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  • Minersville Public School, Upper Hill

    Monkeys on the Minersville Public School, Pittsburgh

    Ulysses L. Peoples was the architect of this school, which opened in 1902 and even then was something unique.

    The building itself is a tasteful but not extraordinary example of Romanesque style with Renaissance overtones—something we might call Rundbogenstil, because we like to say the word “Rundbogenstil.” It is a little bedraggled-looking now, because it closed in 2005. The more modern addition (by the time it was added this was known as the Madison Elementary School) has been adapted for the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, but nobody seems to know what to do with the original section.

    Minersvill Public School

    A fine piece of work for a small school, like many another Romanesque school in Pittsburgh. But the carved decorations around the entrances are like nothing else in the city, or possibly on earth.

    Alligators, rams, lions

    It seems as though the architect and the artist had conceived the curious notion that children should find school delightful, and that the entrance should convey the message that here is a place where we are going to have fun.

    Monkey capital
    Front entrance
    Front entrance
    Cherub?
    Rams’ heads
    Monkey capital
    Monkeys
    Monkeys
    Friezes
    Side entrance
    Rampant
    Battling lions
    Battling lions
    Lions and rams
    Cherubs, dolphins, and salamanders
    Side and rear

    The side and rear of the building. The rear, facing an alley, is done in less expensive brick.

    Front
    Later addition

    The later addition, from 1929, is by Pringle & Robling in quite a different style, a lightly Deco form of modernism.

    A map showing the location of the building.

    August 18, 2023
  • Fifth Ward World War I Memorial, Upper Hill

    Eagle by Frank Vittor

    An unmistakable Frank Vittor eagle; compare it to the eagle on the West End World War I memorial and the one on the portal to the Boulevard of the Allies. City records confirm that Frank Vittor was the sculptor.

    Fifth Ward War Memorial

    The memorial stands in Robert E. Williams Memorial Park, originally Herron Hill Park, which was laid out in 1889. It is a very pleasant green space in a pleasant residential section of the Upper Hill.

    Because war memorials sometimes become illegible for various reasons, and because a historian friend has been trying to reconstruct the names on another World War I memorial and finding the task difficult, old Pa Pitt has decided to record all the names on this memorial. If you enlarge the pictures, you should be able to read every name clearly.

    Inscriptions
    Inscriptions
    Inscriptions
    Inscriptions
    Inscriptions
    Inscriptions

    The emblem of the Corps of Engineers, which in an earlier version of the article Father Pitt had mistaken for the arms of Pittsburgh. Thanks to our commenter below for the correction.

    A map showing the location of the memorial.

    2 responses
    August 17, 2023
  • Greenstone United Methodist Church, Avalon

    Greenstone United Methodist Church, Avalon

    This church was built in 1906; the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation was unable to identify the architect, and so far Father Pitt has had no better luck. (Update: The architects are now identified as Vrydaugh & Wolfe; see the end of this article.) It used to be called the Bellevue Methodist Church—Methodist Episcopal, as opposed to Methodist Protestant, since there was one of those, too. This one is in Avalon, which used to be called West Bellevue, and its striking green stone gave it the name by which everybody called it. In 1982, the congregation bowed to the popular will and renamed the church Greenstone.

    This is one of the relatively few churches of this type that have kept their spires.

    The picture above is one of those rare pictures where old Pa Pitt decided to remove all the fat ugly utility cables, because they were just too distracting.

    Greenstone Methodist
    California Avenue front

    The composite picture above shows some of the matching Sunday-school wing. The stitching worked perfectly for the building, but it made a noticeable break in the car parked on the street, which you can see if you enlarge the picture. Father Pitt left a note on the windshield.

    Here is a map.

    Addendum: Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the style—and especially that low tower with four corner pinnacles—this church was designed by Vrydaugh & Wolfe.1 This means that Vrydaugh & Wolfe had two of the four corners of this intersection covered: diagonally across from this church is their Church of the Epiphany.

