Father Pitt

Category: Sculpture

  • Mayor Guthrie

    Relief of Mayor Guthrie

    George W. Guthrie was mayor of Pittsburgh when the Keenan Building was put up in 1907, and here is his face among the terra-cotta decorations on the building, where he keeps company with other prominent men of Pittsburgh. Pittsburghers remember Guthrie as the mayor who finally engineered the successful conquest of Allegheny, so North Siders sometimes think of him the way Ukrainians think of Vladimir Putin. Perhaps his most important accomplishment, though, was clean city water that, for the first time, brought typhoid under control in Pittsburgh, where it had been a scourge for the first century and a half of the city’s existence.

  • St. Simon the Zealot

    St. Simon the Zealot

    A statue of St. Simon the Zealot on the east transept façade of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He is identified by the instrument of his martyrdom, the saw, which (according to one common tradition) was also how the prophet Isaiah was killed.

  • Eagle on the Keystone Bank Building

    Eagle

    A proud eagle perches on a keystone, reminding us that this tower on Fourth Avenue was built for the Keystone Bank, though it now houses the Pittsburgh Technology Center. The tower is in a somewhat mutilated state, but many of its decorations are still intact.

  • The Four Evangelists on St. Paul’s

    In order: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, on the Fifth Avenue front of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Oakland.

  • Gargoyles of St. Paul’s

    Look for them on the Fifth Avenue front of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oakland.

  • America, by Charles Keck

    This larger-than-life allegorical bronze sits over the entrance to the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in Oakland.

  • Fountain in Mellon Park

    The sculptures on this whimsical fountain are by Edmond Amateis. The fountain has been carefully restored so that all the spouts are working again, and it looks almost as fresh as when it was installed at the Mellon estate.

  • Lion on the Keystone Bank Building

    A splendid lion roars over the entrance to the Keystone Bank Building on Fourth Avenue.

    Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

  • Maiden Statues by Edmond Amateis in the Broderie

    These three maidens by Edmond Amateis originally stood in the walled garden on the Mellon estate, now Mellon Park, where Mr. Amateis also designed the fountain. They left empty niches behind them, but they have been happy here in Phipps for years, where they are a charming feature of the Broderie.

    Camera: Olympus E-20n.

  • Neptune

    Neptune stands guard over the Water Garden at Phipps Conservatory.

    Cameras: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3 and Olympus E-20n.