Father Pitt

Tag: Art Deco

  • Auditorium Entrance, Andrew W. Mellon Middle School, Mount Lebanon

    Entrance to Andrew W. Mellon Middle School

    The National Forum warns us that we have to keep an eye on this school. All the schools of its era in Mount Lebanon were designed by Ingham & Boyd, or by Ingham, Boyd & Pratt once Pratt became a partner. This one comes from the era when they were adapting Art Deco elements to their usual ruthlessly symmetrical classicism, and the result shows some similarity to the same firm’s Buhl Planetarium. It has not changed much since it was built, except that, when the name was changed from “Junior High School” to “Middle School,” the inscription was clumsily applied with no spacing between the letters. That bugs old Pa Pitt, but he is not going to get up on a ladder and fix it himself.

    Medallion with theatrical masks

    Father Pitt does not know the sculptor of these two medallions, but he has a pretty good guess. Compare them to the reliefs by Sidney Waugh on Buhl Planetarium: The Heavens and The Earth and Primitive Science and Modern Science. It seems likely that the same architects hired the same sculptor for these reliefs.

    Medallion with lyre
    Marquee
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The marquee is festooned with unexpectedly colorful Art Deco swags.

  • The Roxian, McKees Rocks

    Roxian Theatre
    Composite of three photographs from the Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    One of the most cheering indicators of new vitality in McKees Rocks is the Roxian, beautifully restored and adapted as a concert venue. Its glorious terra-cotta façade looks as fresh as when the building was put up.

    Marquee of the Roxian
    Mask of comedy
    Mask of tragedy
    Roxian Theatre
    Pilaster
    Roxian Theatre
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Moderne Terrace in West Park

    610–614 Woodward Avenue

    We have seen many answers to the question of how to make a cheap row of small houses attractive. This streamlined terrace is certainly one of the more interesting answers. It would have been even more striking with the original windows and doors and without the aluminum awnings.

    Geometric patterns in the bricks
    Porch and doors
    Moderne terrace
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Boulevard Theatre, Brookline

    Boulevard Theatre, Brookline

    According to its page at Cinema Treasures, this theater opened as the Braverman in 1928, just at the beginning of the sound era, but was soon renamed the Boulevard Theatre. We can see multiple layers of renovations, the most significant of which happened in 1937, when it was given the Victor Rigaumont treatment. Mr. Rigaumont was Pittsburgh’s most prolific architect of neighborhood movie palaces, and indeed his works can still be found all over the Northeast. Here the Art Deco panels on the second floor are certainly his work. The later ground-floor treatment was beamed in from the parallel universe where Spock wears a beard. After the theater closed, this was used as a Cedars of Lebanon hall for some years. Now it is a nightclub belonging to the Beechview-based Las Palmas empire, which also includes half a dozen Mexican groceries, a restaurant, and a radio station.

    Old Pa Pitt apologizes for the poor pictures. The sun was behind the building, and he had gone out with nothing but a phone in his pocket, not expecting to take pictures; then a delay in his other business left him with nothing to do for half an hour on Brookline Boulevard, one of his favorite commercial streets in the city.

    Insomnia nightclub
    Boulevard Theatre
    Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

  • The President Apartments, Shadyside

    The President Apartments at night

    This phone-camera picture is soupy with noise reduction if you enlarge it, but it gives us a good idea of how the Flash Gordon glass-block window in the stairwell looks at night.

  • Telephone Exchange, Coraopolis

    Telephone exchange

    A simple but pleasingly proportioned telephone exchange that was almost certainly designed by Press C. Dowler, who got all the telephone company’s local business in the Art Deco era.

    Ornament
    Entrance
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

  • Coraopolis Armory

    Coraopolis Armory

    This little armory was built in 1938. The striking design, stripped-down Art Deco or lightly Decoized modern, was by Thomas Roy Hinckley, about whom old Pa Pitt knows only that he designed this building, the single work attributed to him at archINFORM. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

    State seal and inscription
    Coraopolis Armory
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • VFW Post, Coraopolis

    VFW

    Addendum: Thanks to a kind correspondent, we were directed to this article on Coraopolis history, where the architect of the VFW post is identified as T. Ed. Cornelius—an old friend of ours who always kept up with the latest styles and executed them well. The article as originally written follows.

    Father Pitt does not know the history of this building, but it is certainly a fine outcropping of Art Deco, and very well preserved in nearly its original state.

    VFW Keith Holmes Post No. 402

    The building stands at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Mulberry Street in Coraopolis.

    Above the entrance
    Veterans of Foreign Wars
    Keith Holmes Post No. 402
    Mulberry Street side

    The Mulberry Street side has its own entrance, and this part of the building may date from a different time—but not very different, since it is also in an uncompromising Art Deco style.

    V. F. W.

    A cornerstone on the Mulberry Street side dates at least this part of the building to 1941.

    Cornerstone
    Brickwork

    The architect (or the bricklayer) was someone who understood the effects of shadows, creating geometric patterns in light and dark by arranging bricks at different angles.

    Brickwork
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

  • Oaks Theater, Oakmont

    Oaks Theater

    Pittsburgh architect Victor A. Rigaumont designed dozens of movie houses, large and small, all over the Northeast. Most of them are gone, but a few remain, and this is one of them. It’s still open and still showing movies on a single screen.

    Oaks
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Art Deco in the Strip

    2001 Penn Avenue

    Almost all the decorative effect of this building is achieved by arranging bricks in different ways. The original windows in the upper floors also have a part to play in the rhythm of the design: it would not be nearly as effective if they were replaced with single panes of plate glass.

    Decorative brickwork
    2001 Penn Avenue
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.