Category: North Point Breeze

  • Snively House, North Point Breeze

    6707 Penn Avenue

    This fashionably Romanesque house was probably built in the 1890s for a W. Snively. It has been converted to apartments, but the original outlines of the house are still evident. If, by the way, you are embarrassed by the soot stains on the stone of your house, old Pa Pitt suggests overcoming your embarrassment and embracing the history that soot represents. The alternative of painting your stone grey is not a success.

    Dormer
    Snively house
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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  • Residence of W. L. Phillips, Architect, North Point Breeze

    The Residence of W. L. Phillips, Architect

    This photograph appeared in the fifth exhibition of the Pittsburgh Architectural Club in 1910 (and was reproduced in the catalogue). The house must have seemed quite modern and up to date; it would not have seemed old-fashioned thirty years later. Old Pa Pitt has not studied Mr. Phillips’ career yet, but he was obviously successful enough to build a fine house for himself in a fashionable part of town.

    It is cheering to report that the house is still in excellent condition today. A front porch has been added, but with good taste, so that we would hardly guess it had not been part of the original composition.

    The front of the house today
    6800 McPherson Boulevard
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

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  • Moderne Apartment Building in North Point Breeze

    Moderne apartments

    Streamlined modernity invades Point Breeze! Although this building has been muddled a little, enough of its distinctive details are intact that it still creates a striking impression as we walk down Thomas Boulevard. Father Pitt loves the rounded corners from the outside, though he might curse them if he lived in those corner apartments.

    Front of the apartment building
  • Point Breeze Presbyterian Church

    St. Paul Baptist Church

    Now St. Paul Baptist Church. Built in 1887, it was designed by Brooklyn architect Lawrence B. Valk, whose church designs can be found all over the country. (In about 1900, Valk and his son moved to Los Angeles, where they became bungalow specialists but continued turning out the occasional church.)

    Point Breeze Presbyterian Church

    The tower with its huge open Romanesque arch dominates the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Penn Avenue. After the tower, the most eye-catching thing is the porch, with its even huger arch and its crust of terra-cotta tiles.

    Porch
    Porch roof with terra cotta
    Side of the porch
    Tower
    Side entrance

    The side entrance also gets a big arch, and even the basement door gets a stony arched porch.

    Basement entrance
    Rear of Point Breeze Presbyterian Church
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

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  • A Stroll on McPherson Boulevard, North Point Breeze

    6755 McPherson Boulevard

    North Point Breeze is an eclectic mixture of every kind of housing from Queen Anne mansions to duplexes to medium-sized apartment buildings. A walk on just one block of McPherson Boulevard passes a jumbled assortment of styles. Since the neighborhood has not been rich in the past few decades, many of the buildings preserve details that would have been lost if their owners had been wealthier.

    We begin with a Shingle Style house that has lost its shingles but retains its angular projections and low-sloped roof.

    6755
    6753 McPherson Boulevard

    A narrow stone-fronted Queen Anne house with a square turret. For some reason the stone has been painted white. The porch pediment preserves some elaborate woodwork.

    Pediment with woodwork
    6745 McPherson Boulevard

    A brick house laid out like a narrow Pittsburgh Foursquare; its outstanding feature is the round oriel on the second floor.

    6736 McPherson Boulevard

    Here is a simple but large Pittsburgh Foursquare. Many of its distinctive details have been lost, but the round bay in the dining room must be very pleasant from the inside.

    6730

    An older foursquare with original shingles and elaborate woodwork.

    Dormer
    Gable with decorative woodwork
    Decorated bracket
    6730
    6728 and 6726

    A double house, probably from the 1920s, that keeps its Mediterranean-style tiled roof.

    6728 and 6726
    6723 McPherson Boulevard

    A small apartment building.

    6713 and 6715

    A matched set of duplexes with Mission-style tiled overhangs.

    6709 and 6711 McPherson Boulevard
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    Finally, a double duplex that must have looked up to date when it was built. It probably had a tiled overhang along the roofline above the second-floor windows.


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  • The Linwood, North Point Breeze

    The Linwood with a magnolia

    The Linwood, designed in 1906, is characteristic of Frederick Scheibler in his early-modern phase. You can imagine it being published with approval in one of those German architectural magazines that our local architects occasionally got their hands on. It contained six luxurious apartments, with maids’ quarters, for well-to-do city-dwellers. Although the windows have been replaced and the third-floor balconies have been filled in for sun rooms, the strong lines of the building still make pretty much the same impression they did when it was new. It stands out without offending: it looks like something special, which would be helpful in peddling apartments to the smart set.

    The Linwood, front elevation
    balconies of the Linwood
    The Linwood
    Side of the Linwood
    The Linwood in the rain
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10 (all but this picture); Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    These pictures were taken just this afternoon. After a while the rain started to pour. But would that deter old Pa Pitt from getting one more picture? Certainly not! He will dry out eventually.

    This is Father Pitt’s first article on anything in North Point Breeze—another neighborhood he has neglected too long. Several other North Point Breeze articles will follow soon.


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