A row of more than usually ornate Italianate windows on Carson Street, South Side.
-
Guyasuta Visits Pittsburgh, 1787
Statue of Guyasuta in Sharpsburg This article appeared in the Maryland Gazette (in Annapolis), February 1, 1787; it seems to have been reprinted from the Gazette in Pittsburgh. The narrative drips with sarcasm: Guyasuta led the Senecas in the attack that destroyed Hannah’s Town (or Hanna’s Town or Hannastown) in 1782, and the memory obviously had not grown cold in Pittsburgh. But Guyasuta was now appearing in a diplomatic capacity, and it is very interesting to see how he and the growing town of Pittsburgh reacted to each other. He gawked at the sights; Pittsburghers gawked at him. They discovered that they shared a common love of Monongahela rye, and after that everything seems to have gone smoothly.
PITTSBURGH, January 6.
We are happy to have an opportunity of congratulating our fellow citizens on the arrival in this town, of the great, the mighty, and the warlike Giosoto the First, king of the Seneca nation; defender of Hannah’s-town; protector of the widow and orphan, &c. &c.
There was an elegant entertainment (consisting of three gallons of whiskey and twenty pounds of flour) prepared for his majesty and retinue, which they enjoyed with an uncommon relish, as these articles have become exceedingly scarce within his majesty’s, Giosoto, dominions.
His majesty amuses himself whilst he remains here, in walking about to view the curiosities of this place, in quaffing good whiskey; and smoaking tobacco and the bark of willow trees, through his curiously ornamented wooden pipe.—As anecdotes of great men can never fail to be interesting, we shall not neglect to add, that his majesty was observed to be particularly fond of viewing the game of billiards—some biographers pretend to assert that his majesty has been a great gamester in his time, but whether billiards or football was his favorite game, we cannot pretend to assert.
-
Art Nouveau Stained Glass on Carson Street
The Art Nouveau style never made much headway in Pittsburgh, but there are a few examples of ornamentation in a style that deserves that name—especially stained glass, which lends itself to the kind of abstraction we associate with Art Nouveau. This window is in a storefront near the Birmingham Bridge.
-
Civil-War-Era Rowhouse, South Side
There are many houses of this age in East Birmingham, the section of the South Side between 17th and 27th Streets that was laid out in the middle 1800s. Most of them are anonymous and unremarked. This one, however, has a specific date and pedigree, according to a sign placed on it when it was renovated thirty years ago:
We notice the choice of the word “renovated” rather than “restored,” which is appropriate. The details are a little off for the age of the house, particularly the windows and doorway. Old Pa Pitt suspects that the house had already been altered that way, and the new owners worked with what they had to make the exterior look attractive if not historically correct. At any rate, hundreds of houses on the South Side are in similar shape, but few of them have a known date and history.
-
Top of Presbyterian Hospital, Oakland
The top of the tower portion of Presbyterian Hospital is one of several buildings in Pittsburgh inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This one belongs to the sub-style that Father Pitt calls Mausoleum-on-a-Stick: skyscrapers where the echo of the Mausoleum is at the top of the tower. Two of those in Pittsburgh are hospitals (Allegheny General is the other), and Old Pa Pitt would be delighted to know why “hospital” seems so likely to make architects think “Mausoleum.”
-
Carved Brackets on Carson Street
This doorway could use some fresh paint and a little wood repair, but it would certainly be worth preserving the Victorian carved ornaments.
