Father Pitt

Category: North Side

  • Garden Theater, North Side

    Garden Theater, North Side

    Built in 1914, the Garden was designed by Thomas Scott, who was responsible for a large number of buildings on the North Side and lived within walking distance of this one. Its last years as a theater were a bit disreputable, but it was spared the drastic exterior changes most other theaters suffered. It is now on its way to a new life as an apartment building; and, while we wish it might have been made a reputable theater again, at least the splendid terra-cotta front will be preserved.

    Front elevation
    Pediment
    Garden Theater
    Garden Theater
    Garden Theater
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • Carnegie Science Center

    Carnegie Science Center

    Tasso Katselas designed the Carnegie Science Center, which is being renamed for the Kamins after a huge donation. The picture above is combined from two separate photographs.

    Carnegie Science Center
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • Acrisure Stadium

    Acrisure Stadium

    With the Fort Pitt Bridge in the foreground.

  • Katsafanas Coffee Co., North Side

    Katsafanas Coffee Co. inscription

    In about 1925 the Katsafanas Coffee Company bought this building on North Avenue on the North Side and had the front completely redone in an ultramodern style. Father Pitt does not yet know the architect who supervised the remodeling, but it was obviously someone of rare taste. A renovation of the remodeling, carefully preserving what was preservable, was supervised by Pfaffman & Associates, a firm that has worked on some of our most outstanding restorations and on the sui generis Gateway subway station.

    Front of the Katsafanas Coffee Co. building
    Katsafanas Coffee Co., tea importers & coffee roasters; packers of high grade coffees teas and spices

    This sign was painted by the A. E Jones Sign Co., which is still in business at 507 Tripoli Street in Dutchtown, and still doing hand-painted signs.

    Cameras: Sony Alpha 3000, Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Allegheny City Stables, North Side

    Allegheny City Stables

    About five years ago we looked at the Allegheny City Stables in the middle of its adaptation into loft apartments. Now the renovation is complete, and a new apartment building has gone up next door, making this block of North Avenue much more inviting. Technically it is across the street from Allegheny West, but it was the Allegheny West Civic Council that saved the building, and socially it forms part of today’s Allegheny West rather than the rest of the “Central Northside” neighborhood as designated on city planning maps.

    Entrance
    Perspective view
    Sony Alpha 3000.

  • PNC Park

    PNC Park

    A large composite picture (7.6 megabytes, in case you’re on a metered connection) of the ballpark as seen from the Andy Warhol Bridge.

  • Alcoa Corporate Center, North Shore

    River side of the Alcoa Corporate Center

    The headquarters of Alcoa since it moved out of the Alcoa Building, and now also the headquarters of Alcoa’s spinoff Arconic. The river side of the building is all curves and exposed aluminum, naturally.

    Alcoa Corporate Center
    Andy Warhol Bridge with the Alcoa Corporate Center behind it
    Alcoa Corporate Center
    Curves of the Alcoa Corporate Center

    Cameras: Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Kodak EasyShare Z981.

  • Bridge and Stadium

    Acrisure Stadium and the Fort Pitt Bridge
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Moderne Industrial Building on the North Side

    900 West North Avenue

    A streamlined industrial building on North Avenue. We suspect that the part now filled in with red diamonds may have originally been a storefront or showroom for the business.

    Entrance with the inscription “Abbott / 900”
    Galveston Avenue side
    Sony Alpha 3000.

  • Pittsburgh Tag Co. Building, North Side

    Allen Kirkpatrick & Co. building

    This building seems to have been put up for Allen Kirkpatrick & Co., but for years it was the home of the Pittsburgh Tag Co., as this ghost sign tells us. It has been vacant for some time.

    Pittsburgh Tag Co. ghost sign
    Sony Alpha 3000.

    The Pittsburgh Tag Company was founded in 1927, as we find in the Paper Trade Journal, December 15, 1927:

    Pittsburgh, Pa.—The Pittsburgh Tag Company, care of Charles F. C. Arensberg, 834 Amberson street, Pittsburgh, recently organized with a capital of $50,000, plans the operation of a local plant for the manufacture of paper tags and kindred specialties. Mr. Arensberg will be treasurer of the new company; James M. Graham and Jonathan S. Green will be directors.