A corner-tower auditorium church built in 1910. It was designed by Chauncey W. Hodgdon.
Years ago, when there was talk of demolishing the former Zion Evangelical Church in Bloomfield, old Pa Pitt saw an article that said it was the only known remaining work of its architect, Chauncey W. Hodgdon. Immediately it occurred to Father Pitt that there were probably many more works to be found, and he is pleased to say that the list has kept growing even without any special effort. We have pictures of a few buildings we attribute to Mr. Hodgdon, and more attributions can be found on the Great Big List of Buildings and Architects.
The building is no longer in use as a church, but the exterior is kept up as a commercial building.
Now the Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the current owners keep it beautifully—including its historic Pittsburgh black stones, which give it weighty dignity. It was originally the Eleventh Presbyterian Church (of Allegheny; both Presbyterian and United Presbyterian churches on both sides of the river went well into the double digits), built in 1907. The architect was Thomas Hannah.1
The power was out for days in Brighton Heights after old Pa Pitt pulled down all the utility cables in the way of these pictures.
This is how it looked before Father Pitt got out his little hatchet.
Record & Guide, May 8, 1907, p. 293. “Plans have been prepared by Architect Thomas Hannah, Diamond Bank Building, for a church to be erected in Allegheny for the Eleventh United Prestyterian [sic] congregation, at California and Davis avenues. Cost $35,000. Rev. Charles F. Wishart, pastor.” The cornerstone is dated 1907. ↩︎
Later known as the Mulberry Presbyterian Church. O. M. Topp and Charles W. Hutchison, “țhe well-known Pittsburg architect,” were the architects of this church, built in 1911.1
In spite of his self-declared notability, Charles W. Hutchison has not left much of a visible architectural legacy: after some searching, old Pa Pitt found only two projects definitely attributable to him, of which this is one. It was probably his own church: he lived in Wilkinsburg. His moment of greatest fame came the year after this church was built, when his honeymoon trip was interrupted by the wreck of the Titanic: he and his bride were passengers on the Carpathia, the ship that picked up Titanic survivors. He sold his story, with a well-made diagram of the scene of the rescue, to the Press, which put him on the front page as “the well-known Pittsburg architect.”
Olaf M. Topp, on the other hand, was a very successful architect with a long career ahead of him and much experience behind him. Half the prewar Lutheran churches in the Pittsburgh area were designed by Topp, in addition to a few for other denominations; and in secular buildings his greatest work was the still-lamented Jenkins Arcade.
A while ago this church was taken over by an organization with ambitious plans to turn it into a Center for Civic Arts. The plans seem to have run hard up against economic reality, however, and when old Pa Pitt visited recently the building was up for sale again.
Still serving its original congregation, now as the Mifflin Avenue United Methodist Church. This church in the Wilkinsburg quarter of Regent Square, a single neighborhood divided among four municipalities, was built in 1923. The architect was Victor A. Rigaumont, who would later become nationally famous as a reliable designer of Art Deco movie palaces. Perhaps we can see a little Hollywood sensibility already in this church: the design is more flamboyant than the usual corner-tower Gothic church, and the huge Gothic arch that includes both the three front entrance doors and the windows above them is more like a set designer’s fantasy Gothic than a pedantically correct interpretation of medieval forms.
Note the signature above this tiny basement door: “V. A. Rigaumont R. A. Architect.”
The education wing was built thirteen years earlier, in 1910; the architects were Wilkinsburg’s own Milligan & Miller. The older building was used as the worship space until the main church was built.
This charming little church was built in 1912; and, having said that, old Pa Pitt has exhausted his knowledge on the subject. It now belongs to the Christ Missionary Baptist Church, which has kept it in beautiful and nearly original condition, as we can see from this photograph taken just before the dedication in December of 1912.
Edwin V. Denick was the architect of this neat little corner-tower church, which was built in 1905.1 The current congregation, the Baptist Temple Church, keeps it scrupulously tidy. “We do what we can,” one member modestly told old Pa Pitt—modestly because the man had just spent hours cleaning inside.
Old maps show that the attached parsonage was built later than the church, but it was matched very well to the style and material of the main building.
We have seen this church before, but on a recent stroll up the Boulevard old Pa Pitt thought it looked beautiful in the sun, so here it is again. It now belongs to the Brookline Assembly of God, a vigorous congregation that keeps it up very well.
Kiehnel & Elliott were one of the few Pittsburgh firms to adopt early modern styles at the turn of the twentieth century. When they took on a church, however, they turned completely traditional, and it would be hard to point out anything about this neat little church that sets it apart from the work of other good but conventional architects of the time. This one was built in 1915, and it is a typical Pittsburgh corner-tower Protestant church. Today it is one of our dwindling number of black stone churches, and the soot of the decades gives it a kind of evening-dress dignity it would not have had when it was young.
The church us beautifully kept by its current occupants, Victory Global Ministries, whose pastor disdains the pompous title “bishop” favored by many nondenominational ministers in favor of the original workaday meaning of the Greek ἐπίσκοπος: “Overseer.”
The vanishing of an early addition in the rear shows us something of the original color of the stone.
Built in 1898, this church was designed by Vrydaugh & Wolfe1 in a Romanesque style that carries over elements of the pre-Richardsonian version of Romanesque. It now belongs to the Covenant Church of Pittsburgh, which has kept it beautifully—even the spire, which usually disappears on churches like these.
An old postcard from the Presbyterian Historical Society collection shows how little the building has changed.
Homestead’s own Adam G. Wickerham, whose office was a short stroll down the street, designed this distinctive Gothic church, the foundation of which was laid in 1913.1 It replaced the earlier St. Matthew’s, which had been built only fourteen years before and still stands a few strides away. In the picture above, we can see another Wickerham building across the street: the old Rodef Shalom synagogue, now a nondenominational church.
Old Pa Pitt does not know the history of this later wing.
The Construction Record, August 23, 1913: “Homestead, Pa.—Foundations are in for a $35,000 stone church to be constructed on McClure avenue and Tenth street for St. Mathew’s P. E. Congrega[tion] from plans drawn by Architect Adam Wickerham, McClure avenue.” ↩︎
