Father Pitt

Tag: Alden & Harlow

  • The Little Phipps Conservatory at Clayton

    Conservatory at Clayton

    Henry Clay Frick really liked the Phipps Conservatory in Schenley Park when it went up in 1892. He liked it so well that he said, “I want one of those in my back yard,” and hired Alden & Harlow to design it. (You can do that when you’re a robber baron.) They gave him a miniature of Phipps Conservatory, with a central greenhouse large enough for substantial citrus trees.

    These pictures were taken in March of 2000 with a Kodak Pony 135.

    Conservatory

  • Commercial National Bank

    Commercial National Bank

    This little bank on Fourth Avenue was originally designed by Alden and Harlow. The central section has been ruthlessly mutilated, with the elegant arch replaced by a cartoon suggestion of an arch. For reasons unknown, much of the rest of the building was left untouched (although it is pretty clearly missing its top), and the details there are enough to make it worth our while to stop and admire them.

    Of course there are lions. How could there not be lions?

  • Carnegie Library, South Side Branch

    Carnegie Library, South Side Branch

    One of Alden and Harlow’s distinguished designs for small libraries, this one has changed very little externally since it opened.

  • People’s Savings Bank Building

    People’s Savings Bank Building

    The Bank Tower, as it is now called, has a brand-new painted sign on the back side. The building, finished in 1902, was designed by the prolific firm of Alden & Harlow, Andrew Carnegie’s favorite architects.

    [A correction: An earlier version of this article identified Alden & Harlow as a Boston firm, but they had moved to Pittsburgh by this time, leaving their former partner Longfellow behind.]

  • Lion on the Commercial National Bank Building

    No street in Pittsburgh, and possibly in the country, is denser with lions than Fourth Avenue. These little lions decorate the Commercial National Bank building by Alden & Harlow, one of the small but richly ornate banks that filled in the gaps between the famous bank towers.

  • Victory Building (in Better Light)

    Old Pa Pitt published a nearly identical picture of the Victory Building a while ago, but he was unhappy with the patch of blinding sunlight that washed out one corner of it. Here is the same view in more even lighting.

  • Regal Shoe Company

    This oddly domestic-looking storefront is made for a high-class tenant, and has found the perfect match in Heinz Healey’s haberdashery. The building was designed by Alden & Harlow, whose usual good taste is apparent.

  • Standard Life Building

    This Fourth Avenue tower is smaller than some of the others, but just as splendid as its most ostentatious neighbors. It was designed by Alden and Harlow in their usual exquisite taste.

  • Victory Building

    The Victory Building, at Liberty Avenue and 9th Street, is a small skyscraper designed by Andrew Carnegie’s favorite architects, Alden and Harlow. It’s only eleven storeys tall, but it follows the classic base-shaft-cap pattern of the Beaux-Arts skyscraper style in America.

  • Carnegie Library, South Side Branch

    Alden and Harlow, Andrew Carnegie’s favorite architects, designed this branch library, as they did many others. This one opened in 1909.