Father Pitt

Category: Mount Washington

  • The P. W. Hamilton Apartments on Bailey Avenue

    312–318 Bailey Avenue

    If you walk along Bailey Avenue on Mount Washington (a pleasant walk, by the way), you may notice some similar-looking apartment buildings scattered along the south side of the street. The double duplex above is one of them; we see it head on below.

    312–318

    You might also notice a distinctive ornament at the peak of the roofline:

    312–318

    Old Pa Pitt noticed it and made a not-too-outrageous guess that it was the initial of the owner. That turns out to be correct. These buildings were all owned by P. W. Hamilton, as we see on a 1923 plat map:

    P. W. Hamilton Apts. on a plat map

    Here are two of them a few doors apart—the one we saw above, and this one:

    292–298 Bailey Avenue

    These buildings have recently had a lot of spiffing up, and they look like very attractive places to live.

    Open doors and stairways

    With these two doors open, we can see how, as is usual with Pittsburgh duplexes, the doors to the upstairs units lead straight to a stairway.

    There are three of these double duplexes, all the same design. Then, as we come to the eastern end of the street, opposite Grandview Park, we find the same design on a larger scale:

    446–460 Bailey Avenue

    It’s a double double duplex.

    454–460
    446–452
    Wreath ornament

    The H ornament is not here; instead we get little lunettes, one of them blank and one with a wreath ornament. But the building was owned by P. W. Hamilton, and its outline on the plat map shows how it is made by smashing two of the double duplexes together.

    P. W. Hamilton apartments on a plat map
    446–460

  • Moon Over Mount Washington

  • Outline of the Trimont

    The Trimont apartments on Mount Washington, outlined against winter clouds.

  • Grace Anglican Church, Mount Washington

    Grace Church tower

    Formerly Grace Episcopal Church, this church was built in 1852 and “rebuilt” in 1926, according to the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks plaque. Father Pitt cannot say how much of the old building is left, but it would appear to have been a frame structure, which suggests that the current church was completely new in 1926. Regardless, the design is timeless; as soon as it was put up, it must have looked as if it had been there forever. The architect, again according to the plaque, was J. Stewart, Jr.

    These pictures were taken back in October, when there were leaves.

    Grace Anglican Church
    From the Sycamore Street side
    Grace Episcopal Church

  • Duquesne Incline

    Seen from across the Ohio.

  • Boggs Avenue School, Mount Washington

    A modest Renaissance palace designed by Sydney F. Heckert and built in 1925. It is now apartments.

    When the building was converted from school to residence, someone thought this treatment of the front entrances was a good idea. Someone was mistaken.

  • Victorian House on Mount Washington

    House on Boggs Avenue

    With its steeply pitched roof and calculated asymmetry, it would probably be legitimate to call this house Queen Anne style. Note the gingerbreading of the porch roof.

    Porch roof

  • Belgian Block on Mount Washington

    Norton Way

    Norton Way, a Belgian-block alley on Mount Washington. Note the drainage channel in the middle; it is probably not necessary to mention that this is a steep slope.

    Belgian block
    More Belgian block
    Yet more Belgian block
    Norton Way

  • The Old Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Old Old Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Mount Washington

    Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

    Built in 1929, this church on Boggs Avenue is a fine example of the elegantly streamlined Gothic style that was fashionable for a few years before Gothic architecture disappeared entirely from our design vocabulary. It now belongs to a real-estate company, which uses it as offices but keeps the exterior well.

    Perhaps you are thinking that this does not look very much like a Pittsburgh church, because there are no utility cables in front of it. Here:

    With utility cables

    That’s better.

    Cornerstone
    Entrance

    A block or so away on the other side of Boggs Avenue is an older church, much altered but still recognizable:

    Ev. Luth. Zions Kirche

    Though it is festooned with artificial siding and expensive new brickwork, with a comically inappropriate broken pediment over the front door, this is clearly a church from the late 1800s. In fact it was built in 1884, as we can tell because whoever did the renovations was kind enough to place the old date stone in the new brick front:

    Date stone

    And there is the name of the church: Evangelische Lutherische Zions Kirche, which is German for Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. This is the original home of the congregation that later built the splendid Gothic edifice down the street.

    Front

    You will note that this was one of those churches with the sanctuary upstairs; we have added yet another to our growing collection.

  • Back Slopes of Mount Washington

    Trimont and back slopes

    Long views with a long lens remind us of what an absurd place this is to build a city. Above, the Trimont looms over houses and small apartment buildings that it makes look tiny; below, uncommon views of St. Mary of the Mount Church.

    St. Mary of the Mount
    St. Mary of the Mount