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Old Stone Tavern
This ancient building in the West End ought to be one of our top preservation priorities, but it is a peculiarity of Pittsburgh’s preservation movement that often the oldest and most historic structures are ignored. There was a campaign to raise funds for its restoration, but the site has vanished from the Web.
The most probable date for this old tavern is the 1780s, but there was a bit of a stir some years back when an old date stone was found from 1758, which would have made it older than the Fort Pitt Blockhouse. Old Pa Pitt has not seen the stone; the consensus seems to be that it was misread, but there are still locals who argue for the earlier date.
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H. Daub Building, West End
No one has to ask when this distinguished Victorian commercial building was constructed. There was a brief time about fifteen years ago when the West End looked like the next trendy artsy neighborhood—for example, you can just barely make out that this building briefly housed a Steinway piano dealer. It seems that the neighborhood was too far out of the way for the arts community to take firm roots. The neighborhood is still pleasant, but much of the business district is deserted.
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A Walk in the April Woods
Bird Park, a stream-valley park in Mount Lebanon, is a good place to look for spring flowers, and a fine place to take a little healthy outdoor exercise.
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Deep in the Woods, You Don’t Need a Mask
…as someone remembered while walking the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel. But it seems that someone forgot that it might still be useful in the rest of the world.
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Seldom Seen Arch in an Artsy Way
This was an attempt to make a modern digital photo look like a nineteenth-century art photograph. Note the rock climbers preparing to climb the stone wall.
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Celandine Carpet in Seldom Seen
Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna or Ranunculus ficaria) may be an invasive species, but it certainly makes the stream valleys gay in the spring.
