Designed by S. S. Beman, a Chicago architect who made Christian Science churches a specialty, this now belongs to the University of Pittsburgh as it slops over from Oakland into Shadyside.
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First Church of Christ, Scientist
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St. Augustine, Lawrenceville
Above, one of the towers of St. Augustine’s in Lower Lawrenceville. Below, a view down 36th Street from Penn Avenue, with the startling forms of St. Augustine’s illuminated by a shaft of sunlight. These pictures were taken in 1999, back when the neighborhood was forgotten and practically invisible to most outsiders.
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Allentown at Twilight
The narrow streets on either side of St. George’s Church, taken in 1999. Above: Proctor Way; below, Climax Street.
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Tower of East Liberty Presbyterian Church
This picture was taken in 1999 with a Smena 8M, a plastic Russian all-manual 35-millimeter camera that was cheaply made but surprisingly capable.
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Ash Wednesday in Brookline
You can tell it’s Ash Wednesday because churches in all the neighborhoods are offering fish ’n’ at. This church in Brookline was Presbyterian until recently, but now appears to be nondenominational.
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Peter and Paul
Reliefs over the entrance to St. Bernard’s in Mount Lebanon. You can recognize Peter instantly by his keys, and Paul by his bald head, the sword that beheaded him, and the scroll on which he is scribbling a letter to some faraway congregation.
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Tower with Falcon
This is the tower of St. Basil’s in Carrick. Old Pa Pitt didn’t notice the bird when he was taking pictures, or he might have tried to go after it with a long lens. If you enlarge this picture to full size, you will see a peregrine falcon sitting on the cross, probably waiting for an unwary pigeon.
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Sunset in Polish Hill
A view across the rooftops, with the domes of Immaculate Heart of Mary in the background. The picture was taken twenty years ago, but this view has changed very little.
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Hillside in Carrick
Carrick dribbles down the precipitous slope from Brownsville Road. The church at upper left is St. Basil’s, now part of Holy Apostles Parish. The spire on the skyline right of center belongs to Zion Christian Church, built as Bethel Baptist Church.
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Statues on St. Adalbert’s Church
Some of the statues that adorn the 15th Street front of St. Adalbert’s, beginning, of course, with St. Adalbert himself. The church and its art are in need of restoration, which is to say in need of money.
It was very kind of the sculptor to give these figures a book to read while they stood there for all eternity.
