Father Pitt has not been able to find the architect of this fairy-tale palace, but it is in good shape. It was built for Frank Sholten, a local newsdealer who apparently wanted to expand into the landlording business, in 1928, and a Sun-Telly photographer captured the building still under construction.
The building has a near-twin in West Homestead, and some lucky day Father Pitt or one of his correspondents will find the name of the artist behind both of them. Meanwhile, we can appreciate the details, bathed in golden late-afternoon sun.
A good example of the kind of arts-and-crafts Gothic that was popular for churches in the first quarter of the twentieth century, usually defined by broad Perpendicular Gothic windows, corner towers, and simple but elegantly crafted woodwork. The architect was S. A. Hamel, about whom old Pa Pitt knows little so far other than that he designed some churches south of the rivers and lived on Giffin Avenue, just two blocks away from this church. Mr. Hamel was associated with a real-estate broker named James A. Griffith, who sold this lot to the church and probably recommended the architect. It seems the congregation was not disappointed: the same congregation still owns the building, and a picture published when the church was dedicated in early 1919, though the scan is poor, is clear enough to show us that almost nothing has been altered.
The congregation was originally German Baptist. The earlier home of the congregation, when it was known as the First German Baptist Church, is also still standing on the South Side; it now belongs to the Holy Assumption of St. Mary Orthodox congregation.
When ground was broken for this building, an article in the Press related the history of the congregation.
Ground Broken for New Temple Baptist Church
Ground has been broken for the new Temple Baptist church, to be erected at Brownsville rd. and Onyx st., Mt. Oliver, at a cost of $50,000. The plans, drawn by Architect S. A. Hamel, call for a handsome structure of rough brick of odd coloring, creating a beautiful effect, and the congregation, which now is holding services at Birmingham and Hays aves., Carrick, anticipates being in its new home before the end of the year.
The Temple Baptist congregation is the oldest German Baptist congregation in Pittsburg and vicinity, and formerly was known as the First German Baptist, the word German now having been dropped from its title.
Formerly services were held in the old church at South Nineteenth st. and Carey ay., where, for 60 years the congregation worshiped, but recently the property was sold to the Greek Orthodox congregation. A chapel that had been maintained by the Baptist congregation at Hays and Phillips aves., Carrick, also has been disposed of and now is being used by the Carrick Red Cross. Since Rev. A. P. Mihm, the pastor, assumed charge three years ago, the membership has enjoyed a steady and substantial growth.
A typical small apartment building with storefronts that keeps many of its distinctive details, including the tiled overhang with exaggerated brackets. The windows have been replaced (although the art glass surrounding the stairwell windows is still there), and the storefront on the right has been heavily altered. But the quoins picked out in contrasting Kittanning brick still grab our attention as we walk by.
Father Pitt took his new old Kodak superzoom to the South Side Cemetery to try it out. These pictures of St. Basil’s Church are not cropped; the lens has a very long range, although there are more recent superzoom cameras with even longer ranges. Herman J. Lang was the architect of the church.
Aside from what you see in the pictures, old Pa Pitt knows nothing about this building on Brownsville Road. It was probably put up in the 1920s, and it has the look of a car dealer. But it really looks like nothing else in Pittsburgh, and the current owners seem to appreciate its uniqueness. The most striking feature, of course, is that organ-pipe crest, which reminds Father Pitt of the purely ornamental “pipe tops” that used to be fashionable on Victorian reed organs.
Last week we saw this picture of the old Carrick Hotel, with the Carrick Municipal Building behind it. The Municipal Building is still there, converted to a storefront. What happened to the hotel?
It’s still there, too, under decades of accretion.
You would hardly recognize it, until you notice those distinctive dormers peering at you from behind the later overgrowth. This kind of development is typical in business districts that became prosperous but not too prosperous: prosperous enough for commercial frontage to be valuable, but not prosperous enough to make it worthwhile constructing larger buildings. Houses and other buildings grew storefronts in front, but the valuable original building remained behind the new construction. As the neighborhood aged, the commercial frontage became less valuable again, and it was adapted into offices or apartments.
