Father Pitt

Category: Strip

  • Railroad Street, Strip

    Railroad Street with downtown Pittsburgh in the background
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

    In the old days, many streets in Pittsburgh had trains running right down the street—even Liberty Avenue downtown. Railroad Street in the Strip is one of the few streets left with an active railroad. From this long-lens picture, we can see that the idea of “gauge” in tracklaying allows for a good bit of literal wiggle room.

    By state law, streetcars in Pennsylvania were not allowed to use standard-gauge track, because legislators very sensibly worried that some backroom deal between the transit company and the railroad would suddenly have freight trains rolling down residential streets everywhere. Even now, the streetcars in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia run on “Pennsylvania broad gauge.”

  • The Yards at Three Crossings, Strip

    The Yards at Three Corssings
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

    This large apartment development between Railroad Street and the Allegheny opened in 2016. WTW Architects were the architects of record, and this is a good example of the type of patchwork-quilt architecture that has been fashionable in the last decade or two. On the one hand old Pa Pitt thinks these buildings are much more interesting than the plain brick boxes that were fashionable after the Second World War. On the other hand, bricks last, whereas Father Pitt fears some of these other materials will begin to look a bit scraggly in about fifteen years.

  • Art Deco in the Strip

    2001 Penn Avenue

    Almost all the decorative effect of this building is achieved by arranging bricks in different ways. The original windows in the upper floors also have a part to play in the rhythm of the design: it would not be nearly as effective if they were replaced with single panes of plate glass.

    Decorative brickwork
    2001 Penn Avenue
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

  • Washington Crossing Bridge

    The 40th Street or Washington Crossing Bridge, in a picture taken a year and a half ago but somehow lost in the debris until now. In the right foreground is the Bair & Gazzam Building.

  • The Big Rooster

    On DeLuca’s diner in the Strip.

    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

  • Smallman Street, Strip District

    Smallman Street

    The broad plaza of Smallman Street in the Strip, looking toward downtown from 21st Street.

    Smallman Street in portrait format
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • St. Stanislaus Kostka Church and Rectory, Strip District

    West front of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church
    Utility cables? What utility cables?

    This beautiful Romanesque church was built ad majorem Dei gloriam (“to the greater glory of God”) in 1891. The architect was Frederick Sauer, who gave us many distinguished churches, as well as comfortable houses, practical commercial buildings, and the whimsical Sauer Buildings built with his own hands in his back yard. This is the mother church for Polish Catholics in Pittsburgh, and it has one of the most spectacular sites for a church in the city, sitting at the end of the long broad plaza of Smallman Street along the Pennsylvania Railroad produce terminal.

    Romanesque ornament
    A. D. 1891
    Slightly oblique view of the church
    Rectory

    The rectory is also a remarkable building, and still manages to convey much of its original impression in spite of the unfortunate glass-block infestation.

    Rectory in perspective view
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • 31st Street, Strip

    Under the 31st Street Bridge

    Here is one of two streets in the Strip that exist mostly under bridges. Two blocks away, 33rd Street is entirely under a railroad bridge.

  • Springfield Public School, Strip

    Springfield Public School

    The Springfield Public School, built in 1871, closed as a school in 1934, which was 89 years ago as Father Pitt is writing. It was preserved because it was useful as a warehouse in the increasingly industrializing Strip. Later it became loft apartments, and is now being sold as luxury condos.

    Date stone

    The architect was T. D. Evans, about whom old Pa Pitt knows nothing except that he designed the very similar (though more elaborate) Morse School on the South Side. Compare the two buildings: the Morse School is a little larger, but built on almost exactly the same plan.

    Oblique view

    Springfield Public School.

    Morse School

    Morse School. Father Pitt guesses that the tower in the center of both buildings was a belfry.

    Springfield Public School

    If you buy an apartment in the Springfield Public School, you don’t have to walk far to find delicious Asian food of all sorts.

  • Black Diamond Steel Works Office, Strip

    Black Diamond Steel Works Office

    Right now, if you’re quick about it, you can buy this beautiful and historic building that probably dates from the 1870s. It was the office of the Park Brothers’ Black Diamond Steel Works, later Crucible Steel.

    Arch
    Decorative carving

    This cheery decorative carving is in a style that was common in the 1870s; it may be by the same craftsman who did the decorations on the Springfield Public School (1871) a block away.

    Oblique view

    A map showing the location of the building.