Father Pitt

Category: North Point Breeze

  • Edwin L. Wiegand Co. Factory, North Point Breeze

    Edwin L. Wiegand Co. factory

    Here is a good example of how an old factory that’s too attractive to tear down can be refurbished and expanded to make a modern office building. The Edwin L. Wiegand Co. dealt in “electrical specialties,” and it must have been fairly successful to build this large plant in 1928. The building spent some time as a self-storage facility; but a large upward expansion was added in 2020, and the building was converted to high-class offices. We note with delight that the architect went back to an old idea in factory design: a “sawtooth” roof with northward-facing windows to pull in bright even lighting without direct sun.

    Edwin L. Wiegand Co. factory
    Edwin L. Wiegand Co. factory
    Edwin L. Wiegand Co. factory
    Edwin L. Wiegand Co. factory
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Four Houses on Thomas Boulevard, North Point Breeze

    7211 Thomas Boulevard

    Four different houses in four different styles. We begin with the biggest: a Georgian mansion with a gambrel roof, built a little before 1910.

    7211
    7211
    7215

    A classic foursquare on a generous scale, with “modern Ionic” porch columns and classical detailing in the dormer and oriel.

    7215
    7215
    7219

    This “old English” design has some fancy brickwork and even fancier woodwork in the gable, partly obscured by vines.

    Gable of 7219
    7217

    Finally, an eclectic design of the type Pa Pitt often calls “center-hall foursquare,” with a harmonious mixture of influences from Georgian to Prairie Style.

    7217
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • Rees Manufacturing Company, North Point Breeze

    7511 Thomas Boulevard

    For most of its history, this pleasing façade with its ornamental brickwork was blocked off by taller additions in front. Now that those have been removed, we can enjoy the front of the building the way it was meant to be seen. Indovina Associates designed the renovation and adaptation for an Asian supermarket.

    Ornamental brick blind arch
    Enson Market
    Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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  • French Cottage in North Point Breeze

    7001 Penn Avenue

    Alternating bands of brick and stone make this fantasy French cottage more than usually picturesque.

    7001 Penn Avenue
    7001 Penn Avenue
    Sony Alpha 3000.
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  • Pittsburgh Electrical & Manufacturing Co., North Point Breeze

    Pittsburgh Electric & Manufacturing Co.

    A splendid industrial building on Penn Avenue. The offices and showrooms were placed in a single row in the front, making an impressive and ornamental face for what would otherwise be a drab factory building.

    Pittsburgh Electric & Manufacturing Co.
    Pittsburgh Electric & Manufacturing Co.
    Sony Alpha 3000.
    Comments

  • Engine House No. 16, North Point Breeze

    Engine House No. 16

    No longer a firehouse, but the building has been adapted to other uses with care to preserve as much of its original stocky Romanesque look as possible.

    Engine House No. 16
    Sony Alpha 3000.
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  • Parkstone Dwellings, North Point Breeze

    Parkstone Dwellings

    Built in 1922, the Parkstone Dwellings are the most astonishing double duplex in Pittsburgh. The architect was Frederick Scheibler, who had come through a period of prophetic modernism into a period of romantic fantasy.

    Left side of the Parkstone Dwellings
    Parkstone Dwellings
    Parkstone Dwellings

    The tenants upstairs are airing out their rugs. No, wait—

    Oriental-rug mosaic

    —that’s a mosaic!

    Mosaic
    Parkstone Dwellings
    Sony Alpha 3000; Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    The Scheibler Treasure Hunt blogger had the good luck to stumble on an estate sale here back in 2013, so you can run to that site for interior shots of one of the Parkstone Dwellings.

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  • 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