Father Pitt

Tag: Bayard Street

King Edward Apartments, Oakland

This is the newest of the three-building complex: the original King Edward Apartments, the King Edward Annex, and this King Edward, built in 1930. Walter Perry of Chicago was the architect of this palatial addition to John McSorley’s empire of apartment buildings. It was front-page news on and off when it was new, and not in a good way: some miscalculation in the surveying seems to have ended with a few inches of this building encroaching on the property to the left. That property owner was a cantankerous and litigious sort who refused all McSorley’s offers for the land; it seems he was hoping for a big payout if he went to court. To forestall the lawsuit, McSorley had a crew start chiseling several inches of brick off the end of the building—but then the property owner claimed he was trespassing and got an injunction to stop the work.

Just to make sure that the temporary injunction handed down in common pleas court yesterday is observed, agents for the property at 214-216 North Craig street erected another barricade to keep workmen from chipping bricks off the north wall of the King Edward apartments addition. The workmen lost in their race to forestall a lawsuit because the addition encroaches several inches onto the other property and Judge H. H. Rowand ordered them not to trespass. The new barricades are shown above. Damage done by falling bricks to the roof and awning of the duplex may be seen in the picture.

April 27, 2026
Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, Oakland

George S. Orth was the architect of this school, one of the first large institutional buildings in the Oakland district. It was built in 1894, and it still serves its original institution.

The style is a sort of Flemish Renaissance filtered through Americanized Rundbogenstil. The horizontal stripes in the brickwork are such an instantly distinctive feature that they have been imitated in the school’s modern additions.

Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.

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February 10, 2026
First Baptist Church, Oakland

Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

We also have a picture from the same angle in the summer, and pictures of the interior at night.

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February 8, 2026
Apartment Entrances on Bayard Street, Oakland

Designers of apartment buildings often put a lot of effort into the entrances, because the entrance is what sells the idea of the building. You are, after all, trying to make prospective tenants think this is where they want to live. You will walk through these doors, a good entrance says, and you will feel like a duke walking into his palace. In one short stretch of Bayard Street this morning, we collected several artistic entrances, beginning with the Adrian above, at which no duke would turn up his nose.

The Aberdeen is almost as splendid, an effect slightly diminished by installing stock doors at the entrance and balcony.

There are two King Edward Apartments (plus an annex around the corner); this is the older of the two.

The later King Edward is covered with terra cotta, and its bronze doors are themselves works of art.

Bayard Manor has the kind of late-Gothic entrance that would make you feel you had done your best if you were expecting a visit from Queen Elizabeth I.

The D’Arlington is an interesting combination of classical and Prairie Style, with both baroque and abstractly geometric ornaments coexisting comfortably at the entrance.

Kodak EasyShare Z981.

Finally, a later building that does not quite succeed in competing with its neighbors, but still provides a respectable-looking entry.

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September 26, 2025
Bayard Manor, Oakland

The Bayard Street face of Bayard Manor. Yes, that odd little half-timbered projection on the roof really is skewed in relation to this side of the building. That is because Craig Street and Bayard Street do not meet at exactly a right angle; the roof projection (it probably holds elevator mechanics) is oriented at right angles to every side of the building except the Bayard Street front.

Kodak EasyShare Z981.

More pictures of the Bayard Street front of Bayard Manor, the main entrance, and the Craig Street side.

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June 25, 2025
Bayard Street, Shadyside, in November Sun

The Shadyside half of Bayard Street is lined with fine houses in a variety of styles. We ambled down one block on a sunny November day, taking pictures of the patterns of light and shadow on the sunny side of the street.

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November 20, 2024
Renaissance Palace in Schenley Farms

Louis Stevens was best known as a designer of romantic châteaux and French cottages for the well-to-do, but if you asked him for a Renaissance palace, he was up to the task. The Harry J. Parker house was built in 1915 on a prominent corner where Bayard Street meets Bigelow Boulevard, and it is a standout in a neighborhood of splendid houses.

April 1, 2024