Father Pitt

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A Stroll Down Sarah Street

Sarah Street is the most splendid residential street in the New Birmingham section of the South Side—the part from 17th Street eastward that was developed after the Civil War. “Splendid” is relative, of course: even the richest parts of the South Side were not millionaires’ neighborhoods. But there are many fine and substantial Victorian rowhouses on Sarah.

Although Carson Street is the commercial spine of the South Side, commercial buildings also sprouted on the back streets, and Sarah Street has some good Victorian commercial architecture. Some of the buildings are still backstreet bars or stores; others have had their ground floors turned into apartments.

July 25, 2019
Union National Bank Building

The Union National Bank Building of 1906 is one of the most splendid of the Fourth Avenue bank towers. It was designed by the prolific and tasteful MacClure and Spahr. As “The Carlyle,” it is now a luxury condo tower.

July 25, 2019
There’s No Such Thing as Correct Exposure

Old Pa Pitt often tells young photographers that there’s no such thing as correct exposure. He likes to make dogmatic pronouncements like that and watch their reactions. But this is what he means. These two pictures of the skyline at night are taken at quite different exposures (two whole stops apart, in fact). The one above is the kind of exposure you will usually see in a night shot of a city skyline. The one below is much closer to the way the skyline actually appears to the eye of the observer. Which is correct? Neither, of course. It is a matter of taste, and of creating the image you, the photographer, wish to create.

July 25, 2019
Balsam

Balsam (Impatiens balsamina) is one of those old-fashioned garden flowers you don’t see too much anymore. Here are some fine examples from a garden in Beechview.

Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

July 25, 2019
B. M. Kramer & Co Building, South Side

Old Pa Pitt has always regarded this as a masterpiece of industrial architecture. It occupies a whole block of Sidney Street between 20th and 21st.

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July 22, 2019
The Third-Largest Clock in the World

It used to be the largest, but it was surpassed by the clock on the Istanbul Cevahir shopping mall in 2005, which in turn was surpassed by the almost comically enormous Mecca Clock in 2011. But the Duquesne Brewery clock is still the largest clock face in the Western Hemisphere, and it is the South Side’s most visible landmark, easily readable from across the river. Since the brewery stopped brewing, it has carried various advertisements; but for the moment it carries no message, except for the time, which is still correct.

July 17, 2019
A Passage Between Houses, South Side

Often in Pittsburgh rowhouse neighborhoods there are narrow, tunnel-like passages between the houses that run from the street into the back yards. This one struck old Pa Pitt as especially picturesque and a bit mysterious.

Camera: Canon PowerShot A590 IS.

July 17, 2019
Entrance to Phipps Conservatory

The entrance to Phipps, rendered in old-postcard colors by the Two-Strip Technicolor script for the GIMP.

July 16, 2019
Two PNC Plaza and Three PNC Plaza

Two PNC Plaza (with the PNC logo at the top) and Three PNC Plaza (center, with the notch cut out of it), as seen from Liberty Avenue.

July 11, 2019
Kossman Building (Town Place)

The old Kossman Building was given a dark makeover for its new identity as “Town Place,” so that it looks a little less like a dated relic of the International Style and a little more like a cool new International Style revival. In fact, old Pa Pitt thinks that, in black, it looks like a Mies van der Rohe building wearing a hat.

Camera: Canon PowerShot A540.

July 11, 2019