An oblique view of Webster Hall. And is that a bus coming toward us? Yes, it is.
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Webster Hall from the Corner of Dithridge Street
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The Admiral Apartments, Shadyside
A simple modernist brick box is given an Art Deco flair by distinctively patterned brickwork.
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Art Deco Buildings on Washington Road, Mount Lebanon
Uptown Mount Lebanon has one of the best collections of Art Deco architecture in the area. These two buildings sit side by side on Washington Road at the corner of Alfred Street. With some confidence, old Pa Pitt identifies the Gothic fantasy on the right as an old movie theater, although he would be happy to be corrected.
Update: Father Pitt is corrected. The building on the right was the William Hall office and apartment building, designed in 1929 by Geisler & Smithyman. The one on the left was the Medical Arts Building, as we can guess from the splendid terra-cotta panels.
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Mayflower Apartments, Shadyside
A modest apartment building with a bit of Art Deco flair in the brickwork and the staggered vertical lines.
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Top of Presbyterian Hospital, Oakland
The top of the tower portion of Presbyterian Hospital is one of several buildings in Pittsburgh inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This one belongs to the sub-style that Father Pitt calls Mausoleum-on-a-Stick: skyscrapers where the echo of the Mausoleum is at the top of the tower. Two of those in Pittsburgh are hospitals (Allegheny General is the other), and Old Pa Pitt would be delighted to know why “hospital” seems so likely to make architects think “Mausoleum.”
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Royal York Apartments
This splendid apartment house on Bigelow Boulevard is a feast of Art Deco details; in fact, in a city that never adopted Art Deco as enthusiastically as many of its rivals, this is one of the most remarkable Art Deco buildings. Like many other apartment blocks in Oakland, it required some cleverness from the architect to adapt it to an unpromisingly irregular site.
Addendum: According to a city survey of historic buildings, the architect was Edward Stanton, and the building was put up in 1937.
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The President Apartments
A notable example of Art Deco in Shadyside.
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Zovko’s Garage, South Side
This utilitarian garage has a faint scent of Art Deco: instead of a flat front, we get pleasingly arranged vertical lines.
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Webster Hall
A full view of the Fifth Avenue façade of Webster Hall. The design is by Henry Hornbostel, who successfully created a conservative Art Deco classicism that harmonizes with the other grand monuments on Fifth Avenue.
The building was apparently put up as fancy bachelor apartments, but soon became a grand hotel (it is now apartments again). It was famous for the Webster Hall Cake, whose secret recipe is still treasured by little old ladies all over Pittsburgh. But old Pa Pitt is delighted to discover that the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle has a whole article on Webster Hall Cake, including two recipes that claim to be close approximations. Father Pitt suspects that there are still little old ladies out there who claim to have the real thing, but these recipes are a good start.
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Grant Building from the Boulevard of the Allies
Looking up at Henry Hornbostel’s tallest work, an Art Deco skyscraper that sits right next to the same architect’s Beaux Arts City-County Building.
