Father Pitt

Category: North Side

  • George Washington Memorial, Allegheny Commons

    Sculptor Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch designed this equestrian statue, which was unveiled to great fanfare in 1891. It depicts young Colonel Washington, aged 23, as he appeared when he visited the future site of Pittsburgh and nearly drowned himself in the Allegheny. This is apparently known as Pausch’s masterpiece.

    If you enlarge the photo above, you will notice that, at the upper right, the name of the Smith Granite Company comes before the sculptor’s name in the signature.

    The monument was commissioned by the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics.

  • H. J. Heinz Factory

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    This photograph from Frank Curto Park, across the Allegheny, reminded Father Pitt of the old sepia gravure factory prints of a hundred years ago. So why not offer it in sepia tones? Much of the old Heinz complex is now loft apartments, but the buildings are remarkably intact, and on the National Register of Historic Places. 

  • Heinz Field

    Heinz Field seen from Mount Washington on a sunny morning.

    This picture is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, so no permission is needed to use it for any purpose whatsoever.

  • Heinz Field and the Allegheny

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  • Allegheny General Hospital

    Allegheny General Hospital

    The only really elegant skyscraper on the North Side is this hospital, designed by York & Sawyer in 1926. The style is what old Pa Pitt likes to call “Mausoleum-on-a-Stick”: the central tower is topped by an Art Deco interpretation of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This is one of three Mausoleum-on-a-Stick towers in Pittsburgh, and two of them are hospitals (the other being Presbyterian Hospital in Oakland). The third is the Gulf Building,which was designed by the originators of the style.

    Below, we see the hospital with the narrow streets of Dutchtown in front of it.

    Dutchtown with Allegheny General Hospital

    York & Sawyer built two skyscrapers in 1926 with notably similar designs. The other is the Royal Bank Tower in Montreal, which was the tallest building in the British Empire at the time (though it did not compare with the tall buildings of New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh). The picture at left, by “Thomas1313,” was made available on Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

  • Autumn in the Union Dale Cemetery

    Fall colors in the cemetery

    Cemeteries in Pittsburgh have the advantage of Pittsburgh topography to make them picturesque. Add fall colors, and the picturesqueness is irresistible. The Union Dale Cemetery is the premier address for deceased residents of the old City of Allegheny.

    Fall colors in the cemetery
    Fall colors in the cemetery
    Fall colors in the cemetery
    Fall colors in the cemetery
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    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA
    Fall colors in the cemetery
    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

  • Alcoa Building, North Shore

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    The new Alcoa Building, like the old, is a tribute to aluminum. Here we see the end of it that faces Sandusky Street, at the foot of the Andy Warhol Bridge.

  • Bald Eagles at the National Aviary

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    These two female eagles were injured in the wild and can no longer fly. They must think they died and went to eagle heaven, where food comes to them rather than having to be hunted down with infinite labor. This is a quick cell-phone snapshot, and old Pa Pitt apologizes for the quality.

  • Burrowing Owl at the National Aviary

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    She may be only about the size of a common pigeon, but she thinks you’d better not mess with her. This is a cell-phone snapshot, which accounts for the poor quality of the image. But it’s an impressive little bird.

  • Sidewalks of Allegheny West

    It may be that old Pa Pitt will offend every resident of every other street in Pittsburgh by saying so, but he believes that Beech Avenue in Allegheny West is the most beautiful residential street in the city.