porch was filled in, but we can see what it was aiming for.


    Comments