    1. Source: The American Architect and Building News, July 23, 1904: “Architects Vrydaugh & Wolfe will be ready for bids in a few days on the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Bellevue. The building will be erected at Lincoln and Home Aves., at an approximate cost of $60,000.” ↩︎
    One response
    August 17, 2023
  • 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.

    August 16, 2023
  • Row of Queen Anne Duplexes on Sidney Street, South Side

    2315 to 2325 Sidney Street

    These three Queen Anne duplexes were once identical, or nearly so. Each one has had separate adventures, and each one has preserved some details and lost others.

    2323 and 2325

    This one probably preserves the original appearance best, though it has lost the stained glass in the parlor windows.

    2319 and 2321

    This one has suffered badly from separate ownership of the two sides. Some contractor charged quite a bit of money for mutilating the left-hand side. The right side has also been modernized, but with more taste, using windows that are the right size and shape for the wall.

    2315 and 2317

    This one has had similar alterations, but at least the parlor windows have not been filled in with toy blocks.

    Old Pa Pitt is constantly surprised by the number of Pittsburgh homeowners who say, “I hate all that natural light and fresh air! Block in those big ugly windows and give me just enough glass to see what the weather is out there.”

    Row of Queen Anne duplexes
    August 16, 2023
  • Stained Glass in the Church of the Assumption

    Stained glass, Church of the Assumption

    The drama of salvation plays out in glass in the Church of the Assumption, with each pair of windows illustrating events from the Old and New Testaments related by a common theme. We have only a few of the windows here; it would be worth spending an hour or two to examine all of them. Above left: King Achab sends Micheas to prison; the Agony in the Garden; King Joram rejects the prophecy of Eliseus. Above right: Abner is slain treacherously by Joab; Judas betrays Christ with a kiss; Tryphon deceives Jonathan with gifts.

    Stained glass

    Left: Joseph is sold by his brethren; Judas conspires with the priest and magistrates; Absalom entices the men of Israel. Right: Melchisedech meets Abram; the Last Supper; the manna from heaven.

    Stained glass

    Left: Esau sells his birthright to Jacob; the Temptation of Christ; the tempting of Adam and Eve. Right: Moses heals Miriam; Mary Magdalene at the feet of Christ; the repentance of David.

    Stained glass

    Left: Enoch is borne to heaven; the Ascension; Elias is raised into heaven. Right: Moses receives the tables of the Law; the descent of the Holy Ghost as fire from heaven; the sacrifice of Elias.

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.

    August 15, 2023
  • Adam and Eve on the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Adam

    To enter the Church of the Assumption, you pass through an arch held up by Adam and Eve just after the Fall.

    Eve

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.

    August 15, 2023
  • Brackets on the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Grotesque brackets

    The grotesque brackets along the sides of the Church of the Assumption run in a repeating series that seems to illustrate various stages of carving.

    Bracket
    Bracket
    Bracket
    Bracket

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.

    August 15, 2023
  • Gargoyles on the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Gargoyle having a bad day

    The gargoyles on the Church of the Assumption capture the true medieval spirit of inspired grotesquerie and goofiness and filter it through a twentieth-century sensibility. This gargoyle is having a bad day.

    Gargoyle
    Owl gargoyle
    Owl gargoyle
    Gargoyle
    Gargoyle
    Gargoyle
    Chimney

    This one on the side of the building seems to be above a chimney vent. It demonstrates, in a silly way that would have appealed to the medieval sense of humor, one of the torments prepared for the damned.

    Chimney gargoyle

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.

    One response
    August 15, 2023
  • Interior of the Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Interior of the Church of the Assumption

    Looking toward the altar, which is emphasized by a baldacchino and the glorious mural of the Assumption of Mary.

    Interior looking toward the altar
    Communion rail

    The communion rail, the pulpit, the baldacchino, and many other furnishings are carved from rich peachy marble.

    Pulpit
    Looking toward the rear
    Organ loft
    Narthex

    The narthex is not neglected: look at that rich wood ceiling.

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.

    August 15, 2023
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