Father Pitt

Category: South Side

  • Gimbels Warehouse, South Side

    Gimbels Warehouse

    Now an office building poetically called 2100 Wharton Street, this enormous warehouse covers almost an entire block of the South Side. It was built for the Gimbels department store in the 1920s, when it would have had rail access to the Pennsylvania Railroad spur that ran right down the middle of 21st Street.

    Below we see it from the riverfront, looming over South Side rowhouses in the middle distance.

    2100 Wharton Street

    Addendum: The warehouse was built in about 1924; the architects and engineers were James P. Piper and Henry M. Kropff.

  • A Stroll Down Sarah Street on the South Side

    Sidewalk of Sarah Street
    Sidewalk
    A little farther down the street

  • Grand Concourse, Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Terminal

    The interior of the P&LE terminal, now Pittsburgh’s most spectacular restaurant.

    Addendum: According to the Inland Architect, the “quite elaborate” waiting room and stair hall were designed by Crossman & Sturdy, decorators, of Chicago. The architect of the building was William G. Burns, or possibly George W. Burns, depending on the source.

  • Pair of Queen Anne Rowhouses, South Side

    Obviously built together, these two houses on Sarah Street have had their separate adventures. The one on the right has had its third-floor false balcony filled in to give an upstairs bedroom a little more space; the one on the left has grown an aluminum awning (because it is the South Side, after all). But both retain most of their original details, which are fairly unusual, a sort of Queen Anne interpretation of French Second Empire.

  • Domes of St. John the Baptist

    These famous domes figure in many postcard views of Pittsburgh. There are actually two St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic churches on the South Side. This, the Ukrainian one, is the one everyone sees. The lesser-known one is on Jane Street near 18th; it belongs to a Ruthenian congregation that split from the larger St. John the Baptist to have its own liturgy in its own language.

    The picture above is a high-dynamic-range image made from three separate photographs at different exposures. Below, the church from across the Monongahela.

  • South Side Flats

    A view of the densely cluttered South Side Flats from Mount Washington.

  • Backstreet Bar on the South Side

    Cupka’s Café

  • Wrights Way

    Wrights Way, 2400 block

    Two blocks of alley houses on Wrights Way, South Side.

    2400 block
    2300 block

  • More Chimney Pots of the South Side

    Chimney pots

    No one else seems to be documenting the chimney pots of Pittsburgh. It has become one of old Pa Pitt’s many missions.

    Chimney pots

  • An Evening Stroll on Carson Street, South Side

    2300 block
    2000 block
    1800 block
    Corner of 18th Street