Foreground to background:
Liberty Bridge,
Panhandle Bridge (trolleys only),
Smithfield Street Bridge,
Fort Pitt Bridge.
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Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Station
The old Pittsburgh and Lake Erie station, now the centerpiece of the Station Square entertainment district, with the Monongahela Incline in the background.
Although the angle is distorted here by a telephoto lens, the building is not rectangular. A satellite view reveals the odd shape.
A view of the interior, now a restaurant called the Grand Concourse, is here.
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Stained Glass in Beechview
The Good Shepherd window at the rear of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Beechview Avenue, Beechview. The church building is a century old this year.
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Fort Duquesne
This marker sits right in the middle of what was once Fort Duquesne, the French attempt to hold a vast inland empire that the British coveted. The British attempts to dislodge the French began a world war unprecedented in its scale; we call it the French and Indian War, but in other parts of the world it’s known as the Seven Years’ War. The marker shows the plan of the fort and the French names of the rivers; note that the French, logically enough, considered the Allegheny a part of the Ohio, and the Monongahela a tributary. Had the outcome of the war been different, not only would Pittsburghers—or rather Duquesnois—speak French, but we would have only two rivers.
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Buhl Building
There’s nothing quite like the Buhl Building, on Fifth Avenue at Market Street. Here we see the east side of it. This side faces an alley, but there’s no stinting on the decoration, which looks like it was copied from a Wedgwood plate.
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Old Stone Tavern, West End
If the date “1752” found etched in a cornerstone is correct, then this is the oldest building in the English colonies west of the Alleghenies. That date would make it older than the Fort Pitt Blockhouse by twelve years. Father Pitt tends to doubt the authenticity of the date; but there is no doubt that this is a very old building, almost certainly from the 1700s, and one that ought to be preserved at all costs.
Update: The building is now generally regarded as dating from 1782, which is still very old for a stone building in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh’s Old Stone Tavern Friends Trust is trying to get enough money together to preserve this building. If you have extra money sitting around and were wondering what to do with it, here is a suggestion.
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Waterfall in Fox Chapel
A stream tumbles down into a hollow in the woods in Fox Chapel. Spring rains have swollen all the streams and made delightful waterfalls everywhere,
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Bandstand in West End Park
Old Pa Pitt is very fond of West End Park. Given a small and implausibly vertical site, the designers created a delightful neighborhood oasis, with distinguished landscape design, art, and architecture, while at the same time leaving enough woodland for a pleasant nature walk through the forest. This splendid bandstand was designed by architect Thomas Scott. All it needs is a band, instead of the big institutional picnic table that occupies it now.
[NOTE: In an earlier version of this article Father Pitt, relying on someone else’s information, identified the architect of the bandstand as William R. Perry, who also designed the Catholic church of St. Bernard in Mount Lebanon. Perry designed other elements in the park, including the architectural parts of the war memorial, but Thomas Scott designed the bandstand.]
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Urban Archaeology
Mysteries abound in a city when it’s had two and a half centuries to accumulate them. This old foundation in West End Park has obviously been here for a while. How old is it? The land for the park was bought in 1875; was this a little farmhouse from before that time? Father Pitt would be happy to hear from anyone who knows more about the history of this structure.
