Father Pitt

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Beechview Theater Under Renovation

A videography and photography company that has been in business for some years is renovating the old Beechview Theater. This was a silent-movie house built before 1914 (since it appears in a guide to Pittsburgh published that year, in which Beechview is described as “beyond the South Hills”); after its movie days, it spent a long time as an American Legion post, and then for a while it was a nursing home. Old Pa Pitt hopes it will be loved in its new career that brings it back very close to its roots.

An update: According to a 1923 map, this was called the Olympic Theater. There were at least three theaters in Beechview in 1923. See the theater in its restored state here.

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August 15, 2019
German National Bank Sign

The Granite Building was once the headquarters of the German National Bank, and this sign is still legible on the back of it (along with remains of other generations of painted signs). Father Pitt has altered the perspective and contrast to make the old lettering as plain as possible; below is what you actually see today.

August 15, 2019
A Tiny Piece of Pittsburgh History

In the time of the French Revolution there was a positive mania in France for descriptions of the newly independent United States, and it occurred to Father Pitt that some of those books might contain valuable and hitherto undiscovered descriptions of late-eighteenth-century Pittsburgh. Here is a curious little story from a footnote in one of those books, a Nouveau voyage dans les Etats-Unis de l’Amérique septentrionale, fait en 1788, par J.-P. Brissot (Warville), Citoyen Français; that is, New Voyage in the United States of North America, Made in 1788, by J.-P. Brissot (Warville), French Citizen. It describes a mixed-race family who became one of the leading households in the young city, and no other apology is necessary for the dated language used to describe the races of the characters. Father Pitt provides a new translation below—the first time, as far as he knows, this passage has ever appeared in English. Note, by the way, that the book manages to spell the name of the place two different ways.

“There exists at Pittsbourg on the Ohio a white woman of French origin, brought up in London, and taken, at the age of twelve years, by pirates who made a living by taking children and selling them in America to work for a fixed time. —Certain singular circumstances caused her to marry a negro who bought her freedom, and who took her out of the hands of a white man, a barbarous and libidinous master, who had done everything he could to seduce her. —A mulatta produced by that union married a surgeon from Nantes who had established himself in Pittsburgh. —This family is one of the most respectable in that city; the negro runs a very good business, and the mistress of the house makes it her duty to receive and give good treatment to foreigners, and especially to French people whom chance has brought that way.”

A much longer excerpt, including this footnote, is at Dr. Boli’s Random Translations.

August 14, 2019
Saint Joseph’s Hospital

The old St. Joseph’s Hospital became Carson Towers, a senior citizens’ apartment building, in 1977. But the central part is the original hospital building from 1911 (or 1907, depending on the source you read), preserving the original inscription. An article in the City Paper explains some of the history. This PDF has a picture of the original building. The caption says that “The sculpture over the front door is the only part of the original façade still visible on the building that is now Carson Towers,” but the most superficial comparison will show that this entire central section is virtually unchanged, except for more modern windows too small to fit the old frames.

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August 12, 2019
Abandoned Homesite in the Woods

A long-abandoned homesite in the Kane Woods Nature Area in Scott Township. You can recognize it by the ornamental plantings now run wild—or, if not, the crumbling steps are a dead giveaway.

August 11, 2019
Oakland from Across the Mon

Central Oakland as seen from St. Michael’s Cemetery in the South Side Slopes.

August 10, 2019
Brighton Theater, California-Kirkbride
One of the most exuberantly gaudy Art Deco façades in Pittsburgh is in a neighborhood almost no one ever visits. Fortunately things are looking up in California-Kirkbride—or Calbride as it’s called by denizens—which was once a notoriously bad neighborhood. Restoration mania has taken root in the Old Allegheny Rows Historic District, spilling over from the Mexican War Streets and Allegheny West nearby. Meanwhile, this building is preserved by lucky economics: it houses a letter-carriers’ union and some other tenants who will keep it standing without spending the money to change its appearance significantly. According to comments on this page at Cinema Treasures, the theater was built in 1928, replacing an earlier Brighton Theater on Brighton Road (this one is on the parallel Brighton Place).

The architect’s scheme called for three masks to decorate the central section, so we have one Comedy and two Tragedies. And don’t miss the thoroughly Art Deco elephants on the corners:

Addendum: The architects were Rubin & Veshancy;¹ the theater opened toward the end of 1928.²
1. “Plan New Theater for Center Avenue,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, November 20, 1927. ↩︎
2. “North Side’s Newest Playhouse to Open Soon,” Pittsburgh Press, November 4, 1928. ↩︎
August 8, 2019
Reflections Along Liberty Avenue

EQT Plaza reflected in the K & L Gates Center, and the Keenan Building and the Clark Building reflected in Two PNC Plaza.

Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

August 8, 2019
St. Casimir’s High School

Like most of the other schools on the South Side Flats, this one has been converted to loft apartments. Externally, though, the building has changed very little.

August 6, 2019
The Kaufmann’s Clock

For decades this clock, on the Kaufmann’s department store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street, marked the busiest corner of Pittsburgh’s retail district. “Under the clock” was the designated meeting-place downtown, and Kaufmann’s premier restaurant was called the Tic-Toc in its honor.

The Kaufmann’s building (like everything else) is being redeveloped as condominium apartments, and the clock is featured prominently in the advertising art.

August 3, 2019