
It may seem hard to believe, but this Art Deco building on Forbes Avenue downtown is being turned into loft apartments.

It may seem hard to believe, but this Art Deco building on Forbes Avenue downtown is being turned into loft apartments.

Because we cannot get to the museum right now, old Pa Pitt is bringing the museum to you. Here are two by Pittsburgh’s great satirical painter David Gilmour Blythe. Above, Good Times (c. 1854-1858). Below, Temperance Pledge (c. 1856-1860). They make a good pair. Both are in the Carnegie Museum of Art.


Matched eagles guard the Grant Street entrance to the Boulevard of the Allies viaduct, built after World War I and named in a fit of residual patriotism.

Garlic Musard (Alliaria petiolata) is one of those invasive weeds that make forest-lovers see red, although more recent studies suggest that its ill effects on our woodlands have been exaggerated. It does have two advantages: first, it has pretty white flowers; and second, you can eat it. It came to this country because it was a tasty and nutritious vegetable.


Muscari latifolium is much less often encountered than the common Muscari neglectum. You can recognize latifolium by its broad leaves (thus the name) and the tendency of the flowers to darken as they age, creating an attractive bicolor flower spike.


A large panorama (click on it to see it at full size) of Station Square in the winter as seen from across the Monongahela. The bluff of Mount Washington lowers behind, with the Monongahela Incline at the left of the picture.