Father Pitt

Category: North Side

This category includes mostly articles about things in the central core of the North Side. Many other articles will be found under the names of individual neighborhoods.

  • Some Houses on North Avenue on the North Side

    112 West North Avenue

    An assortment of styles from a block and a half of North Avenue facing the Commons in old Allegheny. These houses are now included in the Mexican War Streets Historic District. First, a tall and narrow Queen Anne house built in the 1880s.

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    112
    200

    This Queen Anne has a larger lot and thus more room to spread out and grow picturesque projections.

    200
    214–210

    These three houses probably go back to the Civil War era; they are typical of the larger sort of houses that grew all over Pittsburgh from the beginning until the middle 1800s, when more elaborate styles came into fashion.

    210
    216 and 218

    It is not easy to guess the age of these little houses. Old Pa Pitt’s best speculation, judging from old maps, is that they also go back to the Civil War era, but had their fronts modernized at some time around 1900. The one on the left may have had its front replaced more than once before it finally ended up with this Craftsman-style stucco treatment.

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    Finally, another house from the 1880s, this one with particularly elaborate woodwork.

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    220
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • Allegheny General Hospital

    Allegheny General Hospital seen from Eloise Street
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • 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.