Father Pitt

Tag: Beechwood Boulevard

  • One Side of One Block of Beechwood Boulevard, Squirrel Hill

    1471 Beechwood Boulevard

    Probably no single street in Pittsburgh can claim so many distinguished dwellings as Beechwood Boulevard—mostly because it is a very long street that winds through three prosperous neighborhoods. Picking a block almost at random, old Pa Pitt strolled down the street and photographed every house on the sunny side. The majority of these houses share design quirks that make us think they were probably drawn by the same hand.

    1463
    1463
    1447
    1443
    1443
    1437
    1437
    1431
    1425
    1425
    1417 and 1419
    1411 and 1415

    A pair of postwar doubles that illustrate the demographic changes over the history of Squirrel Hill. This block of Beechwood Boulevard mostly filled in with grand houses for the upper middle class; after the war, these much more modest dwellings were the ones that made sense. Today, a new house built here would probably equal the older grand houses in square footage, if not in quality of construction.

    1407
    1401
    1401
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.
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  • Squirrel Hill Methodist Protestant Church, Greenfield

    Squirrel Hill Methodist Protestant Church

    H. Childs Hodgens was the architect of this church, which was built in 1911.1 It has not been M. P. for a good while; currently it is shared by the House of Prayer for All Slavic Christian Church and the Congregation Yeshua Ben David.

    Entrance
    Stained glass
    Beechwood Boulevard face
    Lilac Street face
    Squirrel Hill M. P. Church
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990; Fujifilm FINEPIX HS20EXR.
    1. Source: The Construction Record, September 30, 1911: “Foundations are in for the $15,000 brick and stone church, to be erected on William Pitt Boulevard and Lilac street, Squirrel Hill, for the Squirrel Hill Methodist Protestant Congregation, from plans drawn by Architect H. C. Hodgens, Vandergrift building.” William Pitt Boulevard is now Beechwood Boulevard. ↩︎

  • Double Houses in Greenfield

    Houses on Beechwood Boulevard
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    Double houses on Beechwood Boulevard in Greenfield, seen from the Murray Avenue Bridge.

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  • Nativity of Our Lady Church, Greenfield

    Nativity of Our Lady Church

    The architect of this Byzantine-modern church was Charles J. Pepine, who designed a number of postwar churches in our area.1 It was dedicated in 1949 under the name “Nativity of Our Lady”; later it was known as Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, but it was usually just called St. Mary’s. It closed in 2010. Some attempts were made to turn the building into apartments, but they ran into objections from neighbors and we know not what other troubles; currently the building is vacant, though with building permits dated 2015 and 2019 in the front window.

    Tower

    The distinctive high domes of these towers were not part of the original plan when the new church was first announced in September of 1948, as we can see from this sketch by the architect.

    From the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, September 4, 1948.
    Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Church
    Nativity of Our Lady Church
    Side entrance
    Entrance to the parking lot
    Pillar
    Olympus E-20N; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    If there must be parking lots, they should be marked by architectural elements in keeping with their buildings—like these pillars at the parking-lot entrance for St. Mary’s.

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