Construction of the new addition was still finishing up when old Pa Pitt last visited. Here is a pile of stones.
More pictures of the Church of the Ascension, and some pictures of the church in 2013, when it still wore a coat of black.
-
Some Details of the Church of the Ascension, Shadyside
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Kodak Retinette with Kentmere Pan 100 film. -
New Addition to the Church of the Ascension, Shadyside
The Church of the Ascension, an obviously prosperous Anglican congregation in Shadyside, has just finished a new narthex and several other improvements. The architects were Rothschild Doyno Collaborative.
No lights are hid under bushels here.
The new entrance was meant to be “welcoming and transparent.” It does not attempt to imitate the style of William Halsey Wood’s original design for the church, but it does use similar stone, so that it seems to belong to the church.
The cornerstone is the only direct imitation: it is patterned after the original cornerstone of the church.
-
Walnut Apartments, Shadyside
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. A complex grouping of windows and a variety of textures make this building more interesting than many. It has probably changed over time. The overhangs would originally have had tile rather than asphalt shingles. The sunrooms under them were probably balconies. The central stairwell windows probably had art glass in them.
Instead of one central entrance, the building has three entrances, and it appears to have been divided that way for a long time if not originally. It is possible that the ground floor was originally storefronts, which could have created a complex arrangement of entrances when the storefronts were adapted as apartments.
-
A Normandy in Shadyside
James A. Cornelius was a developer and builder who designed his own houses. This is what Pittsburghers call a Normandy—a house in the fairy-tale style with a turret entrance. It was meant to be one of a whole block of houses built on the old Liggett estate in Shadyside.
From the Pittsburgh Press, June 15, 1930. Note the photograph of this house, and the house circled on the perspective map. The houses were meant to have their main fronts facing inward, where a landscaped common would make them into a garden community.
Only this house and the one next door were built, however. It appears that the project fell on hard times—1930 was not the best year to begin a development of luxury houses. The rest of the property, according to researcher David Schwing, was eventually sold to Herman Kamin, who developed apartments on it.
Canon PowerShot SX150IS; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. -
900 South Negley Avenue, Shadyside
Old Pa Pitt knows nothing about this apartment building, and it is probably not one of the masterpieces of modernism. But it was different enough from the ordinary brick boxes to be worth a couple of quick pictures with the phone camera. It was probably not worth the effort Father Pitt later put into adjusting the perspective of the picture above by slicing it down the corner and adjusting it on two planes, but the “violent perspective” (as photography critics used to call it) of the wide-angle lens on the phone offended him.
Enlarge the picture and you can see that one of the corner apartments is infested with plastic coyotes.
An abstract pattern of shaped glass blocks over the entrance creates interesting patterns of light inside.
-
A Flemish Row in Shadyside
This row of houses on Howe Street has a distinctly Dutch or Flemish look. The Flemish style is not unknown in Pittsburgh, but it is rare to see a row of five houses in that style at once. (For another example of multiple Flemish houses, see the Osterling row in Brighton Heights.)
This house, like many in Shadyside, has had part of its basement turned into a garage, with a steep driveway dug out of the front yard.
It is delightful to see that the intricate woodwork on the front porch has been preserved.
The angles and curves that make the gable look so Antverpian are made of iron or steel, as we can tell by one rusted section:
This makes us suspect that perhaps three of the other houses in the row might have had similar decorations, removed when they rusted too much to repair.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. This house, however, was clearly meant to show off its stones without additional adornment, except for the usual decorative utility-cable swags.
-
Two Shadyside Tudors
Two houses on Walnut Street in the Tudor Revival style, as we would say today, or the English style, as they were probably called when they were built. They share some notable similarities, which would make it not surprising if they were drawn by the same architect. The sunset light makes the already cozy Tudor style look even warmer and cozier.
Addendum: A city architectural survey attributes the one above to the architect Thomas Scott; we are probably justified in attributing its neighbor to Scott as well.
-
Steeple of Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. Seen from Ewers Way.
-
Queen Anne Turrets in Shadyside
Three quite different interpretations of the Queen Anne turret on Shadyside houses. Above, a pair of faceted turrets on a double house.
An unusual rectangular turret preserves its original farmhouse-Gothic window and woodwork. The turret itself is set at a 45° angle to the rest of the house.
Finally, an octagonal domed turret on a house whose well-preserved details are worth pausing to admire. We note in passing that even the paint is, if not original, at least the dark green color typical of Pittsburgh houses of the turn of the twentieth century: you can scratch the trim of many a Pittsburgh house and find this color at the lowest level.
An appropriate arrangement of birds on those cables could make a short musical composition.
A shingly front porch that survived the epidemic of porch amputations in the 1960s and 1970s.
The parlor window has some good stained glass under the arch and, in the arch itself, a sunflower ornament for a keystone.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. -
Kentley House, Shadyside
Built in 1970, this apartment building was designed by Tasso Katselas, and to old Pa Pitt’s eye it is one of his most pleasing designs. The landscaping has matured to make the setting picturesque, and the materials of the building blend well with its setting. On a block of Kentucky Avenue that includes every kind of architecture, this building fits with every kind of architecture.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
