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Wm. G. Johnston & Co. Building
William G. Johnston & Co. was a very successful printing and bookbinding firm that put up this building on Ninth Street at Penn Avenue in 1886. Mr. Johnston would probably be pleased to see that his building looks very much as it did when he knew it, except that—like every other building downtown—it is doubtless cleaner. If you look very closely, you may see a small stitching error, which comes from the fact that this picture is put together from multiple photographs. The lesson, obviously, is not to look so closely.
Addendum: Through various permutations, the William G. Johnston Company was the successor of Zadok Cramer, one of the very early printers and booksellers in Pittsburgh, who began his business here in 1800.
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April Showers
Gentle showers in a woodland stream; then a thunderstorm in the city; and finally the waterfalls and bird calls of a perfect early-spring day after the rain.
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Pair of Garter Snakes
The Eastern Garter Snake is really quite a beautiful animal. It looks as if a graphic designer came up with it, following instructions from upstairs that we needed something zippy and modern-looking. Garter snakes are harmless to humans, but they are very good at reducing the numbers of small pests. These two snakes were wrapped together on a stream bank in the Kane Woods Nature Area in Scott Township.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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The Fountain in Mellon Park
The fountain (made by sculptor Edmond Amateis in 1927 or 1928) has been restored to working order, so Father Pitt gives you this opportunity to see the movement and hear the water.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Two Movie Theaters in 1912
From Motion Picture World, 1912.
Father Pitt does not know the exact location of either of these establishments. The fact that the Casino was remarkable for having been in the same place for eight years shows how temporary these early theaters often were. Pittsburgh, of course, invented the movie theater, and by 1912 no neighborhood was complete without one. The larger ones, like the Casino below, also booked vaudeville acts.
From Motion Picture World, 1912.
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It Must Be Spring
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA 
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA 
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
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Idaho and Montana Apartments
These two gems on Penn Avenue were built, to judge by the style, just about the time the two states for which they were named were admitted to the Union. They are just up the street from the Pittsburgh Glass Center on the Friendship side of Penn Avenue, but most Pittsburghers tend to refer to that whole Penn Avenue strip as “Garfield.”
