This splendid church was designed by Bellevue’s own Leo A. McMullen, an architect and organist who is almost forgotten today, but whose works were highly regarded in his time. The American Institute of Architects counted him as one of “six architects who shaped Pittsburgh,” according to his obituary in 1963.
The four evangelists—Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke, in that order—are lined up on the façade, each holding open a book that displays the first words of his Gospel.
One of the great challenges of landscape design is to find some way to make the landscape interesting in the winter, when deciduous leaves are gone and there are almost no flowers. Bright red berries certainly add a lot of winter interest, as we see above.
In the picture below, the tree with the very interesting skeleton is a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), a conifer that loses its leaves in winter.
Every season is colorful in the Orchid Room. Here are some of the orchids that were blooming just after Christmas.
Dendrobium “Sokol Blue.”
Liparis condylobulbon “Henry Shaw.”
An unidentified hybrid (there was no tag) that Father Pitt would guess probably involves Miltonia and Odontoglossum.
Paphiopedilum Whitemoor “Norriton” FCC AOS. The “FCC AOS” means it was awarded a First Class Certificate by the American Orchid Society, which means the AOS thinks this cultivar is pretty peachy.
The Shields Chapel was built in 1868 as a Presbyterian church donated by Eliza Leet Shields, extremely rich person, on the grounds of her estate. After sitting vacant for a long time, it is now occupied by the second congregation of Grace Anglican Church.
Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.
Next to the church is what appears to be another church, immemorially ancient; but it is actually the Shields family mausoleum, built in 1893. Apparently no mere cemetery was classy enough for the Shields family. This is an enormous mausoleum, as big as a church, and in fact Grace Anglican’s congregation met in it before the Shields Chapel became available. There is space for thirty-six permanent residents here, of which number eighteen have already moved in.
Breeders have been working on our friend the poinsettia. There is no need to be content with plain old red when you can have gnarled pink or candy-striped.
For extra credit, if you visit Phipps during the show (which continues through January 11), point out to your friends the other exceedingly dissimilar species of Euphorbia, the genus that includes poinsettias, that are planted along with the poinsettias as a sort of botanical in-joke.
This splendid building was put up in about 1906 (Update: It was in the planning stages at the end of 1906; see the end of this article.) It has not been used as a church for about a quarter-century, but it is still kept scrupulously beautiful by the current owners. Compare Father Pitt’s photograph above with the old postcard below, printed when the church was very new (to judge by the utter lack of bushes or other landscaping).
The style is interesting: old Pa Pitt might almost call it Richardsonian Gothic. It has the heaviness of the Romanesque style that Richardson was famous for, but with pointed arches—only just barely pointed, however, as if they are a little embarrassed about being caught in their Gothicness.
Addendum: The architects were Allison & Allison. Source: The American Architect and Building News, December 1, 1906: “Avalon, Pa.—Architects Allison & Allison, Westinghouse Building, Pittsburg, have prepared plans for a stone church for the U. P. congregation, Avalon. Address the architects.” Now a private home, but beautifully kept.
Father Pitt believes that buildings in public parks should all look like this: neat and attractive, with some suggestion that they might have been built by gnomes. It was built in 1910 from a design by Rutan and Russell. In the foreground we see one of the splendid dolphin drinking fountains designed for Pittsburgh’s parks by Frank Vittor.
Update: In an earlier version of this article, the building was attributed to Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the successors to H. H. Richardson. Father Pitt has long forgotten where he got that information, but it was wrong; Rutan had left that firm twenty years before this building went up, and partnered with Russell in 1896.
This splendid library was built in 1929 from a design by Eric Fisher Wood, who is perhaps most famous for collaborating with Henry Hornbostel on the extravagant memorial to America’s great president Warren G. Harding.
