Father Pitt

Tag: Churches

  • St. Bernard’s from the Mt. Lebanon Cemetery

    Views of St. Bernard Church on a slightly snowy winter day.

  • First Baptist Church

    The First Baptist Church in Oakland was designed by Bertram Goodhue, a disciple of Ralph Adams Cram, the greatest figure in American Gothic architecture.

  • First Presbyterian Church

    First Presbyterian was designed by the Philadelphia architect Theophilus P. Chandler, whose name makes him sound like the obstructive villain in a Marx Brothers farce. Above we see it from across Trinity Churchyard, with the last leaves of autumn still clinging to an oak tree in front of Trinity Cathedral. Below, details of the Gothic decoration.

    Not many churches are confident enough of the permanence of their service times to have them literally set in stone.

  • Spire of Trinity Cathedral

    The spire of Trinity Cathedral, with the Oliver Building in the background and the pinnacles of First Presbyterian Church in front and to the right.

  • Spire of the Smithfield United Church of Christ

    The first structural use of aluminum was this ornate tracery spire on the Smithfield Congregational Church by Henry Hornbostel. Unfortunately the decorative stamped concrete that covers the rest of the church is crumbling, and it will cost millions to repair. The church has been shrouded in mesh for years now, but the spire still proudly catches the early-morning sun.

  • Dormont United Methodist Church

    The year 2013 was a bad year for older churches in Dormont: three of them—the Presbyterians, the Baptists, and the Methodists—gave up trying to maintain their fine old buildings with diminished congregations. The Presbyterians sold their building to a suburban megachurch; the humbler Methodists sold their building to Buddhists who used it as a temple. But the Buddhists, after having painted the building in this attractive bright yellow and red, have given up as well; and as of October 2019 the building is for sale again.


    Map

  • Tabernacle of the Union Baptist Church

    The curiously angular Gothic of this 1881 church might have pleased a congregation that wanted a building that looked like a church, but not one that looked too medieval. Like many other churches in the most crowded Pittsburgh neighborhoods (including several on the South Side), it adapts to its tiny lot by placing the sanctuary on the second floor, leaving the ground floor for Sunday-school rooms and social halls.


    Map

  • Heinz Chapel

    More pictures of Heinz Chapel, the last major work of Charles Z. Klauder, who designed the whole Gothic city of buildings at the heart of the Pitt campus.

  • Tower of St. Bernard’s, Mount Lebanon

    The tower of St. Bernard’s peers over the trees in Mount Lebanon, brought to you in old-postcard colors thanks to the Two-Strip Technicolor plugin for the GIMP.

  • Dormont Presbyterian Church

    The old Dormont Presbyterian Church dominates the business district on Potomac Avenue, making that corner of Dormont look almost like a medieval English city. The church was built in 1923 (or in 1907, with an expansion in 1923; Pa Pitt’s sources are a little fuzzy). The Presbyterians, along with the Baptists and Methodists, threw in the towel in 2013, and this is now a branch of North Way Christian Community.