Father Pitt

Would you like to see a random article?
Of course you would.

Allegheny General Hospital

The only really elegant skyscraper on the North Side is this hospital, designed by York & Sawyer in 1926. The style is what old Pa Pitt likes to call “Mausoleum-on-a-Stick”: the central tower is topped by an Art Deco interpretation of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This is one of three Mausoleum-on-a-Stick towers in Pittsburgh, and two of them are hospitals (the other being Presbyterian Hospital in Oakland). The third is the Gulf Building,which was designed by the originators of the style.

Below, we see the hospital with the narrow streets of Dutchtown in front of it.

York & Sawyer built two skyscrapers in 1926 with notably similar designs. The other is the Royal Bank Tower in Montreal, which was the tallest building in the British Empire at the time (though it did not compare with the tall buildings of New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh). The picture at left, by “Thomas1313,” was made available on Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

4 responses

November 18, 2013
Root

Trees, like human beings, become more interesting as they suffer more misfortunes.

November 15, 2013
Art Deco in Mount Lebanon

“Uptown” Mount Lebanon is a fine example of a 1920s streetcar suburb. (In southwestern Pennsylvania, the central business district of a town is often called “Uptown” if it’s on a hill.) There is more Art Deco here than anywhere else in the Pittsburgh area, except perhaps East Liberty.

November 15, 2013
A Preview of Winter

Our first substantial snow of the season left wet snow in the woods, but not on the roads—just the way snow is best appreciated.

November 12, 2013
Autumn in the Union Dale Cemetery

Cemeteries in Pittsburgh have the advantage of Pittsburgh topography to make them picturesque. Add fall colors, and the picturesqueness is irresistible. The Union Dale Cemetery is the premier address for deceased residents of the old City of Allegheny.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

November 9, 2013
The View from Beechview

Little glimpses of the downtown skyline pop up unexpectedly in hilltop neighborhoods. Here, from a back street in Beechview, we see Mount Washington, with the U. S. Steel Tower and the BNY Mellon Center poking their heads up behind the hill.

November 5, 2013
Fall Colors

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

A subdued October has given way to the most gloriously colorful November in recent memory.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

November 4, 2013
Country Graveyard in the Fall

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Fall colors surround a little country graveyard west of Cranberry.

November 2, 2013
Liberty Tunnels, South Portal

The new portals for the Liberty Tubes are nearly finished, and they look splendid—almost exactly the way they looked when the tunnels opened in 1924. The unfortunate mid-century boxes are now only a memory.

2 responses

November 2, 2013
Old St. Luke’s, Woodville

Old St. Luke’s Church in the little village of Woodville (an unincorporated part of Scott Township) was founded in 1765. It was stuck in the middle of the Whiskey Rebellion, which divided the congregation, one of whose members was General John Neville, a tax collector who barely escaped with his life. (Woodville Plantation, the house to which he escaped, is still standing nearby.)

The current building dates from 1852. In the burying ground surrounding the little stone church are some very old graves, including some Revolutionary War veterans and “the first white child born in the Chartiers Valley.” The oldest stones were native shale, which is a very poor material for gravestones; but some of the obliterated inscriptions have been duplicated in plaques beside the stones.

October 27, 2013