Only nine years ago, the Skinny Building was restored—the upper floors, at any rate. The ground floor was linked with the building next door as part of a convenience store with an unattractive modern front. Now the building has been thoroughly re-restored, along with its neighbor the Roberts Jewelry building, and both have been given individual ground-floor treatments more in sympathy with their upper floors. PNC, which now owns both buildings, has made good on its pledge to restore them and display art in the upper floors of the Skinny Building.
Harold W. Arlin, the first paid announcer in the history of radio, who was part of KDKA’s first programming and was still working for KDKA in 1924.
In the summer of 1924, commercial radio was only about three and a half years old. Yet it was already a thriving business, and stations were popping up all over the country. There were not enough of them, however, to clutter the airwaves too badly, so that a powerful station could often be heard coast to coast. Thus the national radio magazines ran schedules for all the stations across the country, and radio fans competed to see who could pull in the most distant station.
Pittsburgh had three radio stations listed in Radio Digest, and they all drew on local talent to fill their programming hours, which in those days were still limited. Their schedules for a week (which begins on Wednesday) give us a priceless snapshot of Pittsburgh culture in the 1920s.
Father Pitt regrets having missed some of these programs. Wouldn’t you like to know the story of Epaminondas and his Auntie?
Two of these radio stations are still going. KDKA, of course, has never been off the air. KQV has been kicked around since Richard Mellon Scaife, who had pasted it in his media album, passed on to his reward, but it was on the air again the last time old Pa Pitt checked. Most Pittsburghers have never heard of WCAE, and its call letters were reassigned decades later to a public television station in Indiana; it was a radio station operated by the Kaufmann & Baer department store, which was soon to be bought by Gimbels.
Wednesday, July 16
KDKA, E. Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, 326)
5:30 p.m., Pittsburgh Athletic association orchestra; 6:30, The Pied Piper, “Kiddies’ Buddy”; 8, Valeris Chambordon Gregory, soprano; Bert Berberick, tenor; Emil Wolff, violinist; Edwin Menznemalor, accompanist.
KQV, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, Daylight, 270)
5-5:30 p.m., Sunset stories and “Diary of Snubs Our Dog” 8:45-9, “Fifteen Minute Song Revue,” Ben and Thelma Fields; 9-10, Mary Christine Seberry, reader; Eleanor Conley, lyric soprano; John M. Hierholzer, flutist; special adaptation with piano, voice and flute obligato of dramatic reading of “The Pied Piper of Hamlin.”
“The Pied Piper of Hamlin” was one of the “Headliners of the Week,” programs singled out for special notice. “ ‘The Pied Piper of Hamlin,’ that hoary old rascal of legend who lured all the kiddies away with his piping will be presented from KQV, Wednesday. The flute and piano will help to charm you.”
WCAE, Pittsburgh, Pa., (Eastern, Daylight, 337)
3 p.m., Fred Rosenfeld, pianist; 6:30, dinner concert, William Penn hotel; 7:30, Sunshine girl; 9:30, musical program, Prof. C. P. Schwan
Thursday, July 17
KDKA, E. Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, 326)
11:15 a.m., Scalzo’s orchestra; 5:30 p.m., KDKA Little Symphony orchestra; 6:30, songs for the children, Merry Heart; 7, “Shrubs and Perennials that Bloom in July”; 7:15, farm program; 8, KDKA Little Symphony orchestra; Barbara Wellman, contralto; 10, concert.
KQV, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, Daylight, 270)
5-5:30 p.m., Sunset stories and “Diary of Snubs Our Dog”
WCAE, Pittsburgh, Pa., (Eastern, Daylight, 337)
6:30 p.m., dinner concert, William Penn hotel; 9:30, Julia Saam and co-operating artists, pupils of Casper Koch; 11, late concert.
Friday, July 18
KDKA, E. Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, 326)
11:15 a.m., Daugherty’s orchestra; 5:30 p.m., Paul Fleeger, organist; 6:30, Uncle Wiggely story for the children; 8, Pennsylvania Railroad system night: Altoona band; triple quartet, Car Service division; address, Elisha Lee; Louis Smith, tenor; I W. Dalrymple, xylophonist; Helen J. Upperman, soprano; H. W. Farrand, monologist; Blowden Lewis, contralto; Allegro Mandolin sextette; Ruth Radkey, pianist; Helen J. Upperman, soprano; Vera J. Burke, reader.
KQV, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, Daylight, 270)
5-5:30 p.m., Sunset stories and “Diary of Snubs Our Dog” 9-10, regular artists’ evening program.
WCAE, Pittsburgh, Pa., (Eastern, Daylight, 337)
4:30 p.m., special children’s program, Sunshine Girl; 6:30, dinner concert, William Penn hotel; 9:30, Bohemian musical program, “Liberty,” National Croatian Singing society, J. V. Krabec, director
Saturday, July 19
KDKA, E. Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, 326)
5:30 p.m., dinner concert, Westinghouse band; 6:30, Epaminondas and his Auntie, Radio children; 8, Westinghouse band; Chester sterling, bass.
KQV, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, Daylight, 270)
9-10 p.m., regular artists’ evening program.
WCAE, Pittsburgh, Pa., (Eastern, Daylight, 337)
6:30 p.m., dinner concert, William Penn hotel; 7:45, Lew Kennedy, baritone; Irene Setzler, pianist; 9:30, Brown’s Original orchestra.
Sunday, July 20
[No listings for Pittsburgh stations.]
Monday, July 21
[No programming on KDKA.]
KQV, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Eastern, Daylight, 270)
5-5:30 p.m., Sunset stories and “Diary of Snubs Our Dog” 8:45-9, fifteen minute song revue, Ben and Thelma Fields; 9-10, Marguerite Lang, soprano; Indira Hesh, contralto; James P. Johnstone, accompanist; artists from studio of Mme. Fitz-Randolph.
Sometimes the false is truer than the true. It is not possible to get a good picture of One PNC Plaza from the ground. The only way to get in the whole building—well, almost the whole building—was to stitch together multiple pictures, which produced a hideously distorted perspective. To create a rendering that looks more like what we perceive (which is not the same as what we see) when we look at the building, old Pa Pitt resorted to complicated trickery for the picture above, making four vertical slices of the picture and adjusting each one of them separately. If you look at the ground level, you can see how everything else has been broken and distorted to make the building look more like itself.
Here is the base of the building without the radical distortions.
One PNC Plaza was designed by Welton Becket and Associates; it opened in 1972. Mr. Becket died at the beginning of 1969; but it is probable that he left drawings of this building on his drafting table, since it had been planned before 1968. The firm continued under his name long after his death; One Mellon Center, which opened in 1980, was also designed by Welton Becket and Associates.
It is a curious fact that One PNC Plaza replaced another skyscraper that was shorter by only four floors: the First National Bank Building, which was designed by Daniel Burnham and ranks at number 35 on Wikipedia’s “List of tallest voluntarily demolished buildings.” It is the tallest building destroyed in Pittsburgh so far.
The First National Bank Building, which One PNC Plaza replaced.
Once again, old Pa Pitt took half an hour’s walk in the far end of Seminole Hills, but unlike last time he did it in broad daylight this time. Most of these pictures are on the sunny side of the street, but we hope you will forgive a few backlit pictures.
Even in the more modest part of Seminole Hills, the variety of styles is remarkable. A few postwar modern houses have grown up here, too, but the shady winding streets make harmony of what might otherwise be a dissonance of styles.
Because we have nearly fifty pictures to show, we’ll avoid weighing down the front page and boring the readers who have no interest in domestic architecture by putting the rest behind a “more” link.
