Tag: Classical Architecture

  • Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Station

    Night view of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie station, Pittsburgh

    The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie could not quite get a foothold downtown, but it had the next best thing: a station right on the Smithfield Street Bridge, so that it was only a short walk from downtown to the P&LE trains—or a short trolley ride, since the streetcars ran on the bridge.

    P&LE station from the south
    Smithfield Street Bridge entrance to the station
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    The entrance to the station was right at bridge level, with a grand staircase down into the grand concourse.

  • Monongahela Incline

    Nonongahela Incline

    The Monongahela Incline on a rainy day. The incline opened in 1870, but the ornate lower station was built in 1904; it was designed by MacClure & Spahr.

    Lower station
    Lower station with car approaching
    Incline cars passing
    Incline car
    Incline car arriving at upper station
    Lower station with two cars on incline
    Lower station
    Lower station
    Lower station
    Monongahela Incline
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Kodak EasyShare Z1285.
  • A Little Bank in the McKees Rocks Bottoms

    241 Ella Street

    This little building, unless Father Pitt’s correspondents and his own conclusions are mistaken, was the Bottoms branch of the First National Bank of McKees Rocks, and it was a late work of the firm of Alden, Harlow & Jones. Whether the identification is correct or not, however, it is a fine piece of work, and another demonstration of the remarkable architectural riches of the McKees Rocks Bottoms.

    Beehive

    The beehive, symbolic of industry and thrift, would be a good emblem for a bank. It is a bit odd for the business that has occupied the building for decades now, which is an undertaker’s establishment.

    Entrance decorations
    Deco relief
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
  • Three Buildings on Liberty Avenue, Bloomfield

    Three buildings on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Three different buildings, three different styles: polyphony makes harmony in the streetscape.

  • The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal

    Wabash Terminal
    The flag on top of the cupola shows us that what today’s designers call “Photoshopping” has a long history reaching far back into the analogue era.

    The Wabash Terminal was a magnificent folly, like the railroad it represented. The building was designed to say that Jay Gould’s new railroad, a competitor to the well-established Pennsylvania Railroad, was here to stay. It opened in 1904, and the railroad went bankrupt four years later.

    The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway had to perform enormous feats of engineering just to get into Pittsburgh. The Wabash Tunnel, now a little-used automobile highway, led to a new bridge across the Monongahela. All the land downtown was already taken up, so the Wabash had to make an elevated freight yard, which cost fabulous amounts of money.

    The building itself was designed by Theodore C. Link (whose famous St. Louis Union Station still stands), and it was as extravagant as the rest of the enterprise. These pictures were published in The Builder for November of 1904, a Pittsburgh-based architectural magazine. They show us that the terminal building was up to the same extravagant standard as the rest of the operation. Carved decorations were provided to a lavish extent by Achille Giammartini, Pittsburgh’s best decorative sculptor.

    First floor of the Wabash Terminal
    First floor of the Wabash Terminal
    Second floor of the Wabash Terminal
    Second floor of the Wabash Terminal

    After its railroad went bankrupt, the Wabash terminal still served passengers on some lines until 1931. It was converted to offices after that. Disastrous fires gutted it shortly after the Second World War, and it sat as a looming wreck until 1953, when it was demolished to make way for new buildings at Gateway Center.

    Doorway

    This doorway shows us some of Mr. Giammartini’s work.

  • The Pleasure Bar, Bloomfield

    4729 Liberty Avenue

    Old Pa Pitt does not know what was here before the Pleasure Bar, but whatever it was had only a seventeen-year life—the building was put up in 1924, and the Pleasure Bar has been here since 1941. It’s an elaborate building for its size, with a curious mixture of classical and Art Nouveau detailing, and the inset balconies are unusual.

    Balcony and date stone reading 1924
    Pleasure Bar
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
  • Commercial Building on Fifth Avenue, Coraopolis

    941 5th Avenue, Coraopolis

    It might look better with a little paint, but this commercial building preserves some interesting details that might have disappeared if its owners had been more prosperous

    941 and 943 Fifth Avenue
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
  • Phipps-McElveen Building

    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    One of several buildings in this part of downtown put up by Henry Phipps, this is now student housing under the name Penn Commons.

    We have a front elevation of the Phipps-McElveen Building from a few years ago.

  • A Stroll on Mill Street in Coraopolis

    Mill Street
    Kodak Pony 135 with Kentmere Pan 100 film (monobath developed).

    The main business streets of Coraopolis are Fifth Avenue, Fourth Avenue, and Mill Street, a very narrow street that crosses the other two. (There is also a Main Street in Coraopolis, but, in Pittsburghish fashion, it is not the main street.) Let’s take a stroll down Mill Street together. We’ll take two cameras with us, one digital and the other loaded with black-and-white film.

    Coraopolis Savings and Trust Company
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    We’ll start at the Coraopolis Savings and Trust Company building, a splendid bank designed by Press C. Dowler, who gave us a number of grand classical banks. Right across Fifth Avenue is…

    Ohio Valley Trust Company

    …another grand classical bank, the Ohio Valley Trust Company. This one is still in use as a bank.

    Ohio Valley Trust Company entrance
    Office entrance

    This plain but dignified doorway leads to the upstairs offices, which were a prestigious address for local businessmen. The architect W. E. Laughner had his office here.

    Building at 5th Avenue and Mill Street

    Across the street is a substantial commercial block with a corner entrance.

    Looking down Mill Street
    412 Mill Street

    Now we come to a building with tangled layers of history, but enough remains to show us the style of the original.

    412 Mill Street
    Bricked-in arch

    This bricked-in arch has a terra-cotta head for a keystone. Note that the original building was faced with Roman brick—the long, narrow bricks you see outside the arch—and not just Roman, but yellow Kittanning Roman brick.

    Ornamental head
    408 Mill Street

    This building next door used similar Kittanning Roman brick. The storefront has been altered, but long enough ago that it has an inset entrance to keep the door from hitting pedestrians in the face.

    Hotel Helm

    At the intersection with Fourth Avenue we meet the old Hotel Helm,1 with its distinctive shingled turret. It probably bore a cap when it was built.

    From here Mill Street leads past the train station and the Fingeret building, both of which we’ve seen before. At Second Avenue—as far as we’ll go for now—we come to…

    127 Mill Street

    …the Hotel Belvedere, which was probably a cheaper place to stay than the Hotel Helm. It still preserves its shingled gable, though the rest has been sheathed in three colors of fake siding.

    1. Some of our information comes from 1924 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps at the Library of Congress. ↩︎
  • Hillman House, Shadyside

    Hillman House

    Here is another architectural mystery solved by recognizing a Second Empire mansion under a radical exterior alteration. We saw such a house made into an apartment building in Highland Park; here, the transformation has been managed with much more elegance. “Pittsburgh House Histories” on Facebook explains that this was originally the home of James Rees, a builder of riverboats and steam-powered industrial engines, built in the fashionable Second Empire style with a central tower much like the one at Baywood. In 1919, the house was bought by John H. Hillman, Jr., and by that time the Second Empire style was already a mortal embarrassment. Mr. Hillman hired the architect Edward P. Mellon, who prospered through his connections to rich Mellon relatives, to remodel the house. Mellon’s taste was staidly classical, but within that taste he could manage some very attractive effects. He amputated the top of the tower and refaced the house with stone, adding Renaissance trimmings. The result was a house that looked almost new and quite up to date for 1919.

    Hillman House plaque on gatepost
    Hillman House
    Hillman House
    Hillman House
    Hillman House
    Hillman House
    Hillman House
    Kodak EasyShare Z981; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.