Father Pitt

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Croatian Fraternal Union Building

UPDATED UPDATE: The building is now demolished, but the terra-cotta façade will supposedly be re-erected on the new building.

This sadly abandoned building, which has its own Wikipedia article, has been sitting empty in what has become a valuable part of Oakland for at least three years. It has come into the hands of the University of Pittsburgh, as everything in Oakland does sooner or later, and Pitt wants to demolish it. Preservationists want to keep it, because it is an important part of Croatian-American history. Pitt usually wins.

The architect was Pierre A. Liesch, a disciple of the great Frederick Osterling. Liesch is credited with some of the detail on the Union Trust Building downtown: “Liesch was a native of Luxembourg and later used a similar Flemish Gothic style for his design of the Croatian Fraternal Union Building,” says Wikipedia. “Similar” is generous. The Union Trust Building is, in Old Pa Pitt’s opinion, a work of colossal genius. This building is interesting and, again in Father Pitt’s opinion, not in the best taste. (His opinion might be different if the building still had the “highly ornate overhanging cornice and a pointed-arch apex topped with a sculptural element” mentioned in the Wikipedia article.) Of course it may well be that the Croatian clients had no budget for colossal genius, and Mr. Liesch gave them what they could afford.

August 12, 2021
Front Door, 17th Street, South Side

In the South Side, 17th Street is the line between Old Birmingham and New Birmingham: you can tell because the street grid is broken at that point, and east-west streets have to jog to continue on their way. This house is on the Old Birmingham side.

August 12, 2021
16th Street, South Side

Looking south on South 16th Street toward the South Side Slopes. Note the large number of aluminum awnings, which used to be even more ubiquitous in Pittsburgh; the back streets of Old Birmingham are the best place to see them now.

August 11, 2021
Terra-Cotta Ornaments on the Maul Building

The splendid terra-cotta facing of the Maul Building is covered with ornaments that may have been standard catalogue items, but nevertheless show considerable artistic talent.

One response

August 10, 2021
Last Light of the Evening

August 9, 2021
Tabernacle of the Union Baptist Church, South Side

This is a kind of machine-age Gothic, all sharp angles instead of the tapered points of more traditional Gothic forms. Built in 1881, this is no longer used as a church, but the exterior has been lovingly preserved.

August 9, 2021
Sarah Street, Between 19th and 20th

Streetscape of Sarah Street, with typical South Side rowhouses, a small synagogue, and the South Side Presbyterian Church at the end of the block.

August 8, 2021
Holy Assumption of St. Mary Orthodox Church, South Side

Clearly this was built as a Protestant church, but the Orthodox congregation has been here for quite some time now. Here we see the west front in the warm rays of the evening sun.

August 7, 2021
Splendidly Victorian

Even on a splendidly Victorian street like Carson Street on the South Side, this building stands out as unusually ornate.

August 6, 2021
French Marigolds

Old Pa Pitt uses various digital cameras that are cheap, old, or both; but when the desired effect is to make a foreground object stand out from the blurred background, it helps to have a DSLR. It helps even more to have a DSLR with a supplementary macro lens, which gives us a very shallow depth of field. The camera that took these pictures is an Olympus E-20n, which is old enough to vote and next year will be old enough to drink. But as long as it keeps taking pictures like these, old Pa Pitt will keep it in the camera bag.

August 5, 2021