Father Pitt

Tag: Allison (James E.)

  • Noblestown Methodist Episcopal Church

    Noblestown Methodist Episcopal Church
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Yesterday we looked at the Oakdale Public School, one of the earliest commissions for James E. Allison. Here, just a short distance to the west in the old village of Noblestown, is another Allison building1 from a little over a year later—a small frame church that, although it has been coated with artificial siding, still retains some of its distinctive character. The form is the irregular square popular in small Romanesque churches of Victorian times, but the details are Georgian, including the big window. The half-round protrusion in front indicates a Sunday-school room built on the popular Akron Plan. The congregation dissolved a few years ago, but the building is in use by a veterans’ organization called Heroes Supporting Heroes.

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  • Oakdale Public School

    Oakdale Public School

    High-school dropout James E. Allison would go on to have a long and distinguished career as an architect, much of it with his younger brother David in California as Allison & Allison. When he designed this little school,1 though, he was 24 years old, and he had just set up his own practice. Although he had no diplomas, he had worked for the Pittsburgh office of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge (the successors to the sainted Richardson), and then for Adler & Sullivan in Chicago. No one needs more education than that.

    Oakdale Public School

    The Romanesque style was all the rage in 1894, and Allison made sure his clients got their fill of round arches, emphasizing them with darker brick. It looks as though he had a lot of fun drawing the belfry.

    Inscription: Oakdale Public School, Anno Domini MDCCCICIV

    Whoever designed the inscription—possibly some high-school dropout—made an elementary mistake in Roman numerals that has persisted for 131 years. There is no sane way to read the date “MDCCCICIV.” But change the incorrect subtractive notation to MDCCCXCIV, and it gives us the date 1894, which matches our source.

    Oakdale Public School

    The school has been turned into apartments, but the exterior appearance has been kept close to original. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Oakdale Public School
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The rear section seems to have been a later addition, carefully matched to the original in style and materials.

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