Father Pitt

Tag: Art Deco

  • Federal Reserve Bank

    Federal Reserve Bank

    Now the Drury Plaza Hotel, this is a splendid example of the far Art Deco end of the style old Pa Pitt calls American Fascist. The original 1931 building, above, was designed by the Cleveland firm of Walker & Weeks, with Hornbostel & Wood as “consulting architects.” It is never clear in the career of Henry Hornbostel how far his “consulting” went: on the City-County Building, for example, “consulting” meant that Hornbostel actually came up with the design, but Edward Lee was given the credit for it; we would not know that Hornbostel drew the plans if Lee himself had not told us.

    At any rate, the lively design almost seems like a rebuke to the sternly Fascist Federal Courthouse across the street, which was built at about the same time.

    The aluminum sculpture and ornament is by Henry Hering.

    An addition in a similar style looks cheap beside the original; perhaps it would have been better just to admit that the original could not be duplicated and to build the addition in a different style.

    Federal Reserve Bank with addition
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.
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  • Pythian Temple, Hill District

    Pythian Temple

    This is the most important remaining work of Louis Bellinger, who for his entire career was the only Black architect in Western Pennsylvania. It was built as the Pythian Temple, an exceptionally grand lodge house. It opened in 1928; but after less than ten years it was sold and became a movie theater, the New Granada, with the ground floor redesigned in streamlined Art Deco by Marks & Kann. Both as a lodge and as a theater it was one of the great jazz venues of all time, and the roster of stars who performed here is long and dazzling—Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and our own Lena Horne, just to name four.

    After half a century of vacancy and multiple schemes for restoration, the New Granada is finally getting the love it deserves. It will have performance spaces and offices, and the whole block has been redeveloped with colorful new apartments and restored older buildings.

    Knight’s helmet in terra cotta

    Except for the ground floor, the building still stands very much as Bellinger designed it. Shields and helmets in terra cotta remind us of the building’s Knights of Pythias origins.

    Shield and helmet
    New Granada Theater
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.

    In seventeen and a half years of writing about Pittsburgh, few things have made old Pa Pitt happier than seeing the progress on this building. It will stand for years as a tribute to a neglected architect, to the history of the Hill, and to the great legacy of jazz in Pittsburgh.

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  • Entrance to the Koppers Building

    Koppers Building

    This is the lushest Art Deco of all our Art Deco skyscrapers. Graham, Anderson, Probst & White were the architects. The firm was one of the successors to Daniel Burnham’s practice, although Burnham would hardly have recognized the world of skyscraper design by 1929, when this building opened.

    Entrance to the Koppers Building
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Dormont Recreation Center

    Dormont Recreation Center

    Built in the 1920s in a strikingly modernistic style, the Dormont Recreation Center still serves the citizens of the borough who come every summer for one of the area’s most popular swimming pools, which first opened in 1920. (Addendum: The building was put up in 1924; the architect was Harry Viehman of Brentwood.1)

    Entrance
    Detail of decorative brickwork
    Dormont Recreation Center
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  • Annunciation School, Perry South

    Annunciation School

    Benno Janssen and Edward J. Hergenroeder were the architects of this school, which seems to show the economy of line old Pa Pitt associates with Janssen. Hergenroeder would go on to design many Catholic schools, as well as the convent around the corner from this one (which we’ll be seeing soon).

    The parish school closed years ago, but the building has found another use, so it is occupied and well maintained.

    Annunciation School inscription
    Entrance to the school

    Among the decorations are several inscriptions, most of them not from Catholic sources.

    Quotation from Addison

    “Knowledge is that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.” —Addison.

    Arvada Way entrance

    The side entrance on Arvada Way.

    Quotation from Shakespeare

    “The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation.” —Shakespeare.

    Terra-cotta child

    Terra-cotta figures of children enjoying their childhood decorate the side walls of the school.

    Hornblower
    Banner-carrier
    Writer
    Rope-jumper
    Annunciation School
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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  • Allegheny General Hospital

    Allegheny General Hospital seen from Eloise Street
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Haller Baking Company, Emsworth

    Roofline of the Haller Baking Company building

    Built in about 1933, the Haller Baking Company was designed in an up-to-the-minute Art Deco style by Paul Scheuneman. You can see a picture of the building as it originally appeared at the Avonworth Historical Society. “Oven to Home” was the company’s slogan: it delivered bread, cakes, and other baked goods straight to your house. In the 1950s the building was turned into a furniture store, with glassy additions in front that were later bricked in when it became an office.

    Haller Baking Company
    Haller Baking Company
    Haller Baking Company
    Compass rose

    Father Pitt does not know the origin of this stylish compass rose. It does not look new, but it is not in the photographs of the bakery or the furniture store that replaced it.

    Haller Baking Company
    Ornament
    Ornament
    Ornament
    Ornaments
    Haller Baking Company
    Haller Baking Company
    Haller Baking Company
    Rear of the Haller Baking Company
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    There’s not much to see in the rear of the building, but old Pa Pitt climbed the hill to document it anyway, just for the sake of completeness.

  • A Little Bank in the McKees Rocks Bottoms

    241 Ella Street

    This little building, unless Father Pitt’s correspondents and his own conclusions are mistaken, was the Bottoms branch of the First National Bank of McKees Rocks, and it was a late work of the firm of Alden, Harlow & Jones. Whether the identification is correct or not, however, it is a fine piece of work, and another demonstration of the remarkable architectural riches of the McKees Rocks Bottoms.

    Beehive

    The beehive, symbolic of industry and thrift, would be a good emblem for a bank. It is a bit odd for the business that has occupied the building for decades now, which is an undertaker’s establishment.

    Entrance decorations
    Deco relief
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • G. C. Murphy Building

    G. C. Murphy Building

    Part of the flamboyantly Art Deco G. C. Murphy building, which with this addition grew into “the world’s largest variety store,” as it still called itself in the 1990s before it shrank and the whole chain eventually collapsed under the ownership of Meshulam Riklis. The building was designed by Harold E. Crosby.

    Terra-cotta decoration

    The terra-cotta decorations were originally brightly colored. In the photograph above, we have boosted the color to make the remaining colors evident.

  • Top of the Pittsburgher

    Top of the Pittsburgher
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The Pittsburgher was built in 1929–1930 as a hotel; the architects were the H. L. Stevens Company of New York. For many years, converted to offices, it was known as the Lawyers Building. In 2015 it was bought by a company called King Penguin Opportunity Fund, which restored the original name and put it in lights at the top. This view was taken from Gateway Center with a very long lens.