Looking up Walbridge Street from Main Street in the West End.
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Walbridge Street, West End
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West End Savings Bank & Trust Co.
In classical times, worshipers deposited their money in temples, leaving it under the protection of the god. In neoclassical times, banks were built in the form of classical temples, but the only god was money itself.
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Art Deco in the West End
Few Pittsburghers from between the rivers ever find their way into the West End, but there are some minor architectural treasures to be seen there. This interesting terra-cotta front faces Main Street at the corner of Wabash Street.
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Old Stone Tavern
This ancient building in the West End ought to be one of our top preservation priorities, but it is a peculiarity of Pittsburgh’s preservation movement that often the oldest and most historic structures are ignored. There was a campaign to raise funds for its restoration, but the site has vanished from the Web.
The most probable date for this old tavern is the 1780s, but there was a bit of a stir some years back when an old date stone was found from 1758, which would have made it older than the Fort Pitt Blockhouse. Old Pa Pitt has not seen the stone; the consensus seems to be that it was misread, but there are still locals who argue for the earlier date.
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H. Daub Building, West End
No one has to ask when this distinguished Victorian commercial building was constructed. There was a brief time about fifteen years ago when the West End looked like the next trendy artsy neighborhood—for example, you can just barely make out that this building briefly housed a Steinway piano dealer. It seems that the neighborhood was too far out of the way for the arts community to take firm roots. The neighborhood is still pleasant, but much of the business district is deserted.
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World War I Memorial, West End Park
One of the least-known works of Frank Vittor, this memorial sits in the improbably hilly West End Park. It is an ornament to its neighborhood (in spite of some clumsy restoration), and it ought to be better known by Pittsburghers from elsewhere.
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Old Stone Tavern, West End
If the date “1752” found etched in a cornerstone is correct, then this is the oldest building in the English colonies west of the Alleghenies. That date would make it older than the Fort Pitt Blockhouse by twelve years. Father Pitt tends to doubt the authenticity of the date; but there is no doubt that this is a very old building, almost certainly from the 1700s, and one that ought to be preserved at all costs.
Update: The building is now generally regarded as dating from 1782, which is still very old for a stone building in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh’s Old Stone Tavern Friends Trust is trying to get enough money together to preserve this building. If you have extra money sitting around and were wondering what to do with it, here is a suggestion.
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Bandstand in West End Park
Old Pa Pitt is very fond of West End Park. Given a small and implausibly vertical site, the designers created a delightful neighborhood oasis, with distinguished landscape design, art, and architecture, while at the same time leaving enough woodland for a pleasant nature walk through the forest. This splendid bandstand was designed by architect Thomas Scott. All it needs is a band, instead of the big institutional picnic table that occupies it now.
[NOTE: In an earlier version of this article Father Pitt, relying on someone else’s information, identified the architect of the bandstand as William R. Perry, who also designed the Catholic church of St. Bernard in Mount Lebanon. Perry designed other elements in the park, including the architectural parts of the war memorial, but Thomas Scott designed the bandstand.]
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Urban Archaeology
Mysteries abound in a city when it’s had two and a half centuries to accumulate them. This old foundation in West End Park has obviously been here for a while. How old is it? The land for the park was bought in 1875; was this a little farmhouse from before that time? Father Pitt would be happy to hear from anyone who knows more about the history of this structure.
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War Memorial at West End Park
This little out-of-the-way park on a steep knob overlooking the West End Valley has one of Pittsburgh’s least-known memorials by one of Pittsburgh’s best-known sculptors. Frank Vittor, creator of some of our most prominent public art, designed this memorial for the soldiers who fought in the First World War.
