Father Pitt

Tag: Beaver Avenue

  • National Casket Company, Chateau

    National Casket Company building

    Now known as the Cardello Building, this was one of several locations of the National Casket Company, a concern that, by combining the leading casket makers into one conglomerate, nearly cornered the market on death.

    National Casket Company building

    The lens on this old Ansco camera is a “normal” lens that sees the world about the way your eyes see it, so that acute angle is not a lens artifact. It really is an acute angle.

    National Casket Company building

    The building is actually a complex of connected buildings put up over the course of twenty years, from 1900 to 1920. The same architect was responsible for all of them: R. Maurice Trimble, who came from a family of contractors and fed work back to various Trimbles whenever he had a chance. (See the end of this article for the citations that mention Trimble as architect.)

    National Casket Company building
    National Casket Company
    Looking along the side of the building
    Light fixtures
    Light fixtures
    Looking along the front
    National Casket Company
    National Casket Company
    Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS; Ansco Memar with AristaEDU ISO 100 film.

    We found multiple listings mentioning Trimble as architect of various parts of the National Casket Company building. Here are three of them.

    Record & Guide, July 18, 1900, p. 463. “Maurice Trimble, Ferguson Buliding [sic], has made plans for a three-story brick warehouse to be erected on Chartiers street, Allegheny, for the National Casket & Coffin works. The owners are receiving bids for its construction.” Chartiers Street is now North Point Drive. By the time it was built, the warehouse had grown to four floors. The 1910 Sanborn map shows that this was the section between the five-storey section that faces Beaver Avenue and the five-storey section at the south end of the complex. Now known as the Cardello Building.

    Record & Guide, December 17, 1902, p. 835. “R. M. Trimble, Ferguson Building has awarded to John H. Trimble & Bro., 2022 Chartiers avenue, Allegheny, the contract for the erection of a five story brick and stone warehouse and office building for the National Casket Company at Seventh street and Duquesne way.” This probably refers to the five-story section at the south end of the National Casket Company warehouse on Chartiers Street; the downtown address would be the offices of the company. Other listings confirm, however, that John H. Trimble & Brother were located at 2022 Chartiers Avenue, right next to the National Casket Company which is very convenient. We note Maurice Trimble’s habit of keeping the construction in the family if he could manage it.

    “Casket Company to Build,” Post, August 31, 1920, p. 7. “The National Casket Company has given D. T. Riffle a contract for an addition to a building on Reedsdale street, Northside. R. M. Trimble is the architect.” This is the most recent section, filling out the building to Reedsdale (now part of Beaver Avenue).

    Since Trimble was the architect of the first section of the warehouse and the most recent section, and since everything matches the one or the other in style, we can be fairly confident that he designed all the stages of construction, however many there were.

    Comments

  • Rosenbaum’s Warehouse, Chateau

    Rosenbaum’s warehouse

    This was a warehouse and looks like a warehouse. It was built for Rosenbaum’s, one of the big department stores downtown; the architect was William E. Snaman, who had made a specialty of the department-store business.

    Rosenbaum’s warehouse

    As a building it is not a great work of art: it is one of those buildings that, as Philip Friedman said of his own works, “are admittedly far less esthetic achievements than economic realities.” But it is a bit of Pittsburgh history that will disappear at some point, as its neighbors have already done.

    Rubble of demolished warehouses

    These piles of rubble mark the graves of two warehouses—one of which belonged to Donahoe’s grocery, and therefore might also have been designed by Snaman, since he designed the Donahoe’s building downtown. They have been demolished to make way for the immense Esplanade development, which is scheduled to eat up this building as well.

    Rubble and warehouse
    Casement windows

    Some of the original casement windows, usually the first things to go when a building is renovated, are still in this building.

    Casement windows
    Rosenbaum warehouse
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS; Ansco Memar with AristaEDU ISO 100 film.

    It would be hard to make a case that the Esplanade development will not be a better use of this land than a plain old warehouse, or even that this would be a good building to restore for apartments or offices. It will not be much regretted when it is gone; but as one of the last relics of a once-mighty department store, it is worth remembering with these pictures.

    Comments