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Victorian Double House on Alder Street, Shadyside
Kodak EasyShare Max Z990. A good example of how an old building can be updated on a limited budget without too much damage to its appearance. Front porches are gone, and vinyl siding and new windows lost some of the Victorian detail. But the windows are framed appropriately if simply, and distinctive woodwork on the third floor has been preserved and restored. Now five apartments, the double house is still an attractive building; and if old Pa Pitt would prefer to have seen it restored to its original Victorian appearance, he nevertheless recognizes and applauds a tasteful effort to balance restoration with profitability.
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Row of Apartment Buildings on Shady Drive East, Mount Lebanon
A row of four originally identical apartment buildings with Jacobean detailing.
This entrance seems to preserve its original details better than the others.
On the other hand, the colored tiles beside the door at this entrance are probably original, but have disappeared from the other three entrances.
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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Holy Ghost Greek Catholic Church, Marshall-Shadeland
Now known as Holy Ghost Byzantine Rite Catholic Church. Carlton Strong, best remembered for Sacred Heart Church in Shadyside, designed this Byzantine church and the somewhat similar St. Mary’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the McKees Rocks Bottoms.
Kathleen M. Washy, an expert in the history of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, wrote a long article on Carlton Strong (download the PDF here) for Gathered Fragments, the magazine of the Catholic Historical Society, so old Pa Pitt will send you there for more about this fascinating artist. Here we’ll just look at pictures.
Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Canon PowerShot S45.
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Alley Houses on Halket Place, Oakland
Kodak EasyShare Z981. In the shadows of the ever-encroaching university and hospital buildings, these tiny rowhouses still survive in a little alley in the back streets of Oakland.
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Grandview Plan, Mount Washington
Houses in the Grandview Plan lit up by golden winter sun, as seen with a long lens from Beltzhoover. We have seen some of the houses on Edgemont Street from a little closer; for example, the wide house with three dormers at lower left is the one we identified as designed by Henry Gilchrist.
Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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The Sauer Building
The front of green terra cotta is unique in Pittsburgh. Frederick C. Sauer designed this building, and when it was done he moved his office into it. It is the only one of Sauer’s buildings, as far as old Pa Pitt knows, that bore his name on the building itself, though at some point some workman, doubtless thinking he was doing a splendid job of renovating the building, did his best to obliterate the letters:
Addendum: As we might have guessed from looking at the front, the building rose in two stages. Three floors were added in 1909.1
Sony Alpha 3000; Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
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Fairy-Tale Apartment Building in Mount Lebanon
Somehow the line for the Mount Lebanon Historic District was drawn just to the left side of this building, leaving it unhistorical, though taking in a much more pedestrian postwar apartment building across the street. Fortunately, historic district or no historic district, most of the details have been preserved, although the original windows would have added a layer of artistry that their simpler modern replacements lack.
The art glass in the stairwell has been preserved.
The front door is a work of art in itself. Enlarge the picture and admire the door pull.
Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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Two Civil-War-Era Houses in Marshall-Shadeland
Two houses that both seem to date from the Civil War era; they both appear on an 1872 plat map of Allegheny City. This one has just had some spiffing up. It is an Italianate variant of the typical Pennsylvania I-house with an addition in the back (although the addition in this case may have been part of the original plan). It has been divided into two dwellings, but the outlines of the house and many of its details are well preserved.
The outline of the house on the 1872 maps shows the wing in the rear, so it is at least that old.
This house was inhabited until recently; it looks as though it had a fire and is undergoing repairs. It has a more complicated history. It also appears on the 1872 map, and later maps that distinguish the materials of buildings show that this was a wood-frame house. At some point around 1900 it was divided into two dwellings. Some time after 1923 it was sheathed in buff Kittanning brick, giving us an 1860s form with 1920s exterior details.
Canon PowerShot S45; Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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