We’ve seen this house in the spring; now here it is in the fall, when we can see more of it because there are fewer leaves.
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Distinguished International Style in the Suburbs
The developer Oliver Tyrone, who had built a high-class shopping center called Manor Oak on Cochran Road, brought in the New York firm of William N. Breger & Associates to design a high-class high-rise office building for the rising land behind the shops.1 In his early career, Breger had worked for Walter Gropius, and by 1966 his International Style credentials were well established. This building brought some distinguished modernist design to the quiet suburban landscape of Scott Township, and it still stands out as one of the more notable modernist office buildings in Pittsburgh suburbia.
It seems Mr. Tyrone’s investment was a success: two years later he started construction on a much larger nine-floor office building farther up the hill. Breger’s firm was once again in charge of the design,2 but instead of just repeating Manor Oak One but bigger, the architect made a completely different design—very Miesian to old Pa Pitt’s eye, though like many buildings inspired by Mies it narrows the Miesian colonnaded porch to vestigial width.
Kodak EasyShare Max Z990. A native Pittsburgh architect might have adapted the buildings to their sloping site. But instead, the ground was completely leveled for each building, and the buildings could just as easily have grown in a flat city like New York.
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G with ultra-wide camera.
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S. S. Kresge Building
S. S. Kresge was never the presence in Pittsburgh that Murphy’s was, but all the five-and-dime stores had outlets downtown. Murphy’s, Kresge’s, McCrory’s, Woolworth’s—they were all similar operations, and all the founders knew each other. G. C. Murphy, in fact, had worked for S. S. Kresge and John G. McCrory before setting out on his own.
The S. S. Kresge Company is better known to younger people (meaning under the age of seventy or so) as the parent corporation of Kmart.
The whole front of the building is done in terra cotta, including this inscription.
Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR. The pediment, though it seems undersized for the building, is filled with rich decoration.
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Apartment Building in the Back Streets of Dormont
An attractive and well-maintained building that would have been even more attractive when that overhang had green or red tiles. The style seems to hover somewhere between Renaissance and Arts and Crafts.
After the originally tiled overhang and its showy wooden brackets, the most eye-catching feature is the balconies with their bulging iron railings.
Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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Eighteenth Ward War Memorials, Allentown
The Eighteenth Ward includes all of Allentown, Beltzhoover, and Bon Air, as well as part of Mount Washington. These memorials stand at the corner of Warrington and Estella Avenues. Above: the people who served in World War I, with hundreds of names. Below, the ones who served in World War II, with even more names. The pictures are very big, so if you enlarge them most of the names should be readable.
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Fairy-Tale Cottage in Carrick
Kodak EasyShare Max Z990. We’ve seen this house before, and here it is from a different angle. It sits on the side of a steep hill, and the best way to take in the front of it is to stand far away—in this case, in the South Side Cemetery.
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Christ Evangelical United Brethren Church, Wilkinsburg
This elegantly proportioned corner-tower church is currently vacant. Doesn’t some artist need a distinctive studio? Think of what you could do with the auditorium and three floors of school next to it!
Sony Alpha 3000. The tower has completely abstract non-figurative gargoyles—perhaps a compromise the Romanesque-minded architect made with an iconophobic congregation.
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Crafton United Presbyterian Church
John L. Beatty, who designed a number of good Gothic churches in our area, was the architect of this grand church for the First United Presbyterian congregation of Crafton.1
The dates of the foundation of the congregation (1908) and the building of the current church (1927).
The congregation had money for two huge windows in the 1960s or 1970s.
Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. - “Crafton Church to Build,” Gazette Times, February 15, 1927. “The First United Presbyterian Church of Crafton is having plans prepared for a new church building to seat 500 persons at the corner of Bradford and Haldane streets, Crafton. The Rev. A. W. Caldwell is pastor. John L. Beatty is architect.” ↩︎
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Holy Angels Church, Hays
Here is something that may be unique in the city of Pittsburgh: a timber-framed temporary Catholic church building that not only still stands but is also still in use as a church, now as part of Blessed Trinity parish. Holy Angels was built in 1903, and, as an article in the Post at the time of the dedication explained, it was not meant to be the church for long.
The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Angels, Hays borough, will be dedicated to-day with appropriate ceremonies. Rt. Rev. Bishop Canevin will have charge of the ceremonies. On his arrival he will be escorted to the church by the societies of the congregation. The celebrant at the high mass will be Father Thomas Devlin, rector of Holy Cross, Pittsburg; Father Charles Hipp, of St. Joseph’s, Allegheny, deacon; Father John Barry, of St. Brigid’s, subdeacon, and Father Hegarty, master of ceremonies. Bishop Canevin will preach in English and Father Stephen J. Schramm, of St. George’s, will speak in German.
In November of 1902 the congregation purchased the old Risher homestead for $14,000, which has been used for a rectory. The church to be dedicated is regarded by the congregation as a temporary place of worship till a larger church building is erected. It will then be used for parochial school purposes.
Rev. David Hegarty, the energetic and beloved rector of Holy Angels, Hays borough, was born in Fayette county, Pa., May 5, 1870. His early schooling was obtained in the public institutions. He entered St. Vincent’s college and seminary at Beatty, Pa., in 1891. On completing his studies he was ordained in the seminary July 7, 1900, by Bishop Phelan. Father Hegarty recently recovered from an almost fatal attack of typhoid fever. The dedication of the new church was deferred until his complete recovery.1
A history page at the diocesan site tells us that the original foundation was wood, but when the church began to sink, the building was raised up and a new concrete-block parish hall built under it.2 Over the years the church has been remodeled and improved, but this temporary wooden building is still standing and still serving worshipers after nearly a century and a quarter.
Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G with ultra-wide lens.
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