Father Pitt

Tag: Domestic Architecture

  • Adapting to a Vertical Lot

    House on a steeply sloped lot in Beechview
    Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6.

    In other cities, this lot would be unbuildable. In Pittsburgh, we just have to make some adaptations. The house (now divided into three units) has a garage around the back on the left side (where you can’t see it in this picture). Suppose you were on the ground floor, meaning the floor that is level with the street in front, and you decided to go down to your car in the garage. You would have to go down into the basement. Then you would have to go down into the other basement. Then you would have to go down into the other other basement, where the garage is. Then you would have to back your car down the steep slope from the garage to the street. Altogether, there are six levels to this house in back, though only three in front. Gaining three storeys from front to back is unusual for a house in most places; in Pittsburgh, it’s just the way we deal with the topography God gave us.

  • Variations on the Pittsburgh Foursquare in Beechview

    1608 Westfield Street

    Some variants on the Pittsburgh Foursquare from one block in Beechview. They all have the same basic layout of reception hall, parlor, dining room, and kitchen on the ground floor; three or four bedrooms and bathroom on the second floor; and two or more rooms on the third floor. Above, a fairly late version, probably from the 1920s. The lines are simpler and the roof is shallower.

    1608 Orangewood Avenue

    Here is a well-preserved larger version with its original slate roof and multiple dormers. Note the arched window in the dormer. The bay on the left side of the house, which goes up from the dining room into the master bedroom, is very common in Pittsburgh Foursquares of the early 1900s. It allows cross-ventilation and ample light into those rooms in spite of the narrowness of the gap between houses.

    1608 Orangewood Avenue
    1542 Princess Avenue
    1530 Princess Avenue
    1526 Westfield Street

    This variant without the pyramid roof creates more room in the third floor.

    1546 Westfield Street

    A very large example of the Pittsburgh Foursquare, but the layout of rooms is more or less the same; they are just bigger rooms.

    1612 Westfield Street
    Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6.

    Finally, a much-renovated house with a gambrel roof, which probably has more room on the third floor in proportion to its size than any of the others.

  • Houses on 24th Street, South Side

    Houses on 24th Street

    A row of houses in different styles, all of them typical of the South Side.

    117 and 118 South 24th Street

    We’ve seen these two tiny frame houses before. They date from the Civil War era, and unlike almost all the others of their type and age on the South Side they retain their wood siding. The one on the left is an odd shape: there is a kink in the South Side street grid at 24th street, so the alley does not meet the street at a right angle.

    121 South 24th Street
    Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    This eclectic Victorian has a large dormer on the fourth floor, and another thing that is sort of a dormer, but not exactly, projecting from the roof and lining up with a slightly extended section, giving the house the effect of a three-storey tower.

  • Some Houses on Florida Avenue, Mount Lebanon

    941 Florida Avenue

    Florida Avenue runs parallel to Washington Road, the main spine street of Mount Lebanon. The part behind the Uptown business district has a mixture of apartment building from small to large, double houses, and single-family homes, all assorted randomly. The next block to the south is mostly single-family homes in the wide range of styles typical of the Mount Lebanon Historic District. We have already seen some of the apartment buildings; here are some of the single and double houses.

    931
    929
    929

    This eclectic house in the fairy-tale style sits on a corner and presents quite different faces to the two streets. Above, a lavishly asymmetrical Tudor face on one side; below, the very symmetrical French-country-house face around the corner.

    929
    903
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
    690 and 692 Florida Avenue

    A twin house, with two houses side by side that are identical except for being mirror images.

    694 and 696 Florida Avenue
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285,

    A double house where the two units are deliberately made different, so that at first glance it appears to be a single larger house.

  • Front Door of the B. F. Jones House, Allegheny West

    Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    Steel baron B. F. Jones’ front doorway is a feast of elaborate terra cotta. This is a very large picture: enlarge it to appreciate the details of the terra cotta and ironwork.

  • A Flemish Row in Shadyside

    A Flemish row in Shadyside

    This row of houses on Howe Street has a distinctly Dutch or Flemish look. The Flemish style is not unknown in Pittsburgh, but it is rare to see a row of five houses in that style at once. (For another example of multiple Flemish houses, see the Osterling row in Brighton Heights.)

    5524 Howe Street

    This house, like many in Shadyside, has had part of its basement turned into a garage, with a steep driveway dug out of the front yard.

    Porch

    It is delightful to see that the intricate woodwork on the front porch has been preserved.

    5524
    Gable with iron decorations

    The angles and curves that make the gable look so Antverpian are made of iron or steel, as we can tell by one rusted section:

    Rusted metalwork

    This makes us suspect that perhaps three of the other houses in the row might have had similar decorations, removed when they rusted too much to repair.

    5529 and 5526 Howe Street
    5530
    5532
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.

    This house, however, was clearly meant to show off its stones without additional adornment, except for the usual decorative utility-cable swags.

  • A Charming Cottage in West Park

    401 Russellwood Avenue

    Old Pa Pitt was on his way out of West Park and already late for an appointment, but when he passed this house on the McKees Rocks side of the neighborhood, he had to stop and take pictures. It is not quite like any other house he has ever seen, and the original trim is well preserved.

    Front of the house
    Porch brackets
    Dormer
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

  • Two Shadyside Tudors

    5816 Walnut Street

    Two houses on Walnut Street in the Tudor Revival style, as we would say today, or the English style, as they were probably called when they were built. They share some notable similarities, which would make it not surprising if they were drawn by the same architect. The sunset light makes the already cozy Tudor style look even warmer and cozier.

    Addendum: A city architectural survey attributes the one above to the architect Thomas Scott; we are probably justified in attributing its neighbor to Scott as well.

    5814 Walnut Street
    Dormer
    Front of the house

  • Some Houses on Broad Street, Sewickley

    222 Broad Street

    Broad Street is one of the two main streets of central Sewickley. It is lined with public buildings (churches, post office, school) and a wide variety of houses. This dignified Queen Anne is a good introduction to the street.

    222 Broad Street
    Front of the house
    324 Broad Street

    This center-hall frame house has been remodeled to someone’s ideal of picture-postcard Victorian perfection. Until a few years ago, it was asymmetrical and had no front porch or Victorian Gothic peak in the front.

    333 Broad Street

    A center-hall Georgian house of the early twentieth century, probably built as the manse for the Methodist church next door.

    306 Broad Street

    An elegant Second Empire house whose porch wraps around to become a porte cochère.

    327 Broad Street

    A beautiful shingle-style mansion belonging to St. Stephen’s Anglican Church next door.

    330 Broad Street

    There are also some modest houses among the mansions, like this charming little I-house with real wood siding.

  • Two Houses on Pine Road, Sewickley

    529 Pine Road

    Pine Road is a short street in a very tony section of Sewickley. Here are two fine houses in very different styles. First we have an Italianate house, probably dating from the 1880s or so.

    With the grounds
    Perspectiove view
    529 Pine Road
    525 Pine Road

    Here is an elegant Dutch colonial with a fine growth of ivy on one of its chimneys.

    Perspective view from the right
    Perspective view from the left
    525 Pine Road
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.