The fame of Richardson’s courthouse made “Richardsonian Romanesque” a favorite style in Pittsburgh for decades. Here a small industrial building in Lawrenceville shows that a little tasteful Romanesque detail is never out of place. (Update: This is actually the old Lawrence School, built in 1872, now converted to other uses.)
The Allegheny Arsenal, next to 40th Street in Lawrenceville, is most famous for blowing up during the Civil War, killing a large number of women and children who worked there. In those days, it was considered wise and prudent to employ young children in the manufacture of dangerous explosives. In our more enlightened time, we are careful to employ only well-trained adults in our munitions works, so that our bombs will kill only the children we aim them at.
The Arsenal, or what’s left of it, is also notable for being the last remaining work of Benjamin Henry Latrobe in Pittsburgh. Latrobe is more famous as the architect of the United States Capitol in Washington.
