Viewed from the West End Overlook during early evening rush hour.
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Valley View Presbyterian Church
This pretty little church stands on the Stanton Heights corner of the intersection where Stanton Heights, Garfield, and East Liberty meet on city planning maps. We might identify it as Romanesque by its round arches, but the general form, square with a corner tower, seems more Arts and Crafts.
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Cathedral of Learning Through the Trees
The Cathedral of Learning seen through the trees in front of the Schenley Plaza side of the Carnegie Institute building.
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Grotesque Light Fixture, Carnegie Institute
All the details of the Carnegie Institute buildings (designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow) are worth observing. Here is a light fixture held up by a splendid grotesque arm.
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Webster Hall from the Corner of Dithridge Street
An oblique view of Webster Hall. And is that a bus coming toward us? Yes, it is.
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St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral
The classical style of this church, which is now the cathedral for the Metropolis of Pittsburgh, is quite unusual for a Greek Orthodox church. Greek Christians do not usually build in a Greek classical style—and the style of this church, with the prominent arch in the front, is more Roman than Greek. The explanation is that it was built for Methodists; the Orthodox congregation bought it from them.
Even if you don’t know much Greek, you can probably guess that this is the name of the church in Greek: “St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral Church.”
One of the splendid Ionic capitals that hold up a front of which Vitruvius would have approved.
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Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain
This fountain is a memorial to Mary Schenley, heir to the O’Hara glass fortune and donor of the vast tract of land that became Schenley Park. It is remarkable as a work of art, and almost as remarkable for being one of the relatively few fountains in the world built above a buried bridge. There was once a hollow here; an arch bridge crossed the hollow at this point. The hollow was filled in, but if you dig far enough at this spot, you will find the Bellefield Bridge.
The sculpture, A Song to Nature, is by Victor David Brenner, and old Pa Pitt is going to make a remarkable offer to his readers. If you ever meet Father Pitt in person, he will give you for your very own another famous sculpture in metal by the same great artist. He can make this remarkable offer because Victor David Brenner’s most famous work is the face of Abraham Lincoln on the United States penny.
In this sculpture, the female figure represents Sweet Humanity playing her song to the lazy earth-god Pan, who responds in a way that we may perhaps judge from his face.
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The Noble Quartet Turns 125
Galileo.
In honor of the 125th anniversary of the Carnegie Institute, the Noble Quartet—science, art, music, and literature, as represented by four of their most famous exponents—were gaily bedecked with floral wreaths. It’s a good look for them. The statues are by J. Massey Rhind, one of Andrew Carnegie’s favorite artists.
Michelangelo.
Bach.
Shakespeare.
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Ancient Graveyard, Mighty Oak
A tree seldom gets a good chance to spread out and be itself this way, but this splendid oak has been allowed to dominate the old St. Clair Cemetery, a burying-ground in Mount Lebanon where many of the early settlers of the South Hills are buried.
You can find more of the St. Clair Cemetery in Father Pitt’s Pittsburgh Cemeteries.
