Father Pitt

Tag: Art Deco

  • Brighton Theater, California-Kirkbride

    Brighton Theater

    One of the most exuberantly gaudy Art Deco façades in Pittsburgh is in a neighborhood almost no one ever visits. Fortunately things are looking up in California-Kirkbride—or Calbride as it’s called by denizens—which was once a notoriously bad neighborhood. Restoration mania has taken root in the Old Allegheny Rows Historic District, spilling over from the Mexican War Streets and Allegheny West nearby. Meanwhile, this building is preserved by lucky economics: it houses a letter-carriers’ union and some other tenants who will keep it standing without spending the money to change its appearance significantly. According to comments on this page at Cinema Treasures, the theater was built in 1928, replacing an earlier Brighton Theater on Brighton Road (this one is on the parallel Brighton Place).

    The architect’s scheme called for three masks to decorate the central section, so we have one Comedy and two Tragedies. And don’t miss the thoroughly Art Deco elephants on the corners:

    Addendum: The architects were Rubin & Veshancy;1 the theater opened toward the end of 1928.2

    1. “Plan New Theater for Center Avenue,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, November 20, 1927. ↩︎
    2. “North Side’s Newest Playhouse to Open Soon,” Pittsburgh Press, November 4, 1928. ↩︎

  • Koppers and Gulf Towers

    Our two most splendid Art Deco skyscrapers, as seen from Crawford Street in the Hill. This view is made possible by the demolition of the old Civic Arena, and will disappear when the currently vacant lot is filled again.

  • Mt. Lebanon Municipal Building

    Mount Lebanon is a township, technically speaking; but it feels more like a city of its own. Post-Gazette columnist Peter Leo always referred to it as “the Great State of Mount Lebanon,” which sums up how Pittsburghers think Mount Lebanese think of themselves. The central business district is “uptown”—a word that means an area outside downtown in most cities (even Pittsburgh itself), but in southwestern Pennsylvania usually means a downtown area that happens to be on a hilltop. Uptown and the surrounding area is now a national historic district, and this 1930 Art Deco building is one of its gems: it is the masterpiece of its architect, William Henry King, Jr.

    A decade-old article from the Trib has quite a bit of good information about the building.

    Camera: Canon PowerShot S45. The picture of the whole building above is a composite of four photographs.

  • Letsche Elementary School (1941 Addition), Hill District

    In 1941, this addition with interesting Art Deco panels was grafted on the otherwise classical Letsche Elementary School in the Hill District. The school is now the Pittsburgh Student Achievement Center, a school for students who do not thrive in more traditional schools.

  • Federal Reserve Bank Building

    Three of our greatest Art Deco buildings are lined up in a row on Grant Street: the Koppers Tower, the Gulf Tower, and this magnificent deco-fascist composition by the Cleveland architects Walker and Weeks. This image is put together from six separate photographs, so it is huge if you click on it; there are some small stitching errors, but overall it looks very much like the architects’ original rendering.

  • Allegheny County Airport

    When this airport was built, it was the largest in the world in terms of runway footage; it is still one of the busiest airports in Pennsylvania, though there are no longer scheduled commercial flights. Moving the commercial flights to Greater Pitt meant that this airport never had to be rebuilt or modernized, so that the terminal (designed by Stanley L. Roush in 1931) is perhaps the most perfectly preserved Art Deco airport terminal in the world. It has played the airport in several period movies, and somewhere in a box or file Father Pitt has a picture of the terminal with the name “Bruxelles” replacing “Allegheny County Airport.”

    Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.

  • Westinghouse Memorial High School, Wilmerding

    This Art Deco school occupies a prime location right on the town square—or town quarter-circle—in Wilmerding. After Wilmerding joined other municipalities to send its children to East Allegheny High School, this became an elementary school; then it was abandoned and sold. Old Pa Pitt hopes the new owners understand that they possess one of western Pennsylvania’s better Art Deco buildings, one that deserves careful preservation.

    Camera: Olympus E-20n.

  • Church of the Assumption, Bellevue

    Camera: Samsung Digimax V4.

    This splendid church was designed by Bellevue’s own Leo A. McMullen, an architect and organist who is almost forgotten today, but whose works were highly regarded in his time. The American Institute of Architects counted him as one of “six architects who shaped Pittsburgh,” according to his obituary in 1963.

    The four evangelists—Mark, Matthew, John, and Luke, in that order—are lined up on the façade, each holding open a book that displays the first words of his Gospel.

    Church of the Assumption
    Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

    See the whole collection of the Church of the Assumption.

  • Art Deco Outbreak on Carson Street

    This Victorian storefront was given a strange Art Deco makeover at some point in the twentieth century. The makeover extended only halfway up, so the original Victorian style is perfectly preserved on the top two floors. East Carson Street on the South Side is one of the best-preserved Victorian commercial streetscapes in North America, but until very recently it was never preserved in any deliberate fashion—only by extraordinary luck.

  • Art Deco in Knoxville

    This little maintenance building on Bausman Street is an unexpected touch of Art Deco in an otherwise residential neighborhood. Enlarge the picture to appreciate the details.

    Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.

    Update: This building has vanished, so let this picture serve as its memorial.