On a storefront on Carson Street, South Side.
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Litchfield Towers, Oakland
Two of the three cylindrical skyscraper dormitories poetically named A, B, and C by the University of Pittsburgh, but popularly known as Ajax, Bab-O, and Comet.
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Lithuanian Hall
A building whose design brings a little bit of the Baltics to the South Side. The decorated pediment is unusual or unique here, but would be right at home in Vilnius. The original symmetry is undone by additions on the right-hand side, but this is still a valuable monument of ethnic Pittsburgh that ought to be preserved.
The faded decoration over the main entrance seems to be a stylized version of the arms of Lithuania, but old Pa Pitt would be delighted to be corrected.
An update: In spite of what old Pa Pitt took as its Baltic appearance, this was built as a German Turnhalle, or athletic club: the Birmingham Turnverein. The arms of Lithuania (if that is what the faded emblem is) and perhaps the decorations in the pediment would have been added by the later owners. This is yet another example of the Nordic flight that happened as the East Europeans settled on the South Side: one after another, churches and institutions that had been built by Western Europeans passed into the hands of East European immigrants.
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Founder’s Mark on a Cast-Iron Storefront
Last week old Pa Pitt published this picture of a cast-iron storefront on 18th Street, South Side.
Today, walking past the same building, he noticed an inscription at the base.
This is the mark of the founder who cast the storefront, and we see that it was a very local business: East Birmingham was the borough that went from today’s 17th Street to about 27th Street.
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Decorations on the Parkvale Building, Oakland
The richly decorated Parkvale Building on Forbes Avenue is currently under renovation, so we can hope that these splendid reliefs will continue to delight future generations of Pittsburghers.
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Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral
There are at least three cathedrals in Oakland, in addition to the Cathedral of Learning, which is a cathedral metaphorically but not the seat of a bishop. Most Pittsburghers would be able to identify St. Paul’s, the Roman Catholic cathedral. Many would remember that there’s a Greek Orthodox cathedral, because its famous food festival attracts enough of a crowd to have an impact on Oakland traffic. This is the third. It was built as a Syrian Orthodox church in 1955, and it interprets traditional Eastern Christian forms with a sort of modernist severity.
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Mushrooms on a Log
Mushrooms growing on a decaying log in the Kane Woods Nature Area, Scott Township.
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Looking Down Forbes Avenue
The lively and varied streetscape of Forbes Avenue in Oakland, looking toward the Cathedral of Learning.
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Butterflies
Old Pa Pitt is not enough of an entomologist to identify these creatures reliably. He is almost certain the first one is a Silvery Checkerspot, but the other one eludes him, and he would be happy for an identification from a better-informed reader.