This building shows up as a theater on a 1916 map, and that is all Father Pitt knows about it.
The intersection of Brownsville Road and Narrow Avenue (now Newett Street) in 1916.
It is not documented at Cinema Treasures, where theater fanatics have catalogued 178 theaters in Pittsburgh, or at the expiring and impossible-to-navigate Carrick-Overbrook Wiki, so it may not have lasted very long as a theater. (And Father Pitt is only making the assumption that it was a movie theater rather than a live theater or vaudeville house, because the latter seems much less likely for the era and place.) If anyone from the neighborhood knows the story of this building, the information will be received with gratitude. The building is well kept: it has been updated just enough to be useful to its current tenant without destroying the original design of the exterior.
Carrick became a borough in 1904, and for this little all-in-one borough building hired the big-deal architect Edward Stotz.1 It must have created an impression of prosperity when it was built in 1905, and it still looks solid and respectable today, one year short of a century after the people of Carrick voted for the borough to be annexed by the city of Pittsburgh in 1926. It has been converted into a retail store, and the huge second-floor window makes an excellent display for the current tenant.
The building originally had an elaborate baroque crest that has been shorn off. We can see it in this picture, where the municipal building appears behind the Carrick Hotel:
The Carrick business district is oddly discontinuous, with several clots of commercial buildings along Brownsville Road interspersed with less densely developed areas. Here are a few buildings in the clot near the intersection with Churchview Avenue. Above, an interesting building that looks more Chicago than Pittsburgh, with some modernistic Prairie Style details and charming little round-topped dormers with oval windows that will probably cost a fortune if they ever have to be replaced. For some reason someone decided to paint the blond Kittanning brick of the front grey, which was not an ideal choice but might have been the simplest way to get rid of graffiti.
This is a building in a style we might call Provincial Renaissance. The ground floor has been remodeled, probably more than once, and while it is not a good match for the rest of the building, old Pa Pitt will admit to a sneaking admiration for the impressive glass-block bay in the front.
Here is a building that had the typical Pittsburgh problem of a three-dimensional triangle to solve, where the architect had to deal with not only an awkward angle but also a steep rise behind the building. Whoever it was solved the problem attractively.
This building preserves much of its original detail, including the date 1904 in the crest. The ground floor, uglified by siding going in random directions, would look much better painted green to match the cornice and crest; but at least it is well maintained.
Finally, this building had an expensive and tasteless modernization applied about five years ago, replacing an earlier expensive and tasteless modernization that probably dated from the 1950s and had not aged well. The terra cotta around the entrance to the second floor hints at what the ground floor might have looked like originally.
It is never pleasant, but old Pa Pitt feels as though he has a duty to document things that might be gone soon. Sometimes miracles happen, and we can always hope, but without a miracle we can only turn to the photographs to remember what has vanished.
“Berg Place,” a group of three apartment buildings along Brownsville Road in Carrick, probably cannot be saved. It’s a pity, because the buildings, in a pleasant Arts-and-Crafts style flavored with German Art Nouveau, have a commanding position along the street, and their absence will be felt. They were abandoned a few years ago, probably declared unsafe, and since then they have rotted quickly.
Some of the simple but effective Art Nouveau decorations in brick and stone.
These two buildings across the street from Berg Place, damaged by a fire, may possibly still be saved. At present one of them is condemned, but that is not a death sentence, and it looks as though prompt action was taken to secure the one on the corner after the fire. They are typical of the Mission-style commercial buildings that were popular in Carrick and other South Hills neighborhoods, and they ought to be preserved if at all possible. Carrick is not a prosperous neighborhood, but much of the commercial district is still lively, and with the increase in city property values the repairs might be a good investment.
