Father Pitt

Tag: Apartment Buildings

  • Graff Building, Wilkinsburg

    Graff Building, front elevation

    This is an unusually interesting building, and old Pa Pitt wishes he could say something more definite about it than that. It was built in 1912, and it bears a plaque from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation saying it is “attributed to Frederick Scheibler.” However, Scheibler’s biographer Martin Aurand lists it among the “misattributions,” and old Pa Pitt’s eye sees nothing Scheiblery about it, other than that it is a striking building in an East End neighborhood.

    Central section

    Since the construction listings we have found mention no architect, saying only that it was built for the General Improvement Co. of Wilkinsburg, Father Pitt will either have to remain silent or indulge in wild speculation. And since remaining silent has never been among his virtues, Father Pitt will suggest that Wilkinsburg’s own Milligan & Miller might have been the architects. They designed numerous apartment buildings in Wilkinsburg and nearby; they watched the latest trends from Chicago and adapted them to local tastes; they liked broad eaves like the ones on this building; and several of their buildings have a narrow masonry stripe setting off the top floor.

    Balcony and French doors

    The huge bright French doors with surrounding windows are the most distinctive feature of this building.

    Graff Building
    Graff Building
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.
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  • Bellevue Gables, Bellevue

    Glimpse of Bellevue Gables through the trees

    When demand exceeds supply in the housing market, as it did for quite a while after the Second World War, apartment buildings can be plain brick boxes. It is enough to say, “Here is a place to live, and if you pinch your pennies you can probably afford it.” But in the 1930s, it was necessary to give people a good reason to pick your building over any of the other places people could live. Thus apartment buildings tended to sell a fantasy: live here and you will be the kind of aristocrat you always knew you deserved to be.

    Bellevue Gables entrance and terraces

    Bellevue Gables peddles that fantasy and does a good job of it. Especially on the Sprague Avenue side, the stone terraces and lush landscaping make the approach to the entrances feel like walking into one of the Stately Homes of England.

    Bellevue Gables sign and entrance

    Rudolph Berg, Jr., was the owner, the builder, and the architect. He had suffered much in the Depression: when old Pa Pitt went looking for his name in the papers in the 1930s, he had to plow through pages and pages of sheriff’s sales before he came across any construction listings. But by 1939, when Bellevue Gables opened, he seems to have recovered and was ready to get back into the apartment-development business on a grand scale.

    Open Today: Bellevue Gables, designed for better living.
    Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, May 7, 1939, part 4 page 16.
    Sprague Avenue face
    Sprague Avenue face of Bellevue Gables
    Stone wall
    End of the complex

    The complex is two buildings, one along Sprague Avenue and one along Hawley Avenue.

    End of the Sprague Avenue building
    End of the Sprague Avenue building
    Hawley Avenue side
    Entrance
    Entrance
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Rutledge Hall, Shadyside

    Rutledge Hall

    This would be an ordinary brick box, except that the main entrance has been grandified with two floors’ worth of Doric columns and an elaborate classical entrance, making the building look like a modernist apartment block that collided with a plantation house.

    Columned porch
    Entrance with broken pediment
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • The Admiral, Shadyside

    Entrance to the Admiral

    It seems that every few years old Pa Pitt points his camera at this building again (more pictures here and here). Its gaudy modernism appeals to him the way a colorful toy appeals to a five-year-old.

    The Admiral
    The Admiral
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • The Ellsworth, Shadyside

    The Ellsworth
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    John A. Butz, the brother of the more productive Edward M. Butz, designed this apartment building, which was put up in 1912.1 Here we see it in the last rays of evening sun.

    Addendum: Our correspondent David Schwing sends us this photograph of the Ellsworth that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post for September 28, 1915, before the building was obscured by trees and later buildings.

    1915 Photo of the Ellsworth Apartments, Eugene S. Reilly Company, Renting Agents
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  • Medieval Modernism in Oakland

    135 North Craig Street

    A matched set of apartment buildings, just behind St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose simple modernist forms are enlivened with just enough medievalistic detail to let the tenants imagine they live in a castle.

    135 and 137 North Craig Street
    Entrance
    Lantern
    Entrance
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Franklin Apartments, Park Place

    Franklin Apartments

    A small and attractive apartment building in the part of Park Place that belongs to Wilkinsburg. Father Pitt does not know the architect, but these curved metal balconies that look as though they are serving the tenants up on platters were a favorite detail of Wilkinsburg’s own Milligan & Miller.

    Balconies
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • Modernistic Apartment Building on Walnut Street, Shadyside

    Apartment building on Walnut Street

    Shadyside seems to have a larger concentration of modernistic mid-twentieth-century apartment buildings than any other Pittsburgh neighborhood. Without any other information, old Pa Pitt would guess this one dates from about 1940.

    Front with glass-block stairwell

    Glass block from Pittsburgh Corning became a badge of modernity. If that were not enough, the metal awning over the entrance should do it.

  • Thames Manor, Shadyside

    Thames Manor

    This building immediately struck old Pa Pitt as a Geisler & Smithyman sort of building, and in this case his instinct was correct. It was built in 1929, and Geisler & Smithyman were indeed the architects. The Geisler of the firm was the venerable Charles R. Geisler, who lived in Beechview and scattered medium-sized apartment buildings all over the Pittsburgh area.

    Thames Manor
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
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  • Webster Hall, Oakland

    Webster Hall from Fifth & Craig
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Seen here from up the street at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Craig Street.

    We have more pictures of Webster Hall, including some of the decorative details.

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