Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Stephen Foster Window, Allegheny Cemetery Mausoleum
The Allegheny Cemetery Mausoleum, or “Temple of Memories” (as the cemetery calls it now), was built in 1960. It is filled with stained glass by the Willet studio of Philadelphia and the Hunt studio of Pittsburgh. The two distinct styles are very different, but Father Pitt does not know which is which.
This Stephen Foster window is the centerpiece of the whole first floor of the mausoleum, which is appropriate. Thousands of rich and important people—politicians, robber barons, and even a few honest philanthropists—are buried in Allegheny Cemetery. But the only resident anyone really cares about is Stephen Foster, who made us dance and sing and weep, and died in poverty. (There is also a small cult of Lillian Russell, and Father Pitt would be delighted to see a Lillian Russell window in some future expansion of the mausoleum.)
This window includes something that delighted old Pa Pitt beyond all reason: the only stained-glass representation he has ever seen of a parlor organ.
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
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Early Fall in the Woods
Leaves are starting to turn along the Liberty Trail, Kane Woods Nature Area, Scott Township.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Tomatoes That Hate You
The Phipps Summer Flower Show this year was devoted to “weird and wonderful” plants. It closes tomorrow, though you’ll be able to see bits and pieces of it a while after that during the gradual transition to the Fall Flower Show.
Here are two members of the tomato family that want to kill you. Above, Malevolence (Solanum atropurpureum) from Brazil, absolutely stuffed with poisons and guarded by horrible thorns, but decorative in its own quirky way. Below, Porcupine Tomato (Solanum pyracanthos) from Madagascar, which is also prickly and toxic, but quite beautiful in flower.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Blackberry Lilies in the Phipps Outdoor Garden
Although they are grown more for their spotted orange flowers, Blackberry Lilies (Iris domestica) are almost as interesting for the decorative black seeds they produce. These were growing in the Outdoor Garden at Phipps Conservatory.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Presbyterian Hospital
Presbyterian Hospital was built in 1938 as a splendid Art Deco skyscraper with wings. The original design is impossible to appreciate from nearby, since other buildings have grown up to obscure it. But if we take a long view of it from Schenley Park, we can get some idea of how the architect intended it to be seen.
The central tower is topped by yet another imitation of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, joining Allegheny General and the Gulf Tower in the style old Pa Pitt likes to call Mausoleum-on-a-Stick.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Evening Skyline
There are thousands of pictures of the skyline of Pittsburgh by night; this is not the best, but it is probably the most up-to-date on the Web at the moment. The skyline is changing, after all, so all those other pictures are completely passé.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Granite Building
A very-wide-angle view of the Granite Building, designed by the prolific and versatile Charles Bickel for a German bank. He has made use of every texture and shape of which granite is capable, and the result is a particularly lively, if perhaps a bit jumbled, rendering of German Romanesque.
You may notice some ghostly figures, including a spectral automobile, in the photograph. Father Pitt would love to be able to claim privileged access to the wonders of the invisible world, but in fact this is a composite photograph taken on a busy street, and people will continue to move even when they see an older gentleman in a cocked hat trying to take a composite picture.
The Granite Building is just across Wood Street from the Wood Street subway station.
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The Ancient Pronunciation of “Pittsburgh”
UPDATE: A revised version of this article may be found at the Historical Miscellany.
Many historians speculate that the name “Pittsburgh” was originally pronounced “PITTS-burrah,” the way Edinburgh is pronounced “ED-in-burrah.” After all, General Forbes, who gave the place its name, was a Scotsman: it would seem odd that he would not pronounce the “burgh” as in “Edinburgh.”
Today Father Pitt presents a tiny piece of evidence suggesting that the old pronunciation may have endured into the early 1800s. The evidence is only suggestive, not conclusive; but he thinks you will agree that it is at least very interesting.
Union Cemetery in Robinson Township is an old graveyard with a number of Revolutionary War veterans in it. Here we find, side by side, two early settlers’ tombstones.
First is Thomas Thornberry, a Revolutionary War veteran. His stone is regrettably so badly damaged that we can read nothing on it. But a plaque in front of the stone identifies it as belonging to Thomas Thornberry, a Revolutionary War veteran. Presumably the name comes from the church records, but Father Pitt is not sure of that. Perhaps someone from the church could enlighten us more.
Beside his stone is a legible stone for a woman who is obviously his wife.
IN MEMORY OF
DINAH Wife of
Thomas Thornburgh
who departed this life
July 26th, 1830,
aged 70 years.And here is our evidence. Inscriptions on tombstones of the early 1800s around here are commonly semi-literate; it is common to find variant spellings of the same name. Here we have the same name spelled “Thornburgh” and “Thornberry.” Now, it is not possible to imagine the name “Thornberry” being pronounced “THORN-burg,” but it is quite possible to imagine both “Thornburgh” and “Thornberry” being pronounced “THORN-burrah.” And if that is the case, then we have evidence that, in western Pennsylvania, the spelling “burgh” indicated the sound “burrah” at least to some residents as late as 1830.
Old Pa Pitt repeats that this is not evidence of very high quality. But it is some evidence.
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A Walk in the Woods
A stroll through the dappled shade of the Kane Woods Nature Area, Scott Township.
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
