A big hole in Stanwix Street marks where the new Gateway Center subway station is under construction below. When the new subway line to the North Side opens, this larger station will replace the old Gateway Center subway station, with its squealing underground loop and single platform.
The Ormsby family were early settlers in the little town of Pittsburgh, coming here in 1768, when their son Oliver was only about a year old. Oliver spent the rest of his life here, and was buried in Trinity Churchyard with a memorial that shows how much wealth he had accumulated in that time. The inscription reads thus:
ERECTED
To the Memory of
OLIVER ORMSBY
Son of John Ormsby
born at Bedford, Pa. Feb. 23, 1767
removed in 1768 to Pittsburgh where he
resided until the period of his decease
the 28th of July A.D. 1832,
leaving to his afflicted family
(who were prematurely bereaved by an
all wise Providence of a devoted father)
a character of unblemished Purity
a fountain flowing with streams
of the noblest virtues for their instruction.
O best of Parents
Long for thee thy Children’s tears shall flow.
Long shall their bosoms heave with woe.
But thanks to our Almighty Father
we mourn not as those without hope
looking with the eyes of faith
for a reunion of our once happy family
in the regions of bliss,
where the spirits of the dust are perfected
through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Pittsburgh’s earliest settlers are buried downtown in the churchyard of Trinity Cathedral, the Episcopal cathedral of Pittsburgh (or at least the cathedral of some Anglican diocese, though which one may be up in the air right now). Next door is First Presbyterian, another colonial-era congregation, and across the street is the Duquesne Club, forming a perfect triangle of old money.
Trinity Churchyard is half a block up Sixth Avenue from the Wood Street subway station.
The gardens of Equitable Plaza, part of the modernist Gateway Center development that was the showpiece of Pittsburgh’s first Renaissance, are always perfectly tended, changing with the seasons.
Equitable Plaza is right next to the Gateway Center subway station.
An inherited camera with fifteen-year-old film took this picture of the front of the South Side Works theater at night. It’s a bit grainy, but recognizable.
The top of the CNG tower seen from the Diamond, or “Market Square” as it’s usually called in print. While the rest of the country gripes about slow times, downtown Pittsburgh seems to be in the middle of a building boom, and construction equipment is likely to invade just about any photograph.
The Alcoa Building, now called the Regional Enterprise Tower (Alcoa has moved across the Allegheny to the North Shore), was supposedly the first all-aluminum skyscraper. From most angles it looks like a giant stack of television sets, but with the clean modernist lines and vegetation of Mellon Square in the foreground, we can picture how the building must have looked in the architect’s imagination.
The Alcoa Building is a short walk down Sixth Avenue from the Ross Street exit of the Steel Plaza Subway Station.
Every suburban homeowner’s most detested enemy, the dandelion is also one of our most stunningly beautiful wildflowers. Old Pa Pitt offers these photographs as an example of the rewards that await us when we learn to overcome our prejudices.
Grape hyacinths are perfect garden flowers: they pop up, show off, and multiply without asking for any special care.
