Father Pitt

Category: Squirrel Hill

  • Apple Blossoms in Mellon Park

    Apple blossoms

  • Bowl of Tulips

    Bowl of Tulips

    In Mellon Park.

  • Sixth Presbyterian Church, Squirrel Hill, in 1994

    Sixth Presbyterian

    One of the many black stone buildings that still remained in Pittsburgh in the 1990s. Like almost all the others, Sixth Presbyterian has since been cleaned and restored to its original color.

    Father Pitt has always wondered why the Presbyterians kept numbering their churches. “First Presbyterian” is an honorable distinction. “Fifth Presbyterian” just sounds tired. And then why stop at six? There is a Seventh Presbyterian in Cincinnati, for example.

  • The Walled Garden at Mellon Park

    Walled Garden

    With dancers practicing in the distance. Did old Pa Pitt wait until they were in the most comical possible positions to push the shutter button? Maybe.

  • Sunnyledge

    Built for a prosperous doctor, this house was designed by Longfellow and Harlow (soon to be Longfellow, Alden, and Harlow), and shows the restrained good taste that would be the hallmark of the firm’s work for decades. Although it is technically on the Squirrel Hill side of the street, socially this house forms part of the Shadyside millionaires’ row along Fifth Avenue.

  • 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.

  • Central Catholic High School

    Central Catholic

    A kind of cartoon castle, the main building of Central Catholic is technically in Squirrel Hill, though most Pittsburghers would probably say “Oakland.” The building was put up in 1927; the architect was Edward J. Weber.

  • Hamerschlag Hall

    Hamerschlag Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, seen from the Carnegie Museum parking garage.

  • Fountain in Mellon Park

    Edmond Amateis was the sculptor who created this whimsical fountain for the Mellon estate. These pictures were taken in November of 2008 with a Kodak Retinette.

  • Howe Springs

    Thousands of commuters pass the little shelter on Fifth Avenue just east of the Highland Avenue intersection every day, but how many ever give it a second glance? Perhaps it was an especially luxurious trolley shelter, suitable to its rich neighborhood, or just a decoration for the expensive condominiums above it.

    But in fact it was a public spring, of which Pittsburgh has more than one. The water no longer flows from this one, but the little Greek temple remains, and perhaps the nymph of the spring still weeps occasionally for her lost worshipers. The current structure, built in 1912, was designed by W. H. Van Tine; it replaced one by Alden & Harlow that had been destroyed by the city, causing, according to the Wikipedia article, a monumental stink.