
Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) may be a noxious invasive, but it came here because it was beautiful, and no one can take that away from it.

Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) may be a noxious invasive, but it came here because it was beautiful, and no one can take that away from it.

Sometimes Forsythia gets a little confused. A few days of warm weather are sufficient to make the plant think it’s time to bloom.

Seen from across the river. It seldom occurs to us when we drive on the Boulevard of the Allies how precariously the highway is perched on the edge of a sheer cliff.

For trolley geeks, here is a 4100 series Siemens car picking up passengers at the Hampshire stop on Route 42 in Beechview in 2001. This is the livery these cars were originally issued when they were put in service in the middle 1980s. Route 42 is now the Red Line, and the 4100 series cars were rebuilt as the 4200 series, with a new livery to match the newer CAF cars.

One of old Pa Pitt’s many regrets is that he did not buy this old church on Rhine Street in Spring Hill, merely to preserve its unique Art Nouveau façade. Behind the façade was a pedestrian frame building clinging to the side of the hill, but the façade itself was not quite like anything else in Pittsburgh. This picture was taken in 1999; the church was demolished some time after 2016, when the abandoned hulk still appears in Google Street View. The stained glass probably still exists somewhere; it was removed before the building was demolished.

A dolphin fountain at the Grandview Park entrance where Bailey Avenue turns into Beltzhoover Avenue. Since this picture was taken in 2001, the stones have been cleaned of their decades of industrial soot.

These pictures were taken in 2001 with an old folding Agfa camera. Of course the blockhouse, which is more than two and a half centuries old, doesn’t change much these days.


A 4200 series Siemens trolley comes out of the Mount Lebanon subway tunnel into the Mount Lebanon station, and then continues on its way.
