Father Pitt

Tag: Button & McLean

  • St. Nicholas Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox Church, Homestead

    Domes of St. Nicholas

    It is traditional to paint onion domes blue like the heavens, or to gild them if the congregation is feeling rich. But Homestead was known for one thing, so these domes are glimmering Homestead stainless steel.

    St. Nicholas Orthodox Church

    This church was designed by Button & McLean, who also designed yesterday’s Homestead Senior High School. The Button of the pair was Lamont Button, whom we have met as a designer of high-class houses for the upper middle classes. Ground was broken in 1936, but the church got stuck at the basement level. It remained stuck until 1949, when the job was finally finished.1

    St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
    St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
    Front of the church
    Entrance
    Medallion
    Medallion
    Medallion
    Cornerstone
    Domes
    Canon PowerShot SX20 IS.
    1. “Who, What, Why, When and Where in Today’s Church Work,” Charette, December, 1949, p. 17. See also the Wikipedia article on St. Nicholas Carpatho-Rusyn Church. ↩︎
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  • Homestead Senior High School

    Entrance to the Homestead Senior High School

    This snappy-looking modernistic school was designed by Button & McLean (Lamont H. Button and Paul F. McLean), who were taking bids in November of 1938.1 It was later bought by the Steel Valley Council of Governments, an association of boroughs and cities in the Mon Valley, which has turned it into a shop where you can take your humans to have them serviced.

    Homestead Senior High School

    When old Pa Pitt took these pictures, there was a band rehearsing somewhere in the building that included a pretty good vibraphone player.

    Homestead Senior High School
    Fukifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
    1. Proposals, Pittsburgh Press, November 30, 1938, p. 32. “Copies of plans, specifications and other contract documents will be on file and open to public inspection at the offices of the Architects, 119 East Montgomery Avenue, North Side, Pittsburgh, Pa.…” From many other listings we know that 119 East Montgomery Avenue—a street that no longer exists—was the office of Button & McLean. ↩︎
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