The Allegheny County Morgue (or Mortuary, when the coroner was feeling fancy) was designed by Frederick Osterling to match Richardson’s courthouse. It was originally built where the County Office Building stands now, and it was moved to make way for that building, inch by inch, while the coroner and staff continued to work inside the crawling building.
This waterfall fountain runs down the gentle slope along First Avenue in front of the PNC Firstside Center.
The obelisk rests on four spheres like cannonballs; Peter Leo used to call it the Tomb of the Unknown Bowler.
Two Art Deco planters flank the entrance to the Allegheny County Airport terminal. They bear plaques emblematic of aviation: planes, propellers, and eagles.
The Art Deco terminal was built in 1931 to a design by Stanley Roush, with additions in 1936 by Henry Hornbostel. At that time this was the largest airport in the world.
Because a new airport opened in the western suburbs right after the Second World War, this is one of the few nearly unchanged prewar airport terminals in the world, and it has played in period-piece movies.
The Pittsburgh Playhouse building on Forbes Avenue is a harmonious addition to the streetscape. It manages the unusual feat of looking 21st-century and classical at the same time.
In the nineteenth century, the Fort Pitt Blockhouse was used as a residence. It was surrounded by slum and warehouses. Guides to the city (like the guide this cut came from) always pointed it out, but a visit would not have been calculated to give a good impression of living conditions in the city.
