Father Pitt

Category: Oakland

  • Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital

    Interior courtyard of Magee Hospital

    Correction: In an earlier version of the article, old Pa Pitt had a lapse of memory and attributed the design to Edward Stotz instead of T. E. Billquist. His apologies are offered to Mr. Billquist.

    Much of the original Magee Hospital, designed by Thorsten E. Billquist,1 is still standing, but so many additions have grown up around the buildings that we can only catch occasional glimpses of them. While old Pa Pitt was paying a visit to someone in the hospital, he noticed this view in an interior courtyard. Magee Hospital merged with Pittsburgh Woman’s Hospital to form Magee-Womens Hospital, now UPMC Magee-Womens. Eventually, if UPMC expands its empire enough, it will be able to afford an apostrophe.

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  • Renovating the Natatorium Building, Oakland

    Natatorium Building

    The last time Father Pitt took a picture of the Natatorium Building, later the Strand Theatre, was ten years ago. Since then tenants have come and gone, and murals have appeared on the side. When old Pa Pitt walked past recently, some internal construction was going on, suggesting that the building is getting ready for its next adventure.

    Perspective view
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    The architect of the original building, put up in 1907, was R. B. Melvin, who designed the high-class bathhouse with obvious references—especially in the arch over the entrance—to the Baths of Caracalla. Later, the building was remodeled as a movie theater by architect George Schwan.

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  • St. Mary Memorial Protestant Episcopal Church, Oakland

    Gate to the church

    It feels like a little old country church in the middle of the city—and indeed, when this church was built in 1899, it was in the middle of a wide open space, with only two other houses on this block of the newly constructed McKee Place. By 1910, the block had filled in with apartment buildings and other accoutrements of city life, but the gated front yard of this church still leaves an impression of village serenity.

    St. Mary Memorial Protestant Episcopal Church, Oakland (Pittsburgh)

    The church has been a school more recently, and now appears to be turning into apartments.

    St. Mary Memorial Protestant Episcopal Church, Oakland (Pittsburgh)
    St. Mary Memorial Protestant Episcopal Church, Oakland (Pittsburgh)
    St. Mary Memorial Protestant Episcopal Church, Oakland (Pittsburgh)
    St. Mary Memorial Protestant Episcopal Church, Oakland (Pittsburgh)
    Broken cross
    Perspective view of the gate
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  • Row of Houses on Dawson Street, Oakland

    3821–3825 Dawson Street

    Frederick Sauer was probably the architect of these rather German-looking houses. They were built as rental properties on land that belonged to developer John Dimling, and in every case where we have found an architect listed for a Dimling project, it is always Frederick Sauer.

    3821–3825 Dawson Street

    It is a little hard to tell how the right end of the row looked originally. Alterations that look as though they were made in the 1970s have obscured the original design, which—with its curved corner—would have been something interesting.

    3821–3825 Dawson Street
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  • Isaly’s Building, Oakland

    Isaly’s Building

    The McCormick Company, a firm that seems to have specialized in buildings for the food industry, designed this beloved landmark on the Boulevard of the Allies. It was built in 1929 for Isaly’s, a chain of dairy-delicatessen-restaurants that had begun in Ohio but took over the Pittsburgh market in a big way. At its peak, there was an Isaly’s in just about every neighborhood business district. This building had a big Isaly’s restaurant on the ground floor.

    Terra-cotta panels

    Today the building is given over to medical offices, but the Art Deco details are still well preserved.

    A feast of terra cotta
    Isaly’s Building
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Terrace by Janssen & Abbott on McKee Place, Oakland

    368–378 McKee Place

    This striking design was by Janssen & Abbott, and it shows Benno Janssen developing that economy of line old Pa Pitt associates with his best work, in which there are exactly the right number of details to create the effect he wants and no more. The row was built in about 1913.1 The resemblance to another row on King Avenue in Highland Park is so strong that old Pa Pitt attributes that row to Janssen & Abbott as well.

    Terrace on King Avenue, Highland Park
    The terrace on King Avenue, Highland Park. In some secondary sources, this one is misattributed to Frederick Scheibler, but Scheibler’s biographer Martin Aurand found no evidence linking him to this terrace.
    Row of houses by Janssen & Abbott

    These houses are not quite as well kept as the ones in Highland Park. They have been turned into duplexes and seem to have fallen under separate ownership, resulting in—among other alterations—the tiniest aluminum awnings old Pa Pitt has ever seen up there on the attic dormers of two of the houses.

    Two of the houses

    Nevertheless, the design still overwhelms the miscellaneous alterations and makes this one of the most interesting terraces in Oakland.

    Brick gatepost with number 378 and a half
    Two end houses
    Terrace
    Perspective view down the row
    Terrace on McKee Place
    Perspective view from the other direction
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Bayard Manor, Oakland

    Bayard Manor entrance

    The Bayard Street face of Bayard Manor. Yes, that odd little half-timbered projection on the roof really is skewed in relation to this side of the building. That is because Craig Street and Bayard Street do not meet at exactly a right angle; the roof projection (it probably holds elevator mechanics) is oriented at right angles to every side of the building except the Bayard Street front.

    Bayard Manor
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

    More pictures of the Bayard Street front of Bayard Manor, the main entrance, and the Craig Street side.

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  • Building More Hospital

    New UPMC Presbyterian building with cranes
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    The new UPMC Presbyterian building nears completion in Oakland.

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  • Presby Reflects Presby

    Old Presbyterian Hospital reflected in curved surface of new
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The older Presbyterian Hospital (designed by E. P. Mellon) reflected and distorted in the curved surface of the new UPMC Presbyterian building now being finished up in Oakland.

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  • Jr. O. U. A. M. Building, Oakland

    Jr. O. U. A. M. Building

    The Junior Order of United American Mechanics is a fraternal order that was originally the young people’s division of the Order of United American Mechanics. Since it has its own Wikipedia article, old Pa Pitt will send you there for information about the order. For this building, however, he is happy to be your source of information. It was built to be the national headquarters of the organization, which had previously been in the Wabash Building downtown. “The new five-story building of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics at Forbes and Halket sts., was completed last June at a cost of about $350,000, exclusive of the site. The national headquarters of the order, which formerly were in the Wabash building, occupy the entire fourth and fifth floors of the new building, while the lower floors are given over to offices and store rooms.” (Pittsburgh Press, Monday, January 4, 1926.) This building was designed by Louis Stevens, best known for elegant homes for the well-to-do, but also the designer of all the public buildings in the borough of Overbrook (now part of the city of Pittsburgh).

    Jr. O. U. A. M.
    Cornerstone, with date of foundation (1853) and construction (1924)

    The cornerstone was laid in 1924, but the building was completed in 1925.

    Cartouche
    Entrance

    It will come as no surprise that the building now belongs to the University of Pittsburgh.

    Metalwork
    Metalwork
    Cornice
    Jr. O. U. A. M. building
    From Magee Hospital
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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