A small but rich corner-tower Gothic church, probably built around the time of the First World War. It has been lovingly restored as a private home.
Note the bell in the side yard.
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Reformed Presbyterian Church, Perry Hilltop
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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Point Breeze Presbyterian Church
Now St. Paul Baptist Church. Built in 1887, it was designed by Brooklyn architect Lawrence B. Valk, whose church designs can be found all over the country. (In about 1900, Valk and his son moved to Los Angeles, where they became bungalow specialists but continued turning out the occasional church.)
The tower with its huge open Romanesque arch dominates the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Penn Avenue. After the tower, the most eye-catching thing is the porch, with its even huger arch and its crust of terra-cotta tiles.
The side entrance also gets a big arch, and even the basement door gets a stony arched porch.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.
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Battle of the Dutchtown Lutherans
On the corner of North Avenue and Middle Street stands this small but imposing German Lutheran church, built in 1877. Father Pitt is fairly sure the Lutherans have gone, though the church site (last updated in 2010) is still on line. The Urban Impact ministry remains.
“St. Matthew’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church, built 1877.”
Connoisseurs of such things will note that this is a church with the sanctuary upstairs.
The hefty tower was added in a burst of prosperity about 25 years after the church was built.
Meanwhile, just across narrow Middle Street was a different kind of Lutheran church. And although old Pa Pitt gave this article a humorous headline, he is fairly sure there was no battle. Pittsburgh learned the virtue of tolerance: those other Lutherans across the street may be completely wrong about everything that is most important in life, but they’re our neighbors, and we wave to them when we see them on the street.
St. Mark’s was built in 1892. After its Lutheran congregation left, it was a Church of God in Christ until a few years ago. It has recently been expensively refurbished and painted black (it used to be painted brick red). Old Pa Pitt has not heard who was responsible for the refurbishing, but all the stained glass was removed, which is often the sign of a Pentecostal congregation moving in.
Except for the loss of the glass, the church is in very good shape externally, and it is a fine example of Pittsburgh Rundbogenstil—the round-arched German style that mixes classical and Romanesque elements.
Nikon COOLPIX P100; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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Church of the Annunciation, Perry South
Edward Stotz was the architect of this church, built in 1905. The parish closed twenty years ago, but the church has found other tenants and is kept in good shape.
A later relief of the Annunciation is over the main entrance.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Mount Oliver
The congregation dissolved in 2020, so here is an excellent opportunity for an investment in a beautiful building in a trendifying neighborhood. It is in very good shape, and it has enough architectural distinctiveness to make its new owner proud. It also commands a prominent corner on Brownsville Road.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
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Bethel Baptist Church (Zion Christian Church), Carrick
Now Zion Christian Church. The cornerstone tells us that the congregation was founded in 1908, and its first building was at the corner of Birmingham Avenue and Hays Avenue (now Amanda Street)—a small frame chapel that must have quickly become woefully overcrowded, since this building many times the size was constructed less than twenty years later.
Plat map showing the original location of Bethel Baptist. “The membership is 381, as compared with a membership of 30 in 1908,” says the Gazette Times of February 18, 1925, when the plans for the new building were announced.
Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, February 18, 1925 The architect was Walter H. Gould, “a member of the church,” and so far this is the only building attributed to him that Father Pitt knows about. However, it is an accomplished if not breathtakingly original design, so there must be other Gould buildings lurking about, probably in the South Hills neighborhoods. Comparing the published rendering above with the church as it stands today shows us that the tower grew about a floor’s worth of height between conception and construction—a rare example, perhaps, of an architect being told that his original design was not ambitious enough.
“By spirit and faith and the help of God.”
Nikon COOLPIX P100. -
Union Church, Robinson Township
Father Pitt thinks this is the most picturesquely sited church in Allegheny County. On a day of rapidly changing lighting, he captured it in multiple moods.
The cemetery is stuffed with Revolutionary War veterans, and several of them will be appearing over at Pittsburgh Cemeteries.
Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Kodak EasyShare Z981; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. -
St. Stephen’s Church, Sewickley
A very stony Anglican church that has kept its rich black coat of soot.
Gargoyles guard the building from the top of the tower.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10. -
Second Presbyterian Church, Coraopolis
Now the Church of God, this is a modest church in an abstract version of Perpendicular Gothic, with castle-like battlemented towers fore and aft. The stained glass has been removed, possibly because it was too decrepit to restore, or possibly to satisfy the iconoclastic tendencies of American Evangelicalism.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. -
McKees Rocks Presbyterian Church
Now Christ Community Church, this is a typical smaller Gothic church with a corner tower. The stone has not been cleaned of its decades of soot, making this one of our dwindling number of remaining black-stone churches.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Sony Alpha 3000 with 7Artisans f/1.4 35mm lens. A matching Sunday-school wing includes a round-backed auditorium.
