Father Pitt

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Union Methodist Church, Manchester

Now the New Zion Baptist Church. Here is another of those city churches where the most use is made of a tiny lot by putting the sanctuary on the upper level. This church was built in 1867, just two years before the South Side Presbyterian Church; and without finding any historical pictures, old Pa Pitt would hazard a guess that the South Side Presbyterian Church looked rather like this before the grand front with tower was erected in 1893.

This picture was made from multiple photographs taken in fading evening light, so it is not perfect; but Father Pitt wanted to show you another example of these upstairs city churches.

April 23, 2015
South Side Presbyterian Church

To Father Pitt’s eyes, the remarkable thing about the interior of this church is how Presbyterian it looks. Later Presbyterian churches in Pittsburgh are Gothic cathedrals, or miniature versions for smaller congregations, since the Presbyterians were overwhelmingly the moneyed class in the late 1800s; but this church was built in 1869, and retains the flat-ceilinged simplicity of traditional Presbyterianism. As in several of our churches in crowded city neighborhoods, the sanctuary is on the second floor, reached by either of a pair of flights of stairs in the front (one with an elevator chair for those who need it); the ground floor is the social hall and other rooms. The front was part of an expansion in 1893, built to a grander and wealthier taste.

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April 22, 2015
The Regent Theater, Newly Built

From a movie trade magazine of 1915 we take this interesting article about the newly opened Regent in East Liberty, now the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Click on the image for a much larger version.

“The foyer is decorated in the Adams period” probably means in the Adam style—that is, the neoclassical style made popular by the Adam brothers in the 1700s and undergoing a revival in the early twentieth century.

The picture below shows how the theater looks today: stripped of its projecting awning, but otherwise very much the same.

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April 21, 2015
St. Paul of the Cross Monastery Church, South Side Slopes

A beautiful basilica-style church remarkable as much for its site as for its architecture. It stands on an eminence on the precipitous South Side Slopes, with a magnificent view of the city skyline. The west front is precisely at the upper end of Monastery Street, making a startling vista for lost tourists who find themselves turning off Brosville Street. The interior is full of rich marble and gorgeous sculptures, with a pipe organ installed right at the front of the church by a former rector who considered music important.

April 19, 2015
St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, South Side

The South Side Church Crawl brought a good number of tourists to see a number of South Side churches. This is probably the church that says “South Side” to Pittsburghers in general; its distinctive domes are prominent from the Liberty Bridge, the McArdle Roadway, and across the river.

April 19, 2015
803 Liberty Avenue

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust lives in this gorgeously restored building with a wonderfully checkered history. It has been, among other things, a hotel and an adult bookstore, where (presumably) all the books were over 21 years old.

Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

April 18, 2015
A Cave

A small cave in a hillside in the Allegheny Cemetery. The worn path from the entrance indicates use by some animal—and indeed it would seem to be an irresistible shelter.

April 18, 2015
819 and 821 Penn Avenue

Both these buildings are quite utilitarian, with ground-floor storefronts and upper-floor workshops; but each is adorned with its own distinctive classical detailing. The Greek-key pattern shows up on both, but no. 819 in particular adds a profusion of other ornaments that distinguish it from its neighbors.

Once again, the narrowness of Penn Avenue makes it difficult to get a complete picture of the façades of these buildings, so the tops are a little blurry.

April 17, 2015
More Daffodils

April 17, 2015
McNally and Bonn Buildings, Penn Avenue

These two buildings, like many in the Cultural District, are going residential. Though the styles are radically different—the McNally Building light and classical, the Bonn Building heavy and Romanesque—they are only three years apart: the McNally building was put up in 1896, the Bonn Building in 1893.

Penn Avenue is a very narrow street, and getting a picture of the whole front of a nine-story building involves a lot of fiddling, most of it done by the Hugin stitching program automatically. Thus the picture is a bit fuzzy toward the top.

April 16, 2015