A fine example of Pittsburgh’s interpretation of the Italian Renaissance. The extremely simple form is varied by a few well-chosen details. Enlarge the picture and note the Greek-key pattern along the gutter.
-
Renaissance Palace in Shadyside
-
Ellsworth Terrace
Shadyside is full of these little enclaves of townhouses, improbably narrow streets (or simply pedestrian walkways) that shut out the world and create their own little enclosed communities. Ellsworth Terrace, built in 1913, is a fine example of early-twentieth-century arts-and-crafts design. Wikipedia lists the architect as William H. Justice, but with a question mark after the name. The pseudo-Victorian building to the right is a much more recent condominium.
-
Two Kinds of Spanish Mission
Two houses in the Spanish Mission style sit side by side on Washington Road at the southern end of the Uptown Mount Lebanon business district, and they implement the style in two interestingly different ways. This one, which is now the home of the Historical Society of Mount Lebanon, takes the style fairly seriously. A real Spanish house, in the New World or the Old, turns inward. It shuts the public out, presenting almost blank walls to the outside world. Of course Southwestern houses are also notable for their flat rooflines. In this house we have large expanses of stucco wall facing the street (although the architect has conceded some generously large front windows to Eastern sensibilities) and the flat roof characteristic of Spanish colonial architecture in the Southwest.
The other house is much more an Eastern house with decorative borrowings from the Spanish Mission style:
You could take the basic shape of this house and turn it into an English cottage or an Italian Renaissance palace by changing the details. The stucco, the arcaded porch, and the tile roof are the main things that carry the “Spanish Mission” message.
-
Alexander M. Guthrie House, Shadyside
This exceptionally fine country house on Ellsworth Avenue has been absorbed by the city, but maintains its rural dignity. It was built just after the Civil War in about 1870, and all the best features of the era are represented—generous porch, huge tall windows, and a dignified but not monotonous simplicity of form.
-
Corner House, South Side
Remarkable mostly for its unremarkableness, this little house in the back streets of the South Side is a good demonstration of how to keep an old house (it might be 150 years old or more) tastefully up to date.
-
Victorian House in Shadyside
A nicely restored Victorian house in the back streets of Shadyside. The front porch seems to have been foreshortened to accommodate a basement garage, but the work was tastefully done.
-
Church Converted to Alley Houses, South Side
From the blocked-up Gothic windows and general shape, we can infer that this was a small church. But at some point not very recently it was converted to four tiny alley houses, made only slightly less tiny by the addition of what are probably kitchens on the back. (Update: For the history of the church, see “The Mystery of the Converted Church on the South Side.”)
-
Negley-Gwinner-Harter House, Shadyside
This Second Empire mansion had a narrow escape: the third floor burned out in 1987, and the owner died the next year, leaving the house a derelict hulk. It was rescued from demolition at the last minute by serial restorationist Joedda Sampson, who painted it in her trademark polychrome style; it has since passed to other owners, whose pristine white also works well with the design. The house was built in 1871; Frederick Osterling worked on early-twentieth-century renovations and additions.
-
Schenley Farms Tudor
A Tudor house in Schenley Farms recedes into the woods, looking more and more like something from a fairy tale.
Addendum: According to a Google Maps user who has documented most of the houses in Schenley Farms, this house was designed by Maximilian Nirdlinger in 1911 for E. H. Kingsley.
-
Willis McCook Mansion, Shadyside
You can make good money as a lawyer if you make the right contacts. Willis McCook was lawyer to the robber barons, and he lived among them in this splendid Gothic mansion on the Fifth Avenue millionaires’ row. The architects were the local firm of Carpenter & Crocker. It is now a hotel called the “Mansions on Fifth,” along with the house around the corner that McCook built for his daughter and son-in-law.
