Our two most splendid Art Deco skyscrapers, as seen from Crawford Street in the Hill. This view is made possible by the demolition of the old Civic Arena, and will disappear when the currently vacant lot is filled again.
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Litchfield Towers, Oakland
“Distinctive” is a good neutral term for these skyscraper dormitories that loom over the Oakland business district. The architect was Dahlen Ritchey, who designed three cylinders of unequal heights that he designated A, B, and C. Students quickly named them Ajax, Bab-O, and Comet.
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A Toadstool
Normally Father Pitt calls them “mushrooms,” but this one, fresh out of the ground, looked so much like a storybook toadstool that one expected to see a slightly grumpy fairy sitting under it. This is almost certainly the same species as the Russula mushrooms we featured earlier, since it grew in the same patch of shady lawn.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Old Church Turned into Alley Houses, South Side
Update: For the history of the church, see “The Mystery of the Converted Church on the South Side.”
Father Pitt knows nothing of the history of this building at 23rd Street and Larkins Way other than what is written in the bricks. It appears to be an old church, probably dating from the earliest development of East Birmingham, that was later converted into four tiny houses facing Larkins Way. To judge by the style, the conversion is not recent. And that is about as much as Father Pitt can read in the bricks, so any more information or corrections would be much appreciated.
Camera: Canon PowerShot S45.
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Uptown Mount Lebanon
The whole of Uptown, the central business district of Mount Lebanon, was included last year in a new Mount Lebanon Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. The district was designated as an outstanding example of an early automobile suburb of the 1920s, but the automobile was only half the story. Until the middle 1980s, streetcars ran down the middle of Washington Road; now they run under part of Mount Lebanon in a subway tunnel, emerging behind the business district with stairway and elevator access to the middle of everything. The ideal automobile suburb is one in which an automobile is not a necessity.
Camera: Canon PowerShot S45. The streetscape above and the picture of the Rosalia building are composites.
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Duquesne Brewing Co. Building, South Side
Update: The building has been adapted as artists’ lofts and studios as “the Brew House.” The original text of the article follows.
The Duquesne Brewing Company produced what used to be Pittsburgh’s favorite beer. This old building has had a hard life since the brewery closed; it was taken over by artist squatters for a while, who probably kept it from falling to pieces, but the city has no tolerance for poor squatters who claim buildings that could be redeveloped by rich people. The various attempts at redevelopment seem to get only so far, however. Right now it seems to be in the middle of one of those attempts, and for the building’s sake we may hope that this one succeeds.
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Martin’s Cabin
Martin’s Cabin is a log house of the 1700s preserved in Schenley Park. There are not very many buildings of that era left within city limits: the Fort Pitt Blockhouse, the Neill Log House, this cabin, and possibly the Old Stone Tavern are the only ones Father Pitt knows of. It is a curious fact that all the grand houses of stone and brick in old Pittsburgh have long since disappeared, but this humble poor man’s cabin remains. (UPDATE: Note the kind comment below reminding us of the John Woods House in Hazelwood, which is in fact a stone house, though not one of the grandest of its time.)
Camera: Canon PowerShot S45.
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Strand Theatre Building, Oakland
[Update: We have more on the history of this building, which was the Natatorium Building before it became a theater.]
This once-splendid movie house on Forbes Avenue was designed by Harry S. Bair, a specialist in neighborhood movie palaces who also designed the Regent in East Liberty. According to comments on Cinematreasures.org, it was built with the screen at the street end: you had to walk up a long hall to come in at the rear of the theater. Thus it took advantage of the hillside location to make a naturally sloped auditorium. The building ceased to be a theater about four decades ago; it is now retail stores and apartments.
The picture above is a composite of four photographs.
One response
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Mt. Lebanon Municipal Building
Mount Lebanon is a township, technically speaking; but it feels more like a city of its own. Post-Gazette columnist Peter Leo always referred to it as “the Great State of Mount Lebanon,” which sums up how Pittsburghers think Mount Lebanese think of themselves. The central business district is “uptown”—a word that means an area outside downtown in most cities (even Pittsburgh itself), but in southwestern Pennsylvania usually means a downtown area that happens to be on a hilltop. Uptown and the surrounding area is now a national historic district, and this 1930 Art Deco building is one of its gems: it is the masterpiece of its architect, William Henry King, Jr.
A decade-old article from the Trib has quite a bit of good information about the building.
Camera: Canon PowerShot S45. The picture of the whole building above is a composite of four photographs.
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Bugs
These beautifully marked insects seem to be what entomologists call “true bugs,” and they bear a strong resemblance to milkweed bugs. But they are not identical, and Father Pitt would very much appreciate hearing from someone who can tell him exactly what these are. There were quite a few of them on a well-chewed hickory sapling in the Mount Lebanon woods.
Camera: Konica-Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
