This Art Deco school occupies a prime location right on the town square—or town quarter-circle—in Wilmerding. After Wilmerding joined other municipalities to send its children to East Allegheny High School, this became an elementary school; then it was abandoned and sold. Old Pa Pitt hopes the new owners understand that they possess one of western Pennsylvania’s better Art Deco buildings, one that deserves careful preservation.
In addition to its architectural interest, this house on Penn Avenue is notable because it stands on the site of the cottage where Stephen Foster was born.
With bonus deer tracks.
Camera: Olympus E-20n.
The Emil Winter mausoleum, a bit of Cecil B. De Mille Egyptian fantasy in the Allegheny Cemetery, was designed by John Russell Pope, architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives in Washington. It is almost an exact duplicate of the Woolworth mausoleum in Woodlawn, the Bronx, which means that—believe it or not—there are two of these things in the world. The sphinx guardians are probably its most striking feature.
A typically dignified small Pittsburgh apartment building in the neoclassical style. This particular one has an enviable location, right at the entrance to Riverview Park, with a view of the Allegheny Observatory and the Byzantine Metropolitan Archbishop’s palace. Smaller Pittsburgh apartment buildings of this era were frequently given women’s names.
Camera: Olympus E20n.
As seen through a gnarled tree, which is the best way to look at almost anything.
Yesterday’s rain made the leaves damp and the streams flow; overnight the temperatures plummeted, and today there is snow.
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.
Dendrobium bracteosum.
